Cooperative Policy & Legislative Affairs Specialist at Global Communities

The Program will support three components to

• promote the adoption and implementation of cooperative legislation and policies that support and strengthen cooperative business enterprises in 25 counties;
• strengthen the business acumen and performance of cooperative businesses (CBs) while integrating and empowering youth and women within cooperative business enterprises in targeted urban and peri-urban markets to increase economic participation and county revenue growth; and
• improve understanding of the psychosocial behavioral impacts associated with membership in cooperative business enterprises and determine whether those behaviors contribute positively to household and community resilience strategies.
• The Policy & Legislative Affairs Specialist will report to the Kenya CDP in-country Cooperative Specialist and Team Lead.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The Cooperative Policy & Legislative Affairs Specialist will be responsible for design, management and implementation of the program’s Cooperative Legislative and Policy Affairs program component in liaison with the Chief of Party (COP) and Cooperative Specialist and Team Lead.

The position will be responsible for designing component strategy, work plans and the corresponding budget.

The Specialist will seek to revise, expand and support new cooperative legislation in up to 25 primarily Feed the Future priority counties.

The position will work directly with county based cooperative professionals and county government officials on devolution of cooperative legislation and functions
at the county level.

The Cooperative Policy & Legislative Affairs Specialist will also provide capacity building to cooperative officers and officials in various positions within county government bodies in support of new legislation and bill enactment.

S/he will also be responsible for organizing workshops with county officials, lead the facilitation of public forums, and design technical approaches related to the program’s objective focusing on improving the enabling environment for cooperatives in Kenya.

The Policy & Legislative Affairs Specialist will be expected to work with the CDP Kenya team and other Global Communities’ Kenya staff to accomplish the work plan and targets for this program component.

The successful candidate should be open to working in a nontraditional working environment with remote management and have strong cooperation and communication skills.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Working closely with legal entities and consultants to develop county government-related bills focused on cooperative functions;
• Leading development of programmatic outreach for all key stakeholders and development of implementation strategy to be submitted to Cooperative Specialist;
• Leading the facilitation of results oriented county forums with officials and cooperative stakeholders to review, revise and finalize bills for county assemblies;
• Managing program relationships with all 25 county representatives and liaise with Council of Governors;
• Identifying new market players and with existing partners and stakeholders who can provide strategic value to the program efforts to facilitate a more supportive and inclusive legal enabling environment;
• Supporting advocacy groups within counties for the improvement of cooperative business enabling environments;
• Working closely with other program staff and county government officials to design and develop cooperative-related internship programs for youth;
• Plan monthly activities and corresponding budgets;
• Regularly developing program-related content including white papers, blogs and reports that feed up into Semi Annual and Annual reports to USAID;
• Supervise a small team;
• Represent Global Communities in cooperative forums as requested;
• Responding to program team requirements on an as needed basis by Cooperative Specialist and Team Lead and COP.

The duties listed above are not inclusive of all the duties of the position at Global Communities.

Global Communities reserves the right to change and update position descriptions at any time.

Education and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Political Science, or other social science-related field of study with at least seven (7) years of experience working in the public policy sector, on governance-related donor-funded programs, and/or with local government economic development units.
• Master’s degree in a similar field of study with at least five (5) years of relevant experience preferred;

Skills and Experience

• Experience writing and developing policy or amendments to policy and legislation;
• Experience developing policy and outreach strategies to cooperative stakeholders in both rural and urban contexts;
• Experience providing capacity building and workshop implementation on policy and legislation initiatives or similar;
• Strong understanding of policies related to the cooperative sector in Kenya;
• Experience interacting and working closely with elected officials at the county level;
• Strong relationships with different stakeholders in the cooperative sector in Kenya at all levels (government, private sector, civil society organizations, etc.);
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing work plans;
• Experience with budgets and expenditure projections;
• Excellent critical thinking skills;
• Excellent verbal, writing and reporting skills;
• Excellent interpersonal and team work skills;
• Strong public speaking skills;
• Proficiency level of comprehension of Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint);
• Ability to be flexible with time schedule to allow for communication via Skype or other communication software with the Washington-based program team;
• Ability to travel domestically up to 40% of the time;
• Kenyan National strongly preferred.

Language Skills: Fluency in written and oral English and Swahili

Working Conditions

• Based in Nairobi office with travel within and outside the country as required to perform duties.
• Able to work at a computer keyboard for extended periods of time.