United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Head of Policy and Advocacy

Location: London Office, with occasional travel to Europe, US and programmes

Responsible to: Director of Advocacy and Communications

Start date: As soon as possible

Background

We’re War Child. For the past two decades, we’ve worked with children who, despite not causing conflict, live with its consequences every day. Poverty, exclusion and insecurity. Children who live on the streets, head-up households, are incarcerated or forced to work for armed gangs. We exist to create change for these children. To protect, educate and empower - working towards a world where children’s lives are no longer torn apart by war. It’s a vision that can only be realised through collective action; of children, communities, governments, decision makers, organisations like War Child … and you.

You’re exceptional. You’re looking for a unique opportunity to change the game and deliver lasting results for children. You understand how power works and you’re not afraid to (constructively) challenge it. You bring experience of innovative, targeted and high-impact policy and advocacy work. You know how to make relationships work – externally with high-level decision-makers and internally with your media, digital, programme and fundraising colleagues. Ideally you can navigate the corridors of Westminster, Whitehall and the UN, and have strong knowledge of the humanitarian sector, or are hungry to develop it. You see the advocacy challenge and opportunity in a landscape where children represent over 50% of those affected by conflict but their education receives just 1% of global funding. You’re excited at the thought of realising - and stretching – the policy and advocacy ambitions of an organisation that will stop at nothing to secure change for children affected by conflict.

Together we’ll create change for children. We’re confident that policy and advocacy is central to the change we want to deliver at local, national and global levels, with external partners, War Child International and children themselves. We’re committed to amplifying the voices of children, and persuading those in power to make the right decisions to protect them. We have an ambitious and audacious new strategy to 2019. As Head of Policy and Advocacy, you will develop and execute the strategic work-stream at the heart of this plan, embodying our values and delivering change for children in conflict.

Overview of Role

· Deliver an ambitious policy and advocacy programme for War Child: Lead the development and delivery of an innovative and high-impact policy and advocacy programme at UK and international levels – securing policy change and increased finance for children in conflict

· Influence decision-makers and opinion-leaders: Build a network of relationships with decision-makers, influentials and opinion-leaders – in the UK and globally - to promote and secure policy and practice changes that benefit children in conflict

· Amplify children’s voices: Ensure that our advocacy involves, and is informed by, real experiences of children in conflict, supporting children to build the skills and confidence to be advocates themselves

· Support a scale-up of country level advocacy: Offer strategic advocacy support to in-country colleagues and ensure that their work, and the experiences of children in our projects, is reflected in advocacy positions and products

· Provide policy, advocacy and political insights– monitor the policy and political landscape, gather political intelligence, providing a strategic steer to the organisation on advocacy opportunities and risks.

· Manage budgets and people: manage the policy and advocacy team – currently one officer and one fixed term consultant – and play a strategic role in planning the future growth of the policy and advocacy function.

· Secure further funding – working with the Programme and Fundraising teams to develop proposals to funders to expand our policy and advocacy work

Key Responsibilities

Deliver an ambitious policy and advocacy programme for War Child:

· Devise a long-term policy and advocacy strategy, annual objectives and activity plan for War Child UK

· Manage a full spectrum policy and advocacy initiatives – including research, data gathering, policy analysis, report writing, briefing papers, lobbying, dialogues and events

· Work closely and collaboratively with other functions in the advocacy and communications team to realise ambitions – including media, PR, digital and campaigns – and across the organisation – including programmes and fundraising

· Develop strong and strategic working relationships with key decision-makers and other ‘influentials’ at national, regional and global levels, as identified through targeted power and stakeholder analysis.

· Lead engagement with coalitions and advocacy partners, representing War Child at external engagements

· Monitor, communicate and evaluate War Child’s policy and advocacy wins

· Work closely and collaboratively with the War Child family – including War Child Holland and War Child Canada – to develop international policy and advocacy positions, products and events

Amplify Children’s Voices:

· Work with country programmes to capture the opinions, insights and testimonies of children affected by armed conflict, ensuring War Child’s policy and advocacy products have robust and relevant representation of children’s voices

· Deliver in-country advocate development programmes with children and young people, building their skills and opportunities to engage with decision-makers

· Manage the ongoing development, operations and contribution of the Youth Engagement Panel

· Oversee the development of War Child’s schools engagement programme

Support scale-up of country level Advocacy:

· Offer strategic guidance and support to in-country colleagues on policy and advocacy mapping, planning and execution

· Work collaboratively with country colleagues on global policy and advocacy products and positions

· Create opportunities for programme staff to share insights and experience in regional and global advocacy platforms

· Capture information on advocacy activities at country level and the voices and views of children in War Child projects

Provide policy, advocacy and political insights

· Provide analysis of the policy landscape, political intelligence and identify opportunities and threats for War Child’s advocacy

· Provide advocacy content for War Child fundraising and Communications products

· Create briefings for high-level advocacy opportunities

· Support Chief Executive and Senior Management Team in securing and successfully executing advocacy meetings

Manage budgets and people:

· Manage a team of one policy and advocacy officer and a fixed term consultant, with potential for growth

· Plan, strategise and fundraise for the further growth of the policy and advocacy function

· Develop and agree annual advocacy and campaigns budget, monitoring expenditure against budget throughout year

· Develop and maintain tracking system to capture the impact of War Child’s advocacy work

Secure further funding

· Work with programme team to develop funding proposals for policy and advocacy work – including in-country advocacy and training programmes

· Work with the fundraising team to strategically plan the growth of the policy and advocacy function, and collaboratively develop fundraising initiatives to support the work of the team

Person Specification

Mandatory criteria

· Right to work in the UK

· Commitment to the aims and objectives of War Child

· Educated to degree level

· Willingness to travel

Experience and knowledge

· Extensive experience of developing and delivering policy and advocacy strategies, and influencing policy change

· Experience of developing and managing research, policy analysis and publications, synthesising complex information into concise policy proposals and advocacy asks

· Excellent knowledge of the political environment in the UK, and experience of influencing international and intergovernmental processes

· Strong knowledge and understanding of international development/humanitarian/child rights

· Experience of managing, overseeing or delivering advocate development/participation programmes.

Skills and Competencies

· Ability to get up to speed quickly with policy issues and respond to a changing political environment

· Demonstrable negotiation, influencing and relationship-building skills

· Skilled at communicating in a clear, concise and compelling way to a wide range of audiences – including politicians, government officials and media

· Ability to plan, prioritise and organise a complex workload of competing priorities

· Strong line management and people development skills

· Excellent written and oral communication skills (including external representation)

Contract Terms

Post: Permanent

Working Hours: Full time

Probation: 6 months

Location: Linton House, 39-51 Highgate Road, London, NW5 1RT, UK

Salary: £41,250-£46,500 per annum (dependent on experience)

Leave: 28 days pa pro-rata, increasing by one day for each year’s service up to a maximum of 5 additional days

Pension: Matching contribution to your private pension up to 5% of gross salary

Other: As defined in standard War Child contract terms

• Complete War Child application form and submit to HR at recruitment@warchild.org.uk
• Please visit www.warchild.org.uk for a full application pack. No CVs are accepted.
• Only applicants with the right to work in the UK should apply.
• Application deadline: 11:59pm of 27^th April 2016
• First round interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held w/c 2^nd May 2016
• There may be a second round of interviews in the same or following week
• Any offer made to the successful candidate will be a provisional offer subject to written references from your current employer, your previous employer and one character referee. We will also call these referees for clarification.
• The successful applicant will be expected to undergo a criminal record check, a medical check for overseas travel purposes, and sign up to War Child’s Child Protection Policy prior to a final offer being made.