Regional Humanitarian Advocacy Officer (Re-advertised/ National Role)

The Opportunity

Humanitarian needs of children are expected to reach new records in 2022. The numbers of children living in areas affected by conflict and the numbers of displaced children remain at historic highs, the economic impacts of the COVID19 pandemic threaten to push millions of children into acute food insecurity and other deprivations, including reduced access to education and diminishing gender equality.

The Middle East and Eastern Europe Regional Office (MEEERO) supports and oversees the Humanitarian Advocacy and Policy of all the region’s prioritized responses. This includes large-scale / high-priority responses in Yemen, Syria and Ukraine. Save the Children is also committed to delivering against its international influencing strategy around Protecting Children in Conflict (PCIC). This agenda includes Yemen, Syria, Iraq, oPt, Lebanon and Ukraine and includes wider tracks of work on children’s safety and protection, accountability for grave violations of children’s rights in armed conflict, protecting education from attack and work in support of work led by the Child Protection Breakthrough team on MHPSS and funding for child protection.

The MEEE RO is also responsible for backstopping of Cat-1 responses (Yemen and Syria) to respond to growing capacity needs across the region and to ensure our prioritized responses are consistently and sustainably supported.

The Regional Humanitarian Advocacy Officer will support the workflow of key advocacy and communications initiatives related to the prioritized responses in the region, in close coordination with the Regional Advocacy and Resource Mobilization Director, the regional Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Manager and other members regional ACCM team. The role holder will also support representation of Save the Children in internal and/or external meetings with the UN, donors and other stakeholders where needed.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Humanitarian Advocacy Strategy Development and Implementation

* Support the process of development, review and implementation of Save the Children’s Humanitarian Advocacy Strategies for the categorized and prioritized responses, offering substantive contributions and coordination support to planned advocacy, media and communications products.

* Support internal coordination and functioning of the MEEE Humanitarian Advocacy Working Group, including both administrative and technical as needed.

* Support the development of advocacy and policy products from categorised responses for use at country, regional and international levels.

* Support the development of SC specific regional advocacy products, including briefings, talking points and reports on relevant issues, as opportunities are identified. When necessary, ensure advocacy products are signed-off according to the SCI sign-off procedures.

* Support the information gathering for regional initiatives in relation to humanitarian advocacy priorities, including climate change, children deprived of liberty, shrinking space and access constraints, and the nexus.

* In line with Save the Children International’s policies on Child Safeguarding, ensure safeguarding is considered in ACCM products and activities.

Information Management and Communications

* Gather and process information related to humanitarian responses (and related political processes) in the region and produce high quality briefings and context updates as and when needed.

* Support on the research, development, review, and sign-off of communications products related to advocacy or campaigns priorities.

* Conduct regular thematic and contextual research and, when requested, written analysis of how children have been affected in specific contexts in the region, and specifically their access to humanitarian assistance, health, education and protection services.

Advocacy and Campaigns Events

* Support the coordination and implementation of advocacy and campaign events, including logistics to staff and speakers, and ensuring all processes are in place with Country Office teams.

* Support the development of briefings, external concept notes, and invitations to key stakeholders on time and as required, to best support our participation in key advocacy and campaign moments.

* Support the follow-up on MEAL processes after the event, including collating feedback from children, and writing up key notes and outcomes from specific advocacy and campaign events and meetings.

Humanitarian Advocacy MEAL

* Feed into regional and global MEAL reporting system, impact studies, regional learning calls and other mechanisms to ensure we continuously improving the way we work for children on humanitarian advocacy in key countries in the region.

* Support Country Offices with humanitarian responses in setting MEAL frameworks with the children we engage with in our advocacy and campaigns from the outset and ensuring they have an opportunity to provide feedback after events, projects, campaigns or other engagement.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience. 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.

In order to be successful you will bring/have:

Essential

* Bachelor degree in international relations, political science, journalism or related field

* Strong communication in both English and Arabic (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills, with experience in working in multicultural teams

* Knowledge in advocacy on child rights, human rights, IHL, humanitarian or development issues;

* Demonstrated knowledge and experience of influencing and advocacy work including lobbying, policy research, development and information provision (preferably) in children’s issues;

* Demonstrated knowledge and experience of working in humanitarian contexts and knowledge of key trends in the humanitarian sector

* Demonstrated skills and experience of a range of campaigning and advocacy techniques and approaches

* Good attention to detail

* Excellent IT skills, especially in Microsoft Word

* 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

Desirable

* Master’s degree in a relevant field

* Skills in media work, including interviews on Radio and TV

* Previous work experience in the Middle East region