Who is VSO Ethiopia

VSO is the world’s leading international organisation working through volunteers to create a fair world for everyone. We focus on people who are marginalised or excluded, including those living in poverty, people with disabilities or illness, and those facing discrimination, violence, disasters, disease, and conflict.

VSO places these individuals at the centre of its work as primary actors and agents of change. We work with communities to identify their priorities, opportunities, and solutions, supporting locally led and sustainable change.

Our Approach

VSO’s Volunteering for Development (VfD) approach supports vulnerable and marginalised people to claim their rights and drive lasting change. It addresses the root causes of vulnerability and marginalisation through three core approaches: social inclusion and gender, social accountability, and resilience. These approaches underpin our work in inclusive education, health, resilient livelihoods and peace building.

About the Job

VSO is a lead implementer of the Internship Opportunities for Young Women program (iWork), financed by the Mastercard Foundation. The program will be implemented in Ethiopia across Amhara, Oromia, and Harari regional states, as well as the Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations. iWork aims to create internship opportunities for 24,000 financially disadvantaged young people, with a primary focus on young women. The program also promotes inclusion by reaching persons with disabilities, refugees, internally displaced people, and returnees. Through internships, iWork aims to help young women build the skills and experience they need to access dignified and fulfilling work, contributing to poverty reduction and an improved quality of life.

VSO Ethiopia is recruiting Policy Ecosystem Analyst for iWork program.

Role Purpose:

Provide policy research, analysis, evidence synthesis and briefs to support Work opportunities for Young women through Internship (i-Work) program’s policy engagement on youth internships, workforce development and inclusive civil service reform in Ethiopia. The role analyses policy, regulatory and institutional barriers and generates practical insights to inform sustainable, scalable internship approaches, with a focus on young women’s participation and inclusion.

Tasks Responsibilities

• Provide policy analysis, evidence synthesis, briefing notes and practical recommendations to inform policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement and sustainability planning.
• Map and analyse national, regional and institutional policies, regulations and strategies affecting youth internships, workforce development, civil service reform and young women’s participation.
• Identify policy barriers, implementation gaps, risks and opportunities, including gender equality and social inclusion considerations, and translate findings into clear options for the Senior Policy Lead’s review and direction.
• Map key policy actors and institutions, including government, consortium partners, civil society, private sector, youth representatives and community stakeholders, to inform engagement strategies led by the Senior Policy Lead.
• Collect, synthesise and analyse evidence from M&E systems, partner reports, labour market information, community feedback and external research to inform policy, programme learning and adaptive management.
• Document lessons, case studies and good practice on internship policy, youth employment, gender inclusion and workforce development to support learning, reporting and scale-up of inclusive internship models.
• Draft policy briefs, issue papers, briefing notes, background materials and stakeholder inputs.
• Contribute policy evidence, learning and narrative inputs that support donor reporting, strategic alignment and adaptation under Young Africa Works in Ethiopia.

Work Location: Addis Ababa

Required Qualification

Education

• Education: Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Public Policy, Public Administration, Economics, Development Studies, Political Science, International Relations, Law, or a related field. A bachelor’s degree with exceptional relevant experience may be considered.
• Professional Certification: Additional certification in policy analysis, project management, or gender mainstreaming is an advantage.

Professional experience

• Significant progressive professional experience in policy analysis, research, or program support within the development sector, government, or international organizations.
• Policy Research & Analysis: Demonstrated experience conducting policy mapping, stakeholder analysis, and regulatory gap analysis, particularly in youth employment, education, or workforce development

• Public Policy, Public Administration, Economics, Development Studies, Political Science, Law, International Relations or a related field qualification and or equivalent experience. Additional professional training in policy analysis, research, project management or gender and social inclusion is desirable.
• Experience in policy analysis, research and evidence generation related to youth employment, internships, education, workforce development or public sector reform.
• Good understanding of Ethiopian policy and institutional systems relevant to youth employment, internships, civil service, labour regulation, workforce development and inclusive approaches to young women’s workforce participation.
• Ability to apply gender equality, social inclusion, safeguarding analysis and youth centred approach to policy research and implementation.
• Stakeholder engagement and coordination skills, with ability to work effectively with government, donors, consortium partners, civil society, private sector and community actors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise policy briefs, reports, presentations and stakeholder materials in English and Amharic.
• Understanding of results-based management and ability to use M&E data and learning approaches to inform policy and adaptive programming.
• Digital skills using data, evidence and knowledge management tools; data visualisation skills and ethical AI will be an advantage.
• Demonstrated VSO Behavioral Competencies.
• Commitment to VSO’s vision, mission, values, code of conduct, and Volunteering for development approach.

Travel Requirement:

• Ability to travel including work away from the home base for up to 40% of time, including field project locations.

Equal Opportunities

VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.

VSO reserves the right to close this job early if we receive enough applications.

VSO is committed to a fair, transparent and merit-based recruitment. VSO does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process.