Regional Advocacy Manager - Syria Response

Location: Amman, Jordan

Contract - Full-Time

Closing date: Tuesday 2 July 2013

Save the Children is the world's leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children's lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfill their potential.

We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

We have over two million supporters worldwide and raised 1.6 billion dollars last year to reach more children than ever before, through programmes in health, nutrition, education, protection and child rights, also in times of humanitarian crises.

There are 30 national Save the Children organisations around the world. By the end of 2012 all our international programmes will be delivered through a merged operation with 14 000 staff, managed through seven regional hubs and reporting to a relatively small, central office. We're changing to become more efficient, more aligned, a better partner, a stronger advocate, a magnet for world-class people and relevant for the 21st century.

Role:

The Regional Advocacy Manager will be part of the SCI Regional Response Team and will manage global advocacy initiatives and liaise with Country Offices and the Regional Response Team, in close cooperation with the Regional Office. The function will lead international humanitarian advocacy and have linkages with SC members while ensuring a balance at regional level, and supporting country offices in the region, in developing humanitarian advocacy and ensuring coordinated, joined up advocacy approaches between countries in the region. The position will lead on keeping the regional advocacy strategy up to date and drafting advocacy products for use by Save the Children. The Advocacy Manager will also play a representational role and should expect to represent Save the Children in external meetings with the UN, donors, INGOs and other stakeholders, as well as the media as appropriate (and in coordination with the media / communications leads). Key areas of accountability:

Strategy

• Lead on updating and implementing the humanitarian advocacy strategy for Syria and the regional refugee response that includes national, regional and international advocacy, and short and longer term objectives.
• The post holder's primary focus will be the situation inside Syria, and will include liaising with key UN, donor and INGO interlocutors in the region to ensure SC has up to date information on the humanitarian situation and response in Syria. The position will also help build and coordinate advocacy work around the regional refugee response in close collaboration with Country Office advocacy focal points. .
• Support the Regional Team and Country Offices to develop advocacy risk assessments for the activities and objectives in the Syria Advocacy Strategy, and any campaign activities.

Situation and advocacy analysis

• Provide analysis of how children have been affected in Syria and neighbouring countries, the national policy responses and policy frameworks, as well as of other factors such as UN coordination, funding for the response, security and current and future challenges that have an impact on children and their access to humanitarian assistance, health, education and
  protection services.
• Define key advocacy opportunities and targets at international, national and regional levels, if relevant, together with advocacy point person in country, and if needed mobilize international advocacy support for these.

Producing advocacy products

• Draft and otherwise support the production of advocacy products as outlined in the Syria advocacy strategy for use at the regional and international levels.
• Ensure that all advocacy messages, documents and strategies are evidence-based, drawn from field experience and assessments, of high quality and effective.
• Ensure SC emergency response strategies have clear advocacy objectives and strategies, and indicators for assessing the impact of SC advocacy work.

The role will be based in Amman, with travel as necessary/appropriate to Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.

Qualifications and Experience:

Essential

• Prior management experience working in emergency response contexts or fragile states
• Significant prior experience working in advocacy on humanitarian issues, child rights, human rights, or development issues;
• Experience of influencing and advocacy work including lobbying, policy development and information provision in humanitarian issues;
• Excellent skills in advocating towards government officials in developing countries
• Experience of and strong skills in developing and implementing humanitarian advocacy strategies
• Good attention to detail
• Extensive knowledge of child rights and international humanitarian law
• Understanding of UN and donor operations at country level
• High level analytical and strategic thinking skills
• Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people
• Patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and remain responsive and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities
• Strong communication (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills, with experience in managing multicultural teams

Desirable

• Proven skills in media work, including interviews on Radio and TV
• Fluent in Arabic

This role will be offered as a one year contract

We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Please note that the closing date for applications is on Tuesday, 2 July 2013.

For further information on this role, please see our website at www.savethechildren.net/jobs

How to apply: Please apply with a covering letter and up-to-date CV to the link provided