Summary
Date Posted: Monday, December 14, 2020 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Job: National Stakeholder Engagement Senior Officer
Location: The person will be based at UVRI campus in Entebbe. The position will require travels within Uganda and potentially at the Pan-African level as well
Working hours: This is a full-time position (40 hours per week minimum)
Reports to: Target Malaria Stakeholder Engagement Manager at UVRI.
Length of Appointment: Until 31 January 2023 with six months' probation period .

Background on Target Malaria
The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) is a leading health research institution in Uganda, based in Entebbe. Amongst other projects, it is a member of the Target Malaria consortium. Target Malaria is a non-for-profit research consortium that wants to contribute to saving millions of lives from malaria. It includes African, European and North American scientists with a focus on the most malaria-affected countries - currently working in Burkina Faso, Mali and Uganda. The consortium includes a diversity of researchers-molecular biologists, medical entomologists, population geneticists, protein engineers, social sciences researchers as well as risk, regulatory and stakeholder engagement experts. Our teams are researching approaches that can reduce the numbers of mosquitoes that spread malaria, which would help complement existing control methods. Our research is at an early stage, and while results so far have been promising, there is still a long way to go. By reducing the population of the malaria mosquito, we aim to combat transmission of the disease. The control method would be a long-term, sustainable, and cost effective solution to prevent malaria. This project started a decade ago with a funding from the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative and is now recieving funding through a program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The project is led by the following values: • To achieve excellence in all areas of its work, creating a path for responsible research and development of genetic technologies • To co-develop both technologies and the associated knowledge base • To ensure its work is evidence-driven so it can deliver safe and effective technologies • To be open and accountable in how it works in its relationships and in its decisions

For more information, please visit www.targetmalaria.org
A deep commitment to the mission of developing and sharing new, cost-effective and sustainable genetic technologies to modify mosquitoes and reduce malaria transmission is required.

SUMMARY OF POSITION
Target Malaria Uganda is seeking to recruit a national stakeholder engagement Senior officer. This new position has been created in recognition of the importance of the dialog with stakeholders at national level to build and maintain effective and constructive relationships with multiple stakeholders for the success of the project. The project interacts with a broad range of stakeholders at national level including representatives of the national government, regulators, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, scientific research groups, civil society groups or individuals. In the longer-term engagement at the regional and Pan-African level will also be essential for the success of the project.
The National Stakeholder Engagement Senior Officer will play a critical role in building the profile and voice of Target Malaria through strategic engagement. The role will require liaising across the range of the Target Malaria teams to ensure engagement on the project is coordinated, coherent and is a two-way dialog. The role is to ensure that stakeholders are informed but also that their feedback, expectations and concerned is shared with the project team. This is an essential part of the co-development and co-ownership values of the project.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Senior officers will facilitate the dialog between the national level stakeholders and the project. He/she will be responsible for the promotion of trust and confidence between the national stakeholders and the project.

Engagement activities
The National SE Senior Officer will be responsible and accountable for the overall engagement activities at the national level in the following aspects:
• Ensure adequate information about the project to national level stakeholders on project activities (whether current or future)
• Ensure appropriate consultation of national stakeholders before the implementation of activities and feedback concerns, suggestions to the project for them to be considered;
• Ensure that the national level dialogue is inclusive and effective by mapping and prioritizing key stakeholders, and aligning this map to the project's strategic objectives, goals and milestones;
• Support the regulatory process by advising on and managing potential stakeholder issues and coordinating stakeholder engagement activities with the insectary, field entomology teams and the regulatory team;
• Promote the use of effective communication by working closely with the communications team to support the development of culturally appropriate tools and methods taking into account social, political and cultural contexts;
• Represent the project as required to high-profile, regional and national stakeholders, building constructive relationships across governmental, non-profit and private sector organisations
• Participate in regional and Pan-African engagement activities according to the international stakeholder engagement plan and under the leadership of the stakeholder engagement manager
• Monitor political debates and programmatic trends in the field of gene drive technology and malaria vector control, and analyze their implications on the project and our work
• After appropriate training, respond to media as one of the project spokespersons.

Strategy activities
• Participate in the formulation and the implementation of a stakeholder engagement strategy at national level in Uganda, and ensure the alignment with local, regional and global strategies
• Participate in the formulation of tools, procedures and policies for stakeholder engagement and documentation of activities;
• Contribute to consortium activities related to stakeholder engagement. • To assess, prioritize, monitor and manage risks at national level and analyse and report back how these risks could impact the project;

Reporting activities
• Participate in the monitoring and evaluation of the engagement and stakeholders' acceptance level for the project,
• Provide activity report and updates of support tools to facilitate follow-up and reporting on National engagement activities,
• Ensure that national engagement activities are implemented within the set budget and timeline and raise any concern in this regard if there are deviations to be anticipated.

Essential Requirements
• To be successful in this role you must possess the following:
• Postgraduate qualification in International Development, Policy, Social Sciences (or similar), or an equivalent combination of relevant knowledge, extensive training and/or experience
• Extensive experience in policy engagement (at least 5-7 years) experience with co-developing and executing successful policy engagement and communications campaigns (3-5 years)
• Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing stakeholder engagement programmes
• Strong existing network of stakeholders contacts in Uganda
• Experience in mobilizing stakeholder networks from civil society
• Experience in working in a field in development, where the policy framework is evolving Experience in a multi-disciplinary environment, ability to translate engagement perspective and technical aspects to non-practitioners/non-expert
• Advanced knowledge of stakeholder engagement issues and practices and an understanding of their implications for the development, implementation and evaluation of stakeholder engagement plan
• Understanding of engagement challenges related to innovation, in particular in the field of Biotechnologies
• Outstanding organisational, time and project management skills, including the ability to plan, implement and execute new initiatives

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
Please note that job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.

Further Information
All applications must be in English and include a Curriculum Vitae, a cover letter explaining why this position is attractive and why your profile fits, and three references. Interested candidates should submit their applications in a sealed envelope marked: "Community Engagement Officer-Target Malaria" to:
The Director,
Uganda Virus Research Institute
P.O.Box 49 Entebbe. Uganda Email to: targetmalariajobs@uvri.go.ug  OR: hand-deliver to his office at
Plot 51-59, Nakiwogo Road, Entebbe.
This Vacancy is open to Nationals of Uganda.
Closing date for applications is 8 January 2021

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