Program Officer, Health Advocacy

AI summary

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks a Program Officer, Health Advocacy to lead policy, financing, and accountability advocacy in Nigeria. The role focuses on translating health priorities into influence strategies, supporting government engagement, and managing grants. Based in Abuja, the position requires strong public health advocacy experience and knowledge of Nigeria's health landscape.

• Focus on health advocacy for policy, financing, and accountability in Nigeria.
• Role involves high-stakes government and partner engagement.
• Based in Abuja with full-time employment.

Original source description

Program Officer, Health Advocacy at Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation ⏲ Jul 29, 2026, 2:18 PM ⋕ View all Medical & Healthcare jobs Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people- especially those with the fewest resources - have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. We are recruiting to fill the position below: Job Title: Program Officer, Health Advocacy Job Requisition ID: B021685 Location: Abuja Employment type: Full-time Your Role This role is designed for a practical, execution-oriented advocacy professional who can translate complex public health priorities into clear influence strategies, support high-stakes engagements with government and partners, manage grants and consultants effectively, and help the foundation and its partners stay focused on the few advocacy bets that matter most for impact in Nigeria. The role requires a candidate with a strong public health advocacy background, sound understanding of Nigeria’s health policy and financing landscape, experience: working with government and partner ecosystems, and a demonstrated track record of delivering advocacy results. The successful candidate will be expected to move beyond general awareness-building and support advocacy that influences real decisions: policies adopted, financing allocated and released, implementation bottlenecks addressed, accountability mechanisms strengthened, and partners better equipped to sustain progress. This role is based in Abuja and will report to the Deputy Director, Policy, Advocacy and Communications. The postholder will work closely with Nigeria Country Office leadership, program strategy teams, Africa PGRP colleagues, Global Policy & Advocacy, communications colleagues, and external partners to ensure that advocacy strategies are politically informed, evidence-based, partner-led, and linked to measurable delivery outcomes. The Program Officer, Health Advocacy will support the development and execution of the Nigeria Country Office’s health advocacy priorities, with a particular focus on advancing policy, financing, implementation, and accountability outcomes across primary health care, immunization, polio, malaria, family planning, maternal, newborn and child health, nutrition, and related health systems priorities. What You'll Do The role will support PAC priorities across four core areas: agenda setting, policy influence, financing advocacy, and strategic communications. It will help ensure that the foundation’s advocacy work in Nigeria is disciplined, sequenced, and focused on outcomes not just activities, visibility, or convenings. This includes strengthening political commitment for priority health issues, supporting evidence use in policy and financing decisions, improving domestic resource mobilization and budget execution, strengthening coalitions and champions, and ensuring that advocacy efforts are connected to implementation and measurable results. The Program Officer will support and manage a portfolio of health advocacy work that advances the Nigeria Country Office and PGRP objectives. Strategy, prioritization, and advocacy execution: Support the development and implementation of Nigeria health advocacy strategies aligned with NCO priorities, PAC bodies of work, PGRP objectives, and relevant program goals. Support politically informed advocacy planning, including analysis of decision-makers, policy windows, fiscal constraints, risks, and reform opportunities. Help prioritize the highest-value advocacy opportunities and ensure that team efforts are focused on policy, financing, implementation, or accountability outcomes. Translate public health priorities into clear advocacy objectives, influence pathways, stakeholder maps, partner roles, and measurable results. Develop and maintain workplans, results trackers, briefs, and decision documents that enable strong execution and leadership oversight. Support advocacy efforts that increase salience and political will for PHC, MNCH, FP, immunization, polio, malaria, nutrition, and other priority health issues. Public health policy, financing, and accountability advocacy: Support efforts to improve resource mobilization, budget allocation, timely release, and efficient use of domestic financing for priority health programs. Work with internal teams and partners to ensure that advocacy follows the full financing-to-delivery chain, from political commitment to budget allocation, release, procurement, service delivery, and accountability. Support partner and government engagement that advances practical implementation of reforms, not only policy adoption. Support advocacy to strengthen federal and state commitment to primary health care reforms, routine immunization, polio eradication, new vaccine introduction, maternal and child survival, family planning, malaria, and nutrition priorities. Help identify and support platforms that can strengthen government accountability, including state-level mechanisms, technical working groups, multi-stakeholder forums, and relevant national or subnational