Policy Manager, Kenya at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

The Policy Manager works under the general supervision of the Country Director and receives support from the Global Policy Unit within the limits of Innovations for Poverty Action-Kenya policies and procedures. This position is generally responsible for strengthening the interphase between research evidence and policy making processes. Below is a list of some of the general duties and responsibilities of the Policy Manager, to be carried out as needed according to the determination of the Country Director.

Responsibilities 

Lead IPA Policy Outreach with Government and other Policy Stakeholders

• Lead the development of IPA-K policy outreach strategy
• Serve as the link with policy makers
• Build expertise on the global and local evidence base in 1-2 sectors and cultivate relationships with key local stakeholders in those sectors.
• Work together with the global policy and communications team to lead and/or participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables. Support researchers and country management to participate.
• In collaboration with researchers and in support of the country director, represent IPA locally in policy conversations and at events.
• Support research management staff in executing the “Policy Impact Minimum Must Dos” and in identifying and stewarding high potential partner relationships on individual projects, particularly with senior levels within government or large organizations.
• Provide leadership and oversight to a small team of staff within the policy department in accordance with the organization's policies and procedures. Identify opportunities and work with government partners to develop new research projects that have the potential to influence policy.
• Support researchers to understand government policy process and spaces.

Cultivate and Manage high Impact Opportunities/Relationships

• Identify, grow and sustain critical relationships of policy relevance
• Lead the development of Memoranda of Understanding and protocols that guide relationships with key players in the policy space.
• Proactively identify and communicate relevant risks in the policy environment for decision making.
• Continuously scan the policy environment for opportunities for research-policy linkages
• Lead Kenya in continuously prioritizing high impact policy opportunities for evidence-based policy making.
• Cultivate relationships with key local decision-makers in education and other sectors of interest to IPA (financial inclusion, peace & recovery, health, agriculture), particularly those with decision-making authority over particular evidence-to-impact opportunities.
• Continuously network and build relationship with implementing organizations with the aim of identifying potential new partners Launch high impact policy opportunities, including scale-up technical assistance, and either manage small-scale engagements personally with global support, or collaborate with global teams to raise funds for additional staff to realize these opportunities.
• Identify and help launch opportunities for policy relevant right-fit monitoring and evaluation opportunities in Kenya, and either manage small engagements personally with global support, or collaborate with global teams to raise funds for additional staff.   
• Together with the country director, act as lead steward to key partner relationships and support key research partner conversations.
• Identify opportunities and cultivate relationships that lead to developing large-scale policy evaluations with key decision-makers. Support research teams and researchers in development and execution.

Communication, Documentation and Learning

• Communicate our work to relevant audiences (using social media etc).
• Initiate and populate a resource center with relevant government documents, laws, strategic plans, assessment reports relevant to promote research-policy linkages.
• Identify research conducted in various jurisdictions, but are relevant to the Kenyan context, and make them available to constituencies of interest internally and externally.
• Supervise the production of the IPA-K monthly internal learning tool ‘mukhtasari’.
• Manage IPA-K social media outlets, including twitter and facebook.

Coordination internally and externally

• Coordinate county research approval processes so that approval processes are streamlined as much as possible.
• Support project teams to disseminate IPA work and share relevant study updates with specific counties.
• Work with projects to identify their needs on approvals and dissemination and proactively support project teams plan and see these approvals through.
• Map out all IPA-K projects per sector and county for ease of communication
• Map relevant policy contacts of interest at regional, national and county

Qualifications 

• Master's degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field strongly preferred. Will accept additional experience in place of master's.
• 5 or more years of relevant experience, including at least 1 year of experience working closely with large NGOs and/or national government officials.

• Knowledge of and demonstrated interest in the use of rigorous evidence for international development policy required.
• Expertise in education and/or one other priority sector (financial inclusion, peace & recovery, health, agriculture) strongly preferred.
• Attention to detail and advanced presentation skills for communicating policy lessons from academic papers in ways that policymakers understand. This requires clear, precise, non-technical writing, and confident, effective spoken communication and presentation style.
• Proven ability to multitask and successfully complete projects on tight deadlines with little supervision.
• Willingness to work hard, be self-motivated, and learn will be essential for doing well in this position.
• Ability to supervise staff and manage projects independently.