Research and Advocacy Specialist

AfricaNenda is an African-led organization dedicated to expanding digital financial services for the financially excluded across Africa. They achieve this by accelerating the development and adoption of instant and inclusive payment systems, offering technical expertise to both public and private sectors to reduce barriers.

This role involves developing and maintaining an evidence agenda aligned with AfricaNenda Foundation's strategic goals, identifying critical evidence gaps, and translating strategic priorities into clear research questions and influencing opportunities. The specialist will conduct comprehensive research, analyze developments in instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS), and produce analysis on related issues like digital public infrastructure and cross-border payments. A key aspect is supporting the translation of this evidence into institutional positions and targeted advocacy strategies to influence policy, regulation, and practice.

1. Support the Director in defining and maintaining AfricaNenda Foundation’s evidence-generation and advocacy priorities.
2. Develop an annual evidence agenda linked to the organization’s strategy, program priorities, and emerging sector issues.
3. Translate strategic priorities into clear research questions, analytical workstreams, products, audiences, and influencing opportunities.
4. Identify critical evidence gaps that hinder policy action or weaken the case for inclusive instant payment systems reforms.
5. Maintain a forward-looking calendar of research outputs, policy processes, regulatory developments, stakeholder moments, and advocacy opportunities.
6. Ensure evidence-generation plans are realistic, appropriately sequenced, and linked to intended policy or advocacy outcomes.
7. Conduct high-quality desk research, literature reviews, policy and regulatory reviews, comparative analysis, political-economy analysis, and rapid evidence assessments.
8. Design and support primary research using qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, surveys, consultations, and case studies, and support research commissioning and quality assurance.
9. Analyze developments affecting IIPS, covering governance, participation rules, scheme design, pricing, use cases, access channels, consumer protection, and recourse.
10. Produce analysis on relevant adjacent issues such as digital public infrastructure, digital identity, data governance, competition, open finance, cross-border payments, digital trade, and responsible innovation.
11. Undertake country, regional, and continental scans to identify policy trends, implementation gaps, emerging risks, and transferable lessons.
12. Develop research frameworks, methodologies, interview guides, survey tools, evidence matrices, and quality-assurance protocols, validating findings through triangulation, peer review, and stakeholder consultation.
13. Maintain complete and traceable source records, ensuring all factual claims are verifiable and presenting evidence honestly, distinguishing between findings, interpretation, assumptions, and recommendations.
14. Identify where evidence is incomplete or contested and advise on implications for AfricaNenda Foundation’s position.
15. Maintain a clear record of approvals, versions, sources, research ethics requirements, and intellectual property arrangements.
16. Support the Director in developing, executing, and refining AfricaNenda Foundation’s advocacy strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and approved institutional positions.
17. Translate research and technical evidence into clear policy implications, institutional positions, practical recommendations, and targeted advocacy asks.
18. Develop issue-specific advocacy plans defining objectives, priority audiences, influence pathways, key messages, tactics, milestones, risks, and indicators.
19. Produce high-quality advocacy materials, including policy briefs, position papers, regulatory analyses, consultation responses, executive memos, briefing notes, and talking points.
20. Identify policy windows and decision points, segment stakeholders by influence and interest, and tailor advocacy approaches to the mandates and incentives of priority actors.
21. Coordinate advocacy execution across technical programs, capacity development, communications, and partnerships, including coalition building, leadership engagement, and systematic follow-up on commitments.
22. Monitor stakeholder responses, institutional constraints, and advocacy outcomes, adapting approaches accordingly, and maintaining a repository of approved positions, messages, recommendations, and supporting evidence.
23. Ensure all advocacy is technically sound, politically informed, non-partisan, inclusion-focused, and consistent with AfricaNenda Foundation’s mission.
24. Design and coordinate stakeholder engagement strategies, policy dialogues, consultations, roundtables, and bilateral meetings, including preparing materials and decision-focused briefing packs for the AfricaNenda leadership.
25. Build trusted relationships, represent AfricaNenda Foundation when delegated, incorporate underserved-user perspectives, and maintain disciplined records and follow-up on decisions, commitments, and agreed actions.

1. Master’s degree in public policy, economics, finance, development studies, law, political science, international relations, public administration, or a related discipline.
2. At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in applied research, policy analysis, advocacy, financial inclusion, digital financial services, payment systems, digital public infrastructure, or a closely related field.
3. Demonstrated experience conducting research and converting findings into clear DFS ecosystem recommendations and advocacy propositions.
4. Strong experience producing high-quality policy briefs, research reports, presentations, and stakeholder engagement materials.
5. Experience engaging policymakers, regulators/central banks, development partners, and private-sector institutions.
6. Experience managing research assignments or consultants and assuring the quality of technical outputs.
7. Strong understanding of African DFS policy, regulatory, and instant payment system contexts.
8. Demonstrated ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver high-quality outputs under tight timelines.
9. Demonstrated experience applying systematic-review methodologies and tools, including PRISMA 2020 and PRISMA-P protocols.
10. Proficiency in managing research references and citations using Zotero and EndNote.
11. Experience conducting qualitative thematic coding and analysis using NVivo and ATLAS.ti.
12. Ability to develop concise executive products as well as substantive research outputs.
13. Direct experience in instant payments, interoperability, payment-system governance, financial-sector regulation, or digital public infrastructure (desirable).
14. Experience working across multiple African countries or regions and applying political-economy analysis to policy or advocacy work (desirable).
15. Relevant publications or a demonstrable portfolio of policy and research products (desirable).
16. Mandatory proficiency in English, with bilingual English-French desired.