policy platforms. Support the use of scorecards, dashboards, investment cases, policy analysis, and other evidence tools to strengthen decision-making and accountability. Grant and partner management: Ensure grantmaking and partner engagement reflect the foundation’s values, compliance requirements, and commitment to locally credible, partner-led influence. Manage or support advocacy grants and contracts, including strategy alignment, partner workplans, milestones, reporting, risk management, and performance tracking. Strengthen partner capacity to deliver policy advocacy, evidence translation, coalition building, strategic communications, and accountability work. Work with grantees and consultants to ensure advocacy investments are linked to clear theories of change, measurable outcomes, and adaptive learning. Support partners to align around shared advocacy priorities, reduce duplication, and strengthen coordination across platforms and issue areas. Monitor grantee performance, synthesize learning, and recommend course corrections where advocacy efforts are not translating into results. Strategic communications and evidence translation: Support leadership voice and high-level engagements by preparing concise, decision-oriented briefs, talking points, background notes, and follow-up materials. Support stronger coordination between federal and state-level advocacy efforts, ensuring that national priorities are translated into practical implementation pathways in priority geographies. Help identify and manage narrative risks, misinformation, reputational sensitivities, and contested policy issues that could affect reform momentum. Work with communications colleagues and partners to ensure that public narratives reinforce advocacy objectives and are grounded in evidence, local realities, and practical implementation challenges. Work closely with Nigeria Country Office leadership, PAC colleagues, health program teams, Africa PGRP, Global Policy & Advocacy, Communications, and relevant foundation business partners. Contribute to regular PAC reporting, portfolio reviews, leadership updates, and planning processes. Ensure follow-up from leadership engagements is clear, owned, tracked, and connected to team priorities. Help the team maintain a clear line of sight between advocacy activities, expected outcomes, and foundation goals. Support preparation for senior leadership engagements, country visits, government meetings, partner convenings, and high-profile advocacy moments. Cross-foundation coordination and leadership support Support communications that elevate practical delivery questions—for example, whether facilities are staffed, stocked, financed, and able to deliver services consistently to women, children, families, and communities. Translate technical public health evidence into clear, compelling advocacy messages, policy briefs, leadership talking points, partner toolkits, and external engagement materials. Requirements: Your Experience: Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, respectful partnership, and locally grounded advocacy. Experience: developing and implementing advocacy or influence strategies aimed at specific policy, financing, implementation, or accountability outcomes. Strong judgment, diplomacy, collaboration, and relationship management skills. Strong analytical, writing, synthesis, and briefing skills, with the ability to translate complex technical information into clear, practical, decision-oriented products. Experience: managing grants, contracts, consultants, or complex partner-led projects is strongly preferred. At least 6 years of relevant experience: in public health advocacy, policy advocacy, strategic communications, government relations, or development advocacy, preferably in Nigeria or comparable African contexts. Ability to work across multiple teams and issue areas while maintaining focus on priorities, timelines, and results. Advanced degree in public health, health policy, international development, public policy, political science, communications, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. Demonstrated track record of delivering advocacy outcomes in public health, including influencing policy decisions, strengthening political commitment, improving financing outcomes, supporting implementation, or building accountability mechanisms. Experience: working with government actors, civil society, technical partners, donors, media, and coalitions in politically sensitive environments. Strong understanding of Nigeria’s public health landscape, including federal and state-level health systems, primary health care, immunization, polio, family planning, maternal and child health, malaria, nutrition, or health financing. Ability to operate with ambiguity while bringing structure, rigor, and accountability to complex advocacy work. Other Attributes: Advocacy grants and partner workplans are better linked to measurable outcomes, not only activities or visibility. Candidates should have valid work authorization in Nigeria; visa sponsorship is not available now or in the future. Leadership engagements are supported with concise, practical, and decision-ready materials. Priority health issues gain stronger political attention, secure financial commitments, or implementation follow-through at federal and/or state levels. Partners are better coordinated around shared advocacy asks, evidence, messages, and accountability mechanisms. Health advocacy strategies are clearer, more prioritized, and better aligned with NCO, PAC, and PGRP priorities. Willingness to travel domestically/internationally (30–40%) How to Apply Interested and qualified candidates should: Click here to apply online View all Jobs in Nigeria Abuja