Advocacy Specialist

About GOAL:

GOAL is an international humanitarian aid agency with operations in 14 countries in The Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Last year it reached more than six million people in need in nutrition, health, livelihoods, and emergency response programmes.

GOAL in Turkey:

GOAL has been implementing programmes in Turkey since 2016 and has an open-ended registration to operate in the country. In addition to over 85 dedicated program staff members based in our field offices in Mersin, Adana, Hatay, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa, GOAL Turkey also benefits from administrative and operational supports provided by GOAL Syria Response Programme’s Turkey-based staff members in Ankara and Hatay.

GOAL Turkey benefits from strong relationships with key stakeholders within the country’s national refugee response framework and has established trust within targeted communities. Our contribution to the national refugee response in Turkey has focused on addressing gaps and responding to identified needs in health service delivery, and the protection of vulnerable and marginalized refugees in southern Turkey.

GOAL is currently implementing two projects (ECHO funded LINK and PRM funded GREEN) in Turkey. The LINK program targets refugees from nomadic / semi-nomadic backgrounds and those engaged in seasonal agricultural labour. LINK has been designed to address and mitigate protection concerns of the vulnerable / marginalized refugees through provision of critical information and raising their awareness on their rights, obligations and services available in Turkey, by sensitization/advocacy (targeting key stakeholders and service providers, etc.) activities, and Individual Protection Assistance (IPA) services to enable highly vulnerable refugees to access to basic, social and protective services available under the provisions of Temporary and International Protection regulations in Turkey. The Green program aims to improve the socioeconomic inclusion, resilience and self-sufficiency of highly vulnerable/excluded women and girls from host and refugee communities (Syrians as well as those living in program locations under the international protection regulation) including nomadic communities and seasonal agriculture workers from both communities through integrated and market driven livelihood opportunities and protection services, including language courses and vocational skills training on greenhouse production and agriculture; case management (CM)/coaching services, establishment of a women cooperative, protection outreach, information provision and awareness raising; and provision of special needs and individual protection assistance services.

Position Summary

Based in (any of the following provinces) Adana, Mersin, Gaziantep, Hatay, Şanlıurfa, Ankara and working under the supervision of the Programs Director, the Advocacy Specialist will lead GOAL’s advocacy and sensitization activities. Working in close coordination and collaboration with program leads, MEAL Coordinator, Communications & Media Specialist and Protection Monitoring & Reporting Officer, the Advocacy Specialist will develop and deliver a comprehensive advocacy strategy, targeting duty bearers and service providers with clear and tailored messages to equip them with contextualized, evidence-based information on the needs and challenges of GOAL’s target groups living in southeast Turkey.

General Functions and Responsibilities of the Role:

1. Map the key duty bears, policy makers and other services providers:

• Identify and critically analyse the key duty bears, policy makers and services providers who can make/influence progressive changes to improve enabling environments and services for the most vulnerable refugees including GOAL Turkey specific targeted groups.
• Develop an advocacy work plan and lead the committed GOAL Turkey advocacy and sensitization activities which will be targeting the above identified actors.

2. Conduct the advocacy and sensitization activities:

• Prepare clear and tailored advocacy tools, messages, press releases, presentations and any other relevant tools to equip the identified actors with a contextualized, evidence-based information on the whereabouts, needs and challenges of GOAL’s target groups.
• Plan and organize one-on-one and or collective meetings and webinars with representatives from different duty bearers (humanitarian, civil service providers, UN agencies, etc.) with the aim of equipping them with the necessary information, tools, GOAL best practices.
• Work closely with the MEAL Team and program leads to ensure timely monitoring and evaluation of sensitization and advocacy activities.
• Ensure all hard copies (means of verifications) of respective sensitization and advocacy activities are collected and stored as requested in a timely manner.
• Develop regular and ad-hoc situation reports, factsheets, position papers, line to takes / briefing papers, public communication materials related to national and local advocacy issues and priorities as needed based on primary/ secondary data sources.
• Actively engage with GOAL’s Community Advisory Committees (CAC) to get inputs for advocacy efforts.
• Train and coach GOAL CAC members and equip them with skills and experiences for self-advocacy purposes.

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3. Other duties:

• Contribute to relevant donor reports, concept notes and proposals regarding advocacy needs and activities.
• Attend all relevant cluster and coordination meetings to collect the updates about the situation and present all related findings among other actors.
• Participate in one-to-one performance development reviews/appraisals and contribute to the identification of own development needs.
• Develop a province-based stakeholder analysis matrix for GOAL’s areas of operation.
• Work together with the Communications and Media Specialist to equip the GOAL website and social media accounts with all relevant advocacy materials.
• Ensure quality implementation through compliance and adherence to GOAL, donor and national policies, procedures and guidelines including internationally recognized protection and social services standards.
• Any other duties related to the nature of the job as directed by the supervisor.

Requirements

• Turkish Citizenship.
• Bachelor’s degree in related field (e.g., communication, journalism, social work, law, sociology, international relations, social development, psychology, and other relevant disciplines).
• Excellent presentation, oral and writing skills English.
• Turkish language is required.
• Minimum 4 years’ work experience gained in I/NGOs (in paid or voluntary capacity) preferably in Southeast of Turkey.
• Strong understanding on rights and protection issues of refugees.
• Good negotiation and problem-solving skills, proven communication, diplomacy, interpersonal and representation skills.
• Prior experience working in advocacy on humanitarian issues, refugee rights, human rights, and/or development issues and toward donors and/or the UN agencies and respective social, protection and humanitarian service providing stakeholders.
• Experience in developing and implementing humanitarian advocacy strategies is strong advantage.
• Work experience with nomadic / semi-nomadic refugees and/or those engaged in seasonal agricultural labour is a strong asset.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead research, surveys, and other activities oriented towards developing positions and evidence base is strong asset.
• Evidence of excellent verbal and written communication skills in English for a wide range of different audiences including donors, journalists, and the general public.
• Excellent IT skills, especially in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Interested? Then apply for this position via clicking on the “apply now” button and fill out the application form. All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages). Both must be in English. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application deadline is 02 March 2022.

“Please note that GOAL does not charge a fee of any kind or any other financial obligation at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training, induction) or other fees, or request information on applicants’ bank accounts. GOAL does not work with intermediary institutions and individuals or employment agencies during the recruitment process. If any fee or payment is requested from you at the application or any stage of the recruitment process, please do not respond.”

GOAL’ün, işe alım sürecinin (başvuru, başvuruların işlenmesi, mülakat, eğitim, oryantasyon) hiç bir aşamasında hiç bir şekilde ücret talep etmediğini, başvuru sahibine herhangi bir finansal yükümlülük yüklemediğini ya da başvuru sahibine ait banka bilgilerini talep etmediğini unutmayınız. GOAL işe alım süreci boyunca hiç bir aracı kurum ya da kuruluş yahut istihdam bürosuyla çalışmamaktadır. Eğer başvuru sırasında ya da işe alım sürecinin herhangi bir aşamasında sizden herhangi bir ücret ya da ödeme talep edilirse lütfen yanıt vermeyiniz.

General terms and conditions

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated. Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date. We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Thank you.