Head of Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications and Media

ROLE PURPOSE

The Head of ACCM will play a strategic, leadership role in the areas of Advocacy, Campaigns, Communication and Media to deliver Save the Children’s country strategic plan in Sri Lanka. The post- holder will aim to strengthen organizational representation and engagement in order to inform and mobilize the public and influence policies and practices. The role will seek to amplify the voices of children in relation to strategic priorities, and deliver lasting impact for children in relation to a range of development and humanitarian issues.

S/he will lead the design, development, and execution of national ACCM strategies and provide strategic guidance for strengthening Save the Children’s brand recognition and the profile of our work in Sri Lanka. S/he will represent Save the Children in external forums and maintain strategic engagement with key government stakeholders to advocate for child-centered and child-informed policies, strategies, and actions.

The post-holder will closely work with our Thematic Directors, the Program Development and Quality (PDQ) Director as well as with the regional and global ACCM teams to ensure the needs, rights and voices of children in Sri Lanka are reflected in national, regional and global influencing opportunities.

In the above capacity the role will report directly to the Director Programme, Development and Quality and in turn manage and provide leadership to our Advocacy, Communications and Media team. S/he will support and encourage a team culture of high performance, learning, innovation, creativity, and best practice.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE

Reports to: Director Program Development and Quality, Country Office.

Direct reports: Senior Manager Communications and Media, Comms and Social Media Coordinator; matrix management with communications managers in projects / programs.

Role Dimensions: (e.g., complexity, relationships, communication with stakeholders)

• Strategic oversight, technical expertise, management of key direct reports with focus on advocacy and policy interventions.
• Work within Development and Humanitarian context and child rights programming.
• Represent country office externally, external networking, 360º engagement with all teams in country office and, regional and global team.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Strategy and Planning

• Lead ACCM functions to deliver country strategic plan while also design, develop, and execute the country ACCM strategy.
• Strengthen Save the Children Sri Lanka’s representation and positioning for influencing and public mobilization.
• Facilitate child and youth engagement to create space for them and amplify their voice publicly and also in policy discourse at sub-national, national, regional and global level.

Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns

• Lead strategic advocacy and policy voice for Save the Children Sri Lanka, working closely with program and humanitarian teams.
• Provide leadership to ACCM team to drive impactful campaigns for programmatic integration and policy linkages through active engagement of the supporters and stakeholders including public.
• Ensure cascade of monitoring and measurement mechanisms for advocacy and campaign with strong integration of evaluation and learning mechanisms and tools.
• Support Country Office advocacy risk assessments for the activities and objectives encompassing both development and humanitarian advocacy.

Media and Communications

• Provide leadership for strengthening SCI branding in the domestic and international market to support campaign as well as diversify and mobilize resources.
• Lead on relationship building with the media and other key stakeholders critical for our branding.
• Manage media engagement strategy, including proactive and reactive, especially in line with advocacy and campaign priorities.

People Management

• Ensures appropriate ACCM structure across the CO ensuring appropriate gender and diversity.
• Makes sure that all staff understand their responsibilities and have clearly defined performance objectives including plans and activities to develop their professional capacities.
• Encourage a team culture of learning, creativity, and innovation.

Country Office Leadership and Representation

• Represent ACCM during SMT meetings, regional and global meetings.
• Represent Save the Children at appropriate country-level working groups.
• Support the Country Director, Director PDQ and other relevant Country Office staff in high-level humanitarian advocacy work towards relevant authorities, Humanitarian Country Teams, key UN actors and Agencies, Donors and other NGOs, as well as media, if necessary.
• Ensure coordination of advocacy messages and activities between the field offices, Country Office and the regional and international levels.

Child Safeguarding Responsibility

• Uphold and adhere to child safeguarding principles and procedures as well as Code of Conduct at personal and professional level to create a child-safe workplace.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree, preferably in public policy/ Social Sciences/Public relations from a reputed University.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Minimum seven (07) years’ senior managerial experience in a similar role in a large I/NGO, UN or corporate entity.
• Deep understanding of socio-economic-cultural-environmental-governance-policy landscape, preferably for both development and humanitarian context.
• Proven experience in developing advocacy strategies and leading evidence-based policy development, influence and wins.
• Demonstrated experience in leading public advocacy and campaign design with keen understanding of brand, planning and development of multi-channel communications for diverse audience (internal/external).
• Ability to build and maintain relationship with government and other key stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Excellent ability to analyze, interpret and present complex data for diverse stakeholders.
• Agility to manage own team and engage with teams at regional and global level.
• Excellence in written and spoken communication skills in English. Proficiency in Sinhala/Tamil (written and spoken), will be preferred but not mandatory, incudes demonstrated ability to respond to media professionally.