Head of Advocacy, Media, Campaigns and Communication

March 2002 version

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Development/quality

LOCATION: Nairobi

GRADE: 1

POST TYPE: National

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Head of Advocacy, Media, Campaigns and Communication (AMCC) is responsible for identifying advocacy issues, preparing and implementing advocacy plans, documentation and communicating lessons and good practice from implementing programs to various users. The Manager will proactively identify, analyse with the Deputy Country Director for programme development quality policies and practices that affect or undermine the fulfilment and enjoyment of children’s rights within SCI country programme and take a leading role in developing and implementing strategies for changes. Based on thorough global, regional and country specific child rights trends and stakeholder analysis, she/he will establish strong and strategic partnership with like-minded organisations in advancing the rights of children and be a strong voice for children. She/He is also responsible for and managing Country Offices media related activities. In addition, She/he will be responsible for building the capacity of staff of SCI Somalia country in identifying and undertaking advocacy initiatives aimed at changing practices and policies for betterment of children’s lives at community and national levels.

The Head of AMCC position has both an internal and external orientation, but works closely with the Deputy Country Director for Programme Development Quality and Programme Operation teams internally in facilitating the planning and undertaking of advocacy, media and communication initiatives. Externally, the role will be expected to strategically position SCI as a leading provider of live changing interventions for children and their families.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Deputy Country Director Programme Development & Quality

Dimensions: Save the Children International works in 4 regions in Somalia/Somaliland with a current staff complement of approximately 400 staff and current expenditure of approximately 34$ million in 2013.

Staff directly reporting to this post: National Communications & Media Co-ordinator, Documentation & Communications Co-ordinator, Advocacy Co-ordinator

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Advocacy:

• Lead the development and roll-out of an advocacy strategy for SCI Somalia Country office that is strategically linked to SCI global advocacy agenda.
• Position SCI nationally as the leading advocate on children’s rights in Somalia
• Lead the development of creative, evidence based and child led policy and programme level advocacy initiatives that can have evidenced impact on the lives of children and their families.
• Undertake critical situational analysis of children (local, national and global) and identify major advocacy issue (s) that SCI needs to address with or without other stakeholders to ensure the fulfilment, respect and protection of children’s rights in Somalia.
• Conduct thorough stakeholder analysis, map out the works, interests and plans of other stakeholders in respect to identified area of advocacy and suggest possible ways of collaboration and/or addressing the issue by SCI.
• Lead the process of planning and implementing processes related to documenting lessons and good practices from programs of SCI.

· Represent SCI Somalia Country Office in various advocacy fora.

Communication:

• Develop a communication strategy, guidelines and plan for the country office
• Lead the development and implementation of effective and systematic ways of communicating lessons, good practices, evidence of changes and use them to influence thinking, policy and practice at community, partners, donors and general population levels etc.
• Facilitate the planning, organising and undertaking issue based or programme/sector specific campaigning events, meetings, conferences, workshops etc. together with relevant programme team.
• Lead the development and dissemination of relevant developing humanitarian and development situational reports
• Lead the dissemination of SCI brand to make it recognised, respected, accepted, and protected at all levels.

Media:

· Develop media strategy/guidelines to guide the engagement of SCI Somalia Country office with media

· Ensure that all media messages and engagements are approved by the Line Manager and Country Director

· Identify media issues, prepare media messages, assess appropriate media for communicating those messages and facilitate the process of disseminating/communicating those messages

· As appropriate establish proactive and beneficial relationship with media houses that can help in advancing children’s rights at policy and programme levels

· Familiarise self with the work of SCI in Somalia to effectively represent the organisation in media engagements where relevant

Capacity building:

• Identify advocacy capacity gaps of SCI Somalia Country Office and its partners
• Develop and implement advocacy capacity building plan in general with particular focus on identifying, planning and implementing advocacy initiatives and methods and skills of documenting and communicating lessons and good practices
• Build staff capacity in developing and implementing community level advocacy initiatives
• Build staff capacity at all levels to ensure they are able to be effective ambassadors for SCI work in Somalia
• Ensure that cross cutting themes like child participation, gender, disability are mainstreamed in all media, communication and advocacy work.

People Management, Mentoring and Development

· Directly line manage the national communication manager/coordinator

· Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process.

· Oversee that all direct staff proactively build and maintain technical skills and competencies required for leading and/or inputting for first class programs – both development and emergency nature

· Manage the performance of the Advocacy and Communication Team through:

o Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations;

o Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities;

o Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance;

· Documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/ work plans

· Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our dual mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.

COMPETENCIES

· Communicating with Impact (Accomplished)

• Conveys complex issues with clarity, brevity and confidence
• Promotes dialogue with key stakeholders through active listening and effective questioning
• Adapts communication style to maximise support and engagement
• Advises others on different approaches to influence key stakeholders
• Seeks out new methodologies for communication to engage new audiences

· Innovating & Adapting (Accomplished)

• Openly talks about doing things differently, pushing the boundaries and ways of working to drive improvements
• Demonstrates flexibility in following processes and procedures, while remaining true to the organisation’s values
• Anticipates change and adapts their (and team’s) plans and priorities accordingly
• Builds the confidence of others in their own ability to develop new ideas and embrace change
• Generates learning for the organisation and evidence for the impact and quality of our work

· Applying professional and technical expertise (Accomplished)

• Makes decisions based on professional expertise and experience without deferring unnecessarily to others
• Shares knowledge and best practice on technical solutions so that others can make best use of that expertise
• Actively seeks new ways to develop the application of technical and professional standards within the team

· Developing self and others (Accomplished)

• Gives regular positive and constructive feedback to others
• Identifies clear development needs and development plans through regular constructive reviews of their own performance (and their team’s where appropriate)
• Creates space for others to learn and provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments when people are ready for them
• Coaches others to learn from their experiences on the job and to use the resources available to them

· Networking (Accomplished)

• Builds trust with contacts through openness and honesty
• Participates effectively in sensitive, complex and/or high impact relationships and networks
• Builds strong relationships with a broad range of stakeholders
• Spots opportunities to bring together partnerships/working alliances that have not been used before

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

· Degree in social science, human rights, development, international relations, journalism/mass communication.

· Masters or post graduate degree in communications and media will be an added advantage

· At least 6 years of senior experience in undertaking major advocacy, media and communication initiatives in humanitarian and development contexts

· Proven experience in analysing the situation of children using the child rights programming/ principles framework

· Proven track record of policy influencing with partners, government and civil societies/key stakeholders?

· Demonstrated ability to think strategically, to analyze complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions

· Excellent influencing and negotiation skills, including an ability to deal with people at all levels with credibility, tact, and diplomacy

· Excellent written and verbal communications skills, and an ability to produce good quality documents, information for a variety of audiences and communicate good practices

· Experience in policy and practice analysis and implementing strategic advocacy initiatives aimed at bringing changes in these areas

· Strong inter-organisational skill such as networking, negotiation and communication.

· Willing and able to travel time to Somalia/Somaliland to support field teams as security permits

· Strong computer skills to produce advocacy documents and document and communicate good practices.

· High level of fluency in English, both verbal and written, required.

· Commitment to Save the Children International values.

HOW TO APPLY:

Interested candidates are required to submit a CV and mandatory cover letter quoting the Job Title and Vacancy Announcement No. SCI/SOM/15/17 on the subject line. The file name of the CV and attachments must be the applicants name and sent to Somalia.vacancies@savethechildren.org. For more information please visit

Applications close on 23rd February 2017

Those who had previously applied need not re-apply

Disclaimer:

Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents