Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) is a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign. It seeks to spark and embed a culture of reading across South Africa, so that reading, writing, and sharing stories – in all South African languages is part of everyday life.
The Nal’ibali Trust seeks to appoint a Research and Advocacy Lead, to be based in Cape Town.
Start date: May 2019
This is a one-year contract
Responsibilities:
Research:
- Review and synthesize relevant research to strengthen project design and implementation, improve Nal’ibali’s strategic positioning, and increase impact
- Share lessons from research with Nal’ibali’s internal team and volunteer network, to strengthen awareness and expertise
Advocacy:
- Shape and drive Nal’ibali’s advocacy agenda and strategy
- Collaborate with and hold government accountable for commitments made to strengthen reading, education and early childhood development programmes
- Build, lead and support coalitions and working groups, to drive decisive action around reading for enjoyment and mother tongue literacy in the early years
Communication:
- Distil Nal’ibali’s own and other relevant research into accessible, bite-sized briefs for partners and the public
- Contribute to framing of Nal’ibali’s mass media messaging and strategy
- Contribute to organisational thought leadership by writing op-eds, participating in media interviews and presenting and leading discussions in conferences, workshops and forums
Collaboration:
- Convene and contribute to Nal’ibali advisory committee sessions
- With managing director and general manager of operations, identify and pursue new opportunities for strategic partnerships with government and private sector actors
- Align Nal’ibali’s work with complementary, child-focused sectors and initiatives (e.g. nutrition and child protection)
- Bring together unlikely actors to identify and seize opportunities to unblock systemic obstacles to a flourishing reading culture
Requirements:
- Relevant Honours or Master’s degree, or equivalent work experience
- Proven track record of effective advocacy experience
- Minimum of five years’ relevant experience in government, policy, non-profit programme development and delivery, the education sector, and/or research
- English writing and communication skills, with experience writing for the general public
- Research skills, including:
- Ability to interpret and engage with both qualitative and quantitative research
- Some familiarity working with government policy documents, processes and datasets is advantageous
- Ability to synthesize existing research, situate it within the South African context and communicate it clearly to different audiences
- Experience working in the education, literacy development, publishing and/or libraries sectors is strongly preferred; government experience strongly advantageous
- Experience working on behaviour change campaigns and/or strong knowledge of how to apply behavioural science principles to social programme design is desirable
- Experience convening and/or participating in coalitions or collective impact initiatives is strongly desirable
- Strong Microsoft Office skills, including (Word, Excel and MS PowerPoint)
- Fluency in English; fluency in additional South African language(s) strongly advantageous
- An independent and driven self-starter, able to identify opportunities and work proactively and independently
- A creative and critical thinker, who is intrinsically motivated to tackle wicked problems and dig for answers
- A networker and collaborator, who can bring different actors together to work towards common goals
- A politically savvy person with “street smarts”, who can engage well at a grassroots level and in the boardroom, with a nose for how political developments, budgets and national conversations both enable and constrain our work
- A clear, persuasive and compelling communicator, who can develop and adapt hard-hitting, factual content for various audiences (from academics and policy wonks to parents and practitioners)
- A strategic and analytical person, who can both see the big picture and wrestle with detail
- A focused, efficient person, able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment, with strong time management skills
- A team player, with well-developed interpersonal and communication skills
To apply, submit your motivational letter and CV to [email protected] with your name and surname, position title on the subject line (e.g. Name Surname: Research and Advocacy Lead)
Note that feedback will be provided to shortlisted candidates only.
For more information about The Nal’ibali Trust, refer to www.nalibali.org