Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications and Media Director

Save the Children International

Save the Children International is a leading global humanitarian organization that has been protecting children's rights worldwide for over 100 years. We operate in more than 100 countries, responding to emergencies, implementing innovative development programs, and advocating for children's rights on a global scale.

Our work in Ukraine began in 2014. Since then, we have significantly expanded our presence, providing support to children and families affected by war. Our key areas of focus include education, child protection, food security, social support, and advocacy to drive lasting change in children's lives.

ROLE PURPOSE:

ACCM is an integrated and critical part of our work in Ukraine, with the need to ensure humanitarian access, sustained international visibility and donor interest in the crises, protection of children from grave violations and international pressure to end the conflict.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Strategic Leadership & Governance

As a member of the Senior Management Team, contribute to:

• Leadership of the Ukraine Country Office
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects the full programming spectrum (humanitarian and development) values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and supports staff to deliver outstanding results for children.

Advocacy Strategy Development and Implementation

• Lead Ukraine's Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications and Media team with a clear vision and integrated workplan and objectives, including setting SMART goals for the team and securing buy-in from key internal stakeholders.
• Lead the country office's strategy to protect children in conflict, ensuring coordination and engagement across all departments to deliver on the strategic objectives. The postholder will hold primary responsibility for risk mitigation and management associated with the delivery on this strategy, including current advocacy priorities related to 1) humanitarian access, 2) EU accession and early recovery, 3) de-institutionalisation of children and 4) return of forcibly transferred children from outside of Ukraine
• Based on Save the Children (SC) program priorities, and identified priority issues for children, develop key advocacy messages and identify targets from lessons learned, assessments, research and evidence gained through project implementation.
• Develop and implement advocacy objectives and initiatives, both short and long term, encompassing a wide range of issues and audiences.
• Develop and implement a plan for national level advocacy and influencing as part of the overall advocacy strategy, involving partners, technical experts and national actors where appropriate.
• Work with the broader Save the Children movement to develop and implement and plan for international advocacy, identifying key strands of work to be collectively taken forward by the CO, RO, Members and Advocacy Offices.

Situation and Advocacy Analysis

• Working closely with programs, provide analysis of how children have been affected by the crisis in Ukraine, the national policy responses and policy frameworks, as well as 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.

Advocacy and Policy Products

• Draft and otherwise support the production of advocacy products as outlined in the advocacy strategy for use at the country, regional and international levels including supporting the Centrality of Protection (COP) and Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Advocacy and Campaigns strategy in country.
• Ensure that all advocacy messages, documents and strategies are evidence-based, drawn from field experience and assessments, are high quality and effective, and are put through official agency sign off procedures.
• Lead or support external advocacy coordination forum, including within the Ukraine Response Advocacy specific fora, supporting the Country Director in preparation for the Humanitarian Country Team and other relevant interagency fora, promoting or ensuring inclusion of Save the Children prioritized child rights issues in these essential coalition fora.
• Keep a watching brief on policy makers and other key players in relation to children's rights issues and identify opportunities to raise awareness and influence policy change.
• Lead and coordinate Save the Children's engagement with humanitarian policy issues and related advocacy, including by developing briefing papers, engaging with the Humanitarian Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns Technical Working Group, as well as supporting the in-country operations team to navigate issues relating to humanitarian access, humanitarian principles, centrality of protection, counter-terror legislation and other pressing policy issues.
• Lead on exploring new policy areas for the Ukraine Country Office, including on contentious topics such as engagement with the ICC, policy on reparations, military use of civilian objects, kidnapping and other topics where sound judgement of opportunity and risk needs to be considered.

External Engagement and Influencing

• Develop good knowledge of local and national government structures (in Ukraine and in key Member capitals), parliamentary and political processes and key decision-making structures and how to influence them.
• Undertake a range of lobbying, communications and other activities to inform and persuade policy makers, including donors and politicians, of the value of SC's policy recommendations.
• Build systems for research, analysis and documentation that underpin evidence-based advocacy and influencing at national and international levels.

Coordination & Representation

• Develop and cultivate strategic relationships with other agencies engaged in advocacy and policy work in the Ukraine.
• Develop and maintain a network of external contacts with key individuals in the government, donors, NGO sector, civil society and the media.
• Represent SC at various policy forums and advocacy opportunities at national and international levels, as directed.
• Act as a spokesperson for Save the Children to a variety of external audiences including policy makers and the media, as directed.

Campaigns Planning and Delivery

• Lead the development of an integrated campaigns plan aligned with the country strategic plan.
• Promote child-led campaigning with Ukrainian children's groups

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice )

Accountability:

• holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale .

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• At least 10 years' experience in a humanitarian or development environment, preferably leading advocacy and policy change in humanitarian/conflict contexts.
• Prior management experience working in emergency response contexts or fragile states.
• Significant prior experience working in advocacy on humanitarian issues, child rights, human rights, and/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
• Experience of and strong skills in developing and implementing humanitarian advocacy strategies.
• Proven skills in media and communication work, including interviews on Radio and TV.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead research, surveys and other activities oriented towards developing positions and evidence base.
• Highly developed communication skills both written and verbal in order to establish effective relationships with a wide variety of internal and external audiences including at a geographical distance
• Fluency in writing and presentation skills in English required
• Extensive knowledge of child rights and international humanitarian law
• 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
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience in managing multicultural teams.
• Experience in coaching, capacity-building and supporting the development of a team
• Experience in managing risks associated with advocacy and communications in high-risk settings, including in developing risk management plans and mitigation measures.
• Advanced understanding of Protection issues arising from a conflict setting, impact on protected populations, and implications for humanitarian aid agencies.

Desirable:

• Experience working for an international humanitarian organisation in humanitarian contexts
• Experience with programs, program development, proposal writing, or implementation a plus.
• Experience in coordination of various stakeholders a plus
• Experience solving complex issues through analysis
• Fluency in writing and presentation skills in Ukrainian
• Strong international network within advocacy and policy settings
• Understanding of the issues concerning the INGO sector with an in-depth knowledge in communications, marketing and/or fundraising
• Demonstrable track record of leading change, resulting in significant results for the organisation and their stakeholders.
• Strong results orientation

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.

Child Safeguarding Policy:

We are committed to ensuring children's safety. Our recruitment process includes strict background checks and reflects our commitment to protecting children from harm.

Equal Opportunities

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Health and Safety:

All employees are expected to perform their duties in accordance with our global policy on harassment prevention.

In your cover letter, indicate your expected salary and English proficiency level.