Advocacy Officer

ROLE PURPOSE:

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 Covid pandemic threaten to push millions of children into acute food insecurity and other deprivations, including reduced access to education and diminishing gender equality. Levels of child poverty in Ukraine have skyrocketed since February 2022 beyond 65% child poverty, that have long-term multiplying effects on the lives of children now and into the rest of their lives.

Save the Children Ukraine is committed to delivering against the Country Strategic Plan around child rights in the processes of recovery and EU accession. This agenda includes tracks of work on addressing child poverty, children’s right to development, safety and protection, education, as well as their participation in these processes.

The Advocacy Officer (Recovery and Integration) will support the workflow of key research and advocacy initiatives related to Save the Children’s work in Ukraine, in close coordination with the Save the Children Ukraine Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor (Recovery and Integration), ACCM Director, and other members of the country office and regional office PAC teams. The Advocacy Officer (Recovery and Integration) will also support the development of various advocacy products, where and as needed.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor (Recovery and Integration)

Reporting to: N/A

Budget responsibility: N/A (although be expected to input into relevant budgetary issues)

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Advocacy Strategy Implementation

• Support the process of implementation of Save the Children’s Advocacy Strategy for Ukraine, offering substantive contributions and coordination support to planned research and advocacy products.
• Support the engagement with key stakeholders, including national and local government, UN agencies and other interlocutors based in Ukraine, to ensure Save the Children International (SCI) has up to date information on the developing situation and response, with a focus on child rights in the recovery and integration processes, child poverty, and other issues impacting children and civilians.
• Support the development of advocacy and policy products for Ukraine, ensuring SCI’s global policy on these issues is reflected wherever possible in research products through proactive and targeted research and engagement with key contacts.
• Support the drafting and otherwise the production of advocacy products including briefings, talking points and reports on relevant issues, ensuring they are evidence-based, regularly updated and of a high quality, for use at country, regional and international levels.
• Support the information gathering for initiatives in relation to reconstruction policy development, child poverty, including monitoring the legislative developments, adoption of the relevant strategies and plans, and other important themes.
• Abide by Save the Children’s ethical research standards in all research activities, prioritising the safety and well-being of all research participants, and ensuring that Save the Children partners’ compliance with these standards.

Desk research

• Conduct extensive desk research and contributing to the design of qualitative and quantitative research surveys and questionnaires.
• Observe advocacy projects timeline, track progress, and update relevant colleagues and stakeholders as necessary.
• Conduct extensive mappings of advocacy stakeholders and research target groups in collaboration with the Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor.
• Conduct preliminary data analyses and identify gaps in information.
• Draft narrative reports based on research findings and support the development of research reports and corresponding advocacy products.

Situation Analysis and Information Management

• Conduct regular sectoral and contextual research and, when requested, written analysis of how children have been affected by the conflict in Ukraine, and specifically their participation in the decision making processes as they relate to the reconstruction of Ukraine and country’s path towards the EU integration.
• Proactively identify and take ownership of key advocacy moments and produce products in close coordination with the relevant teams.
• Gather and process information related to the needs and processes of reconstruction (and related political processes) in Ukraine and produce high quality briefings and context updates as and when needed.

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.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our 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.
• Creates an environment to lead, enable and maintain our culture of child safeguarding.

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.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a country wide/global scale.

Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.
• Builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, members and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence.
• Displays consistent excellent judgement.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE AND ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Degree in social sciences, journalism, law, human rights, or proven experience working in a relevant role
• Proven experience of engagement in advocacy on child rights, human rights, IHL, humanitarian or development issues;
• Strong written communication skills;
• Good attention to detail
• Excellent IT skills, especially in Microsoft Word
• 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 skills with the ability to organise a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities
• Strong communication English and Ukrainian (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills, with experience in working in multicultural teams.

Desirable

• Skills in research and advocacy work ;
• Experience of influencing and advocacy work on children’s issues;
• Experience of working in humanitarian contexts and knowledge of key trends in the humanitarian sector;

Attributes

• Understanding humanitarian contexts and application of humanitarian principles
• Achieving results effectively
• Ensures beneficiary and partner feedback is incorporated into research project design, implementation and learning
• Demonstrates flexibility to adapt plans and make decisions in rapidly changing environments
• Actively manages risk and takes action to reduce risk
• Makes changes to improve performance as a result of information received
• Documents lessons learned and applies them to future projects
• Maintaining and developing collaborative relationships
• Develops strategies for teams to work across traditional boundaries, working in diverse environments
• Establishes clear objectives with teams and individuals and monitors progress and performance
• Fosters collaborative, transparent and accountable relationships through partners
• Uses negotiation and conflict resolution skills to support positive outcomes
• Operates safely and securely
• Undertakes effective risk assessments and develops contingency plans
• Takes appropriate, coordinated and consistent action to handle situations of personal risk and risk for others
• Managing yourself in a pressured and changing environment:
• Helps team members to practise stress management through prioritisation of workloads and modelling of appropriate self-care
• Remains focused on the objectives and goals in a rapidly changing environment
• Remains effective and retains perspective in the face of difficult or demanding situations
• Leadership: Action; Thinking; Self; Inspiring; Developing Others:
• Builds own awareness of the bigger global picture by using a broad range of sources to gather data
• Seeks solutions to challenging situations and states willingness to champion ideas
• Demonstrates approachability and trust by listening carefully to others and valuing their contribution, and making others feel comfortable by being open and honest about their thoughts and feelings
• Demonstrates self-development and management by taking responsibility for own development, and actively seeking out feedback to better understand their own strengths and weaknesses
• Openly talks about doing things differently, pushing the boundaries and ways of working
• Works to ensure that the workplace is inclusive and the talents of individuals are harnessed to achieve business success.

WE OFFER:

• Employment in accordance with Ukrainian legislation
• Working hours from 09.00 till 17.00
• Medical and Life insurance starting the first working day
• English courses paid by organization
• Office in the central part of the city
• Coffee and cookies in the office

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety:

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

If you are interested in the vacancy, we are looking forward for your application. A СV in English will be an advantage. Also, we will be grateful if you indicate the expected salary level and the level of English language proficiency.