The Senior Specialist, Policy and Government Relations sits within the Urban, Land and Policy Team of the Housing and Human Settlements Department of the Asia Pacific Office in Manila, Philippines. S/he is primarily responsible for technical expertise and capacity building related to government relations in support of resilient, pro-poor housing in urban contexts, and ensuring their relevance and accountability to community needs. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Urban, Land and Policy, the incumbent will lead and support relationships between Habitat and public agencies, advocating for Habitat’s interest. S/he will develop new and maintain existing strategic partnerships in the region, in close collaboration across the Habitat organization – national offices, Asia Pacific area office teams, headquarters technical counterparts, etc. S/he will also support the successful delivery of the Asia Pacific Housing Forum.
The ideal candidate should possess a sound working knowledge of pro-poor urban and housing development with focus on slum upgrading, as well as experience working with both state and non-state actors in support of resilient housing programming.
Areas of Responsibility:
- Work collaboratively with the AP Communications team and the APHF Steering Committee to disseminate information and collateral about the awards
- Maintain close communication and relationships with Innovation Award jury members; members are from a variety of stakeholders including corporate sponsors, universities, international development banks, NGOs, etc.
- Organize for the presentations of finalists during the APHF.
- In addition to the Innovation Awards, the Senior Specialist, Government Relations will also provide technical input into other aspects of the APHF (e.g. speaker suggestions), as well as provide technical support to the Philippines’ National Housing Forum.
National Program Implementation Support and Capacity Building:
- Support national teams to identify strategic partnerships and implementation models (such as People, Public, Private Partnerships) which enable the achievement of resilient and pro-poor housing, particularly in urban contexts.
- Support national offices to collaborate with external actors for joint program implementation or policy change initiatives in urban context, organization of events, coalition building or joint country strategy development.
- Provide technical assistance on urban planning issues to national offices, local authorities and communities in order to promote resilient and pro-poor housing programs, particularly in urban contexts; this support should ensure linkages to local government urban or housing development plans.
- Support national offices to develop proposals, concept notes, concept papers, and provide technical guidance and support to grant and program development.
- Provide relevant technical input and guidance to national offices strategy development.
- Support and advise national offices in the recruitment, orientation and training of suitably qualified and experienced staff to implement resilient and pro-poor housing programs, particularly in urban contexts; provide ongoing support to those staff.
- Lead individual learning sessions related to urban shelter programming as and when called upon
Regional Technical Expertise and External Relations:
- Develop and execute a plan to expand the area of advisory services of People-Public-Private-Partnership in support of delivery of shelter programming in the AP region.
- Develop strategic relationships with potential funding Agencies such as UN-Habitat, USAID, UNESCAP, World Bank, EU, etc that support shelter related programming and maintain these relationships for joint implementation of activities and for potential grant funding support.
- In collaboration with other Asia Pacific teams, provide input and lead in the development of program design related to urban, land and policy.
- Research and report on new policy or regulatory developments or changes at national, regional and global levels, which may affect Habitat’s programs in the region.
- Advise Habitat teams on issues that may impact achievement of resilient, pro-poor housing outcomes, particularly in urban contexts (including issues of sustainability and post-project requirements)
- Represent Habitat at official functions such as conferences, meetings, forums as may be required.
- Provide technical input to proposal development processes and resource acquisition for projects with an urban, government or policy component at country level or for multi-country/regional projects.
Knowledge Management and Other Responsibilities
- Maintain an urban Community of Practice in the Asia Pacific region and participate in the global Urban Leadership Team meetings
- Maintain the Habitat internal SharePoint site dedicated to urban, land, advocacy and government relations-related work for Asia Pacific
- Participate and actively contribute in appropriate Habitat forums, working groups and networks related to government relations, land policy, and urban programs.
- Document and disseminate learnings, research material, and programming resources throughout Asia-Pacific, in coordination with national teams, area office teams, and relevant headquarters technical counterparts.
- Support national offices and Habitat area office in developing research agenda related urban, government relations and land policy programming
- Support the Senior Manager, Urban, Land and Policy in reviewing and consolidating regional advocacy reports based on internal monitoring and evaluation systems, and narrative reports.
- Lead and support the development of case studies that show-case successful Habitat work
Educational Background:
Bachelors’ degree in International Development/Relations, Public Policy/Administration, Urban Planning, Government relations or related field; advanced degree a plus.
Skills/Experience:
- Proven experience coordinating and building relationships with government and civil society actors to promote affordable housing
- Knowledge of housing resilience and post disaster reconstruction policy frameworks (at risk areas preventive resettlement/relocation, government incentives for structural retrofitting of substandard housing, building codes, integration of disaster management frameworks in territorial planning, post-disaster reconstruction schemes, etc.) including global frameworks with a resilience component such as the Sendai Framework for Action, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda, etc.
- Knowledge of cost effective low-income housing programming, financial models for urban development, cross subsidy schemes, public, private, people's partnerships with strong background in social/affordable housing policies for urban areas.
- Experience with applied research relevant to shelter programming in an urban context.
- Experience in project management, program or project design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of pro-poor shelter related urban programming models.
- Experience with providing training and development of training materials.
- Strong computer skills
- Fluent in written and spoken English.
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Mar 25 2019
Active Until:
Apr 25 2019
Hiring Organization:
Habitat for Humanity International
industry:
Nonprofit