Legal Advocacy and Litigation Manager at Sonke Gender Justice

Job description

Key duties and responsibilities for this position are as follows:

• Strengthen Sonke’s ability to engage in community level legal advocacy for access to justice: Provide regular training to Sonke staff, including especially community mobilisers and trainers within the CEM team, on existing GBV laws and local accountability processes so that CEM team members are themselves then able to provide rights literacy trainings to CAT members in communities across the country.
• Support Community Action Team activism: Provide legal research, support and advice to CAT members and Sonke trainers in the monitoring of GBV cases, identifying gaps in case information that might lead to delays in legal proceedings and court cases.
• Support local government action on GBV, health and human rights: Work with CEM staff and CAT members to engage local government officials and together with them develop and monitor local action plans to address GBV.
• Support national legal and policy advocacy: Provide legal input on Sonke’s policy reform efforts in various campaigns, including South Africa’s National Strategic Plan (NSP) for GBV, prison reform, abolition of corporal punishment and enforcement of existing bans within schools, expanded parental leave, access to psycho-social support, decriminalisation of sex work, and the gendered dimensions of silicosis and occupational disability.
• Action research: conduct original legal and policy related research, publish opinion pieces and scholarly journal articles, and present in academic and research fora to advance Sonke’s work, including in 2018 on our work related to ODIMWA and women’s access to compensation for silicosis.
• Support and conceptualise strategic litigation and other legal interventions: support existing impact litigation already happening at Sonke, and provide advice on potential strategic litigation, including in partnership with key allies in the health and human rights sector. Use existing research and data from community based programmes to conceptualise other non-litigation interventions to support Sonke’s key campaigns. Working with the CSI unit to ensure that all legal interventions where appropriate are combined with a community education and sensitisation of legal methods used as part of advancing engaging active citizenry and rights education.
• Provide support and mentorship to the Sonke-UCLA Health and Human Rights Fellowship programme, including through mentorship to the fellows upon their return to Sonke. Assist PDA unit with advertising and marketing the fellowship, involvement in recruitment and appointment of fellows and assisting with integration and support of fellows during their stay in at UCLA and upon their return.
• Explore the establishment of a legal support unit within Sonke: Coordinate Sonke’s internal discussions and research related to the establishment a litigation unit/public interest law unit.
• Reporting, monitoring and evaluation: Submits all agreed upon reports (project reports, budgets, supervision reports, observation reports, team meeting reports, stakeholder meeting reports, community mobilisation and CAT reports), on a monthly basis. Actively contributes to the development, review and sign-off of Sonke’s capacity building model for working with partner organisations, including M&E systems to assess the impact of our capacity building work. Key Partnerships: Develops and maintains strategic partnerships with relevant local, national, and international partners by attending meetings and documenting key agreed upon action items with stakeholders and then following through on commitments made.
• Donor relations and donor reporting: In consultation with the resource mobilisation manager develop funding proposals, ensure timely completion of accurate project reports for donor reporting purposes at least ten business days before the report due date.

Qualifications and experience

• Recognised university law degree; LLM focusing on health and human rights a strong advantage; prior experience as an international fellow helpful.
• Prior experience working on gender equality, violence prevention, HIV and AIDS, the right to health, children’s rights, including the rights of learners, silicosis and occupational disability.
• Familiarity with Sonke’s partner organisations and networks
• Demonstrated experience developing and providing trainings on the law to diverse audiences, including in rural and peri-urban communities.
• Proven track record of designing, implementing and publishing impact research to inform advocacy strategy.
• Minimum of 5 years work experience in legal advocacy based in a human rights legal non-profit organisation;
• Fluency in English and at least one other South African language required;
• Very good writing skills with the ability to write clearly & concisely
• A publication track record in high impact media and journals
• Ability to recruit, place and supervise health and human rights fellows
• Willingness to travel 20 to 30% of the time.
• Knowledge of donor and funding requirements and ability to monitor and ensure compliance with requirements

Skills Required

• Legal and policy advocacy
• Social change campaigns
• Communications expertise
• Budgeting and financial management skills
• Ability to manage relationships and responsibilities across multiple teams and follow up regularly
• Proposal and report writing skills.
• Ability to make presentations
• Strong problem solving skills.
• Strong public speaking ability
• Exceptional networking skills
• Research, writing, application and thought leadership

Personal Qualities Required:

• A deep commitment to gender equality, social justice and human rights.
• Passionate about leadership development, internal organisational democracy and a desire to embody the organisations values.
• Confident, assertive communicator who can work comfortably with diverse groups of people and across all levels
• Hard working, ability to prioritise and manage deadlines
• Innovative, strategic and creative, able to see new opportunities
• Reflective and open to learning