Advisor, Field Church Partnerships

Key Job Responsibilities:

Program Guidance for national and regional offices  

• Provide strategic guidance and support in developing, refining and implementing guidelines and resources to strengthen effective engagement and collaboration with churches, church leaders and church-aligned institutions in national and regional national offices. 
• In collaboration with Global Field Operations (GFO) and Global Impact (GI) teams, develop guidelines and capacity-building resources for the national office’s use to strengthen their engagement and mobilisation of churches, Christian networks and FBO’s as an integral part of WV’s community-based approach, empowering to improving child well-being 
• Revise and socialise WVI’s existing frameworks and capacity-building resources on church partnerships 
• In collaboration with the WVI Partnering team, refine existing tools and/or develop new resources to support church partnerships
• Ensure WV’s guidelines on church partnerships build on existing best practices in partnering and external engagement developed by WV’s advocacy and External Engagement team.  
• Engage with GFO and regional offices regarding gaps or promising practice, emerging from church partnership data and collaborate on solutions

Strategic integration and innovation with Global Centre teams 

• Based on current practice, convene a collaborative effort with Faith & Development Faith Integration and Impact team, Programme Integration Team, Global Field Operations and Partnering teams to strengthen church partnership integration across programming sectors :  
• Support and develop appropriate church engagement and partnering strategies and tools  Identify areas within the current DPA process and Sponsorship Core to enhance and deepen partnerships with churches and church leaders  
• Review similar church engagement approaches to identify synergies and potential for integration  
• Follow the WV processes to design, develop, pilot, scale-up and approve these approaches that can be used by local churches in WV’s offices and programs 
• In collaboration with Global Field Operations and Global Impact teams, develop mechanisms to ensure full integration of these approaches into WV’s operational systems, including appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms 
• Provide guidance to the WV Technical Academy to develop e-course for these approaches and to support the existing P2030 course to ensure faith/church partnering is covered.   
• In collaboration with F&D’s staff and Field support team work with WV’s global sector, disaster management, fragile contexts and urban teams to ensure the engagement of churches and church leaders are well integrated into project models, field guidelines and quality assurance resources 
• Partner with global sector teams and Global Centre F&D to refine resources and strengthen church’s implementation of Spiritual Nurture of Children approaches and resources 

External Engagement and Advocacy 

• Provide strategic guidance and support to Regional Offices (ROs) in the formation and leveraging of strategic partnerships with churches at regional and national levels for improved Child Well Being (CWB).  
• Support NOs and ROs to engage strategically with local church partners in prioritised global advocacy events or moments on issues affecting the vulnerability of children 
• Ensure church partnership's contributions to advocacy gains are articulated in Global campaign and National Office reporting through Advocacy Strategic Metrics and CVA (civic voice action) engagement.
• Support the development of strategies and resources to support NOs and ROs to develop and equip faith leaders as advocates for child well-being 
• Identify local Church/Christian partnerships with potential for increased impact through global partnerships. 
• Report on the quality of the prioritised partnerships and their contribution to advocacy towards CWB.
• Collaborate with GC F&D External Engagement team to support global external engagements across faith and other Christian organisations.   
• Collaborate with Faith & Staff Formation team, to support national offices as they mobilise churches to reflect and pray on issues increasing the vulnerability of children. 

Learning

• Guide the continued learning of WV’s church and interfaith relations through KM Initiatives. 
• In collaboration with F&D Knowledge Management and Global Communications identify, document, and disseminate promising practices, lessons learned, innovation, and change stories on Church Partnerships 
• Develop and maintain the WV Central resources related to church partnerships to ensure they are updated and serve programme staff effectively.   
• Ensure periodic analysis of Church Partnership data in show trends and enhance learning.  
• Collaborate with GFO (global field operations) and other teams to enhance WV’s reporting systems to capture national and regional level church partnerships, including joint advocacy.

Knowledge & Job Experience for the Role

• Graduate or post-graduate degree in theology, religious studies, development studies or other related fields.
• Exemplary personal Christian commitment, vibrant and mature Christian leadership.
• Minimum of 3-5 years experience in programming in a field location, with a strong preference for someone with proven experience in more than one context.
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively in culturally and religiously diverse environments.
• Strong organisational, time and project management skills and experience.
• At least 5-7 years of experience in hands-on work with a range of Church structures, denominations and para-church organisations, especially in the Global South.
• At least 5-7 years experience in strategic planning and program design and management within the development/humanitarian industry, including the role of the local church in community development processes.
• At least 5-7 years experience and demonstrated understanding of other faith communities, the complexity of working as a Christian NGO within Faith contexts, relationship with the faith and development arena, major players, and joint work towards the sustainable development goals.
• Proven experience working with and through networks
• At least 3 years of knowledge and experience of supporting multi-stakeholder partnerships, especially faith-based partnerships.
• Excellent relationship building skills and ability to leverage that towards concrete collaboration and partnerships.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with proven experience in writing and producing clear, concise and effective guidance materials, including online facilitation resources, while using up-to-date adult learning approaches.
• Clarity in conceptual thinking and communication including critical thinking skills and ability to challenge the status quo.
• Strong computer literacy in use of MS Word, Excel, Outlook; proficiency in hosting webinars, e-learnings and conference calls

Required travel and/or work environment accommodations

• Effective in written and verbal communication in English.
• Fluency in Spanish is an advantage, other languages are helpful also.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically & internationally up to 25% of the time.
• Capacity for online work and meetings outside of conventional working hours as the work entails connecting with colleagues across all time zones.