The Learning Curve of a New Liaison Officer

Nondini Lopa is a Liaison Officer for GFF in Bangladesh covering investment cases for Health, Nutrition, Population (HNP) and Education sector programs. Her interest includes strategic communication and networking for adolescent health programing and policy reform.

The Learning Curve of a New Liaison Officer

“The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world” – Toni Collette.

With that quote in mind, I have purposefully broadened my professional network throughout my career span. Being a young professional in the development sector, with an academic degree in Anthropology, I always wanted to dedicate myself to addressing equity-related issues, using a rights-based approach. Looking back at my professional journey, I find myself grounded, confident and skillful.

My experience as a Liaison Officer for the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in Bangladesh has nevertheless reaffirmed the need to continuously learn to perform effectively. While there are constants in all professional positions and in all organizations, there is always a learning curve. In my case, this learning curve involved changing perspectives – shifting from a hands-on implementation role to a more strategic and relationship-driven role, that of GFF Liaison Officer.

The GFF Liaison Officer position involves leading from behind – showing leadership without assuming the role of a leader to help in a country define and steer its own process. This not only requires strong communication skills to engage stakeholders effectively and strategically.  In other words, in this role, it is critical to know when to speak and not to speak, whom to speak to, and what to speak about at what.

In my experience, this type of strategic communication – and relationship building – is most effective in person. Hopefully, with COVID-19-related restrictions being gradually lifted in Bangladesh, I will be able to resume in-person meetings and strengthen my capacity to lead from behind. This is especially important as I am relatively new to the GFF and to this role in Bangladesh.

So how did I prepare the ground for this while working from home, you might ask? How did I try to make myself known and build relationships?

I used both online and offline methods. I have attended as much meeting as I could, even if I did not have any concrete contribution.  It was a great way not only to introduce myself as the GFF Liaison Officer in Bangladesh, but also to learn.  The GFF’s Liaison Officer Community of Practice was – and continues to be – a very useful forum to better understand my role, and learn from my peers to innovate, address challenges, seize opportunities, etc.

During my first nine months as a GFF Liaison Officer, I did feel the pressure of shifting from “know thy self” to “know, support and leverage others”.  While being aware of your competences is always critical, being a GFF Liaison Officer requires using and honing those competences and acquire new ones to build and sustain relationships.  It is an ongoing process.

I am excited for my GFF journey and my learning to continue!