EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GLOBAL ADVOCACY

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE

The Executive Director for Global Advocacy works with the Vice President for US Programs and Policy Advocacy to shape, coordinate, support and connect CARE USA’s advocacy at the national, regional, G7 capital and global levels to achieve the organization’s ambitious Vision 2030. S/he supervises a team of senior advocates working on areas for which CARE USA leads the global federation: health equity and rights, food-water-nutrition security, scaling up of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), and gender justice.

The ED helps focus the organization around clear, bold advocacy country-to-global campaigns that will lead to exponential impact at the local level for the people CARE seeks to serve.

The ED also works with regional and country leadership teams to define focused, achievable and meaningful policy advocacy goals at the country level, which may or may not link to a global campaign.

The ED is integral to the fabric of the global federation, keeping close ties with CARE International team members, regional advocacy advisors, country advocates, CARE members in G7 countries, as well as with grassroots movements to continually inform and advance advocacy objectives. The ED will assist CARE in decolonizing its approach to advocacy in myriad ways, for example, setting agendas based on the priorities of grassroots people and movements and making space for local advocates to speak directly to institutions of power.

The ED ensures that the necessary resources are raised to support strong global advocacy and that funds are managed transparently for their best use.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic direction and connectivity
• Resource mobilization
• Personnel and financial management
• Partnership with CARE International (CI)
• Other strategic initiatives as assigned

Qualifications:

• College degree or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Extensive experience conducting advocacy at multiple levels and in different contexts, including in developing countries, in northern capitals and with global institutions
• Proven track record of strong personnel and financial management
• Experience raising funds for advocacy
• Strong understanding of global politics across issues and contexts
• Technical experience in health, agriculture, gender, or other relevant areas
• A strong sense of urgency and the ability to work with multiple stakeholders to drive towards milestones. Stays focused on priorities amid many competing demands. Able to quickly develop “plan B” when original plans hit roadblocks.
• Strategic mindset with ability to identify and prioritize what’s important in any project, demonstrates innovative and creative approaches to work, ability to organize chaos into coherent plan.
• Able to translate complex topics into simple language. Can participate appropriately in executive settings and tailor briefs to a range of internal clients. Can represent the Foundation in a wide range of settings.
• Sense of accountability to ensure the entire team succeeds. Comfortable with ambiguity and can move forward amid changing circumstances.
• Flexible in playing whatever role is necessary for team success. Demonstrate inclusiveness in encouraging participation from everyone to generate the best ideas and results. Can leverage the entire team – reports, peers, and managers – to achieve results.
• Proactive in crafting new ideas and creatively solving problems. Able to creatively secure and mobilize the resources required for a project’s success.
• Committed to inclusion, equity, and diversity in every aspect of your work, and to challenging conventional wisdom through evidence, reason, and amplifying dissenting, unconventional, and marginalized voices.
• Ability to wear multiple hats in a dynamic, fast-moving environment; a solution-oriented team player who manages toward clarity
• Fluency in French, Spanish or ideally both
• Embraces leadership in the global south and has worked with social movements; understands social movements and power dynamics in countries and regions