Advocacy Adviser, Health at Save the Chlidren UK

Location: London, United Kingdom
Last date: 29 Sep 2011

Job Title: Advocacy Adviser, Health
Place of Work: Farringdon
Grade: 3
Department: Advocacy
Reports to: Senior Advocacy Adviser, Health
Line management: No

Context of the work
Save the Children is the world’s leading independent child rights organisation. Through our No Child Born to Die campaign we seek to make immediate and lasting change for children through our advocacy and campaign work in the UK, in countries and at the global level. The Advocacy Department leads the development and implementation of our advocacy strategy to achieve policy and political change at the highest level; leads and manages Save the Children’s advocacy engagement with the UK government, international institutions and the private sector; provides political and policy intelligence to the wider organisation; and forges advocacy alliances with key opinion makers in the UK and globally.

Job Purpose
The Advocacy Adviser, Health is responsible for contributing to the effectiveness of our global advocacy; identifying targets and processes to influence policy formation; and designing, managing and implementing advocacy strategies focused around child survival (the organisation’s largest single strategic priority over the next decade), resulting in demonstrable policy shifts and positive change for children.

Key accountabilities
1. Develop and support our health advocacy, in collaboration with colleagues across departments, Save the Children members and in-country programmes
2. Ensure senior colleagues are up-to-speed on the latest policy developments and debates and identify influencing opportunities
3. Identify key influencing opportunities and ensure senior colleagues are kept informed of latest policy developments and events
4. To contribute to the development of policy positions based on international context, Save the Children experience, and international evidence in collaboration with colleagues in the Policy and Research team, the Health and HIV team and beyond
5. To build strong relationships with our country programmes to ensure that national level advocacy work is delivered to international debates and decision-makers
6. Prepare speaking points and speeches for the CEO, the Director of Advocacy and others, as required
7. Write advocacy briefings, externally published articles and blogs, as well as assist in the drafting of press releases, Q&As and opinion pieces
8. Provide strategic advocacy support to countries and ensure there is a coherent process established in-country to pursue high-level advocacy, which is reinforced by popular engagement (based on a comprehensive evaluation of the policy and advocacy environment)
9. Actively support the development of country programmes’ newborn and child survival plans to ensure there is strong policy analysis, acknowledgement of political context and identification of opportunities for policy change
10. Support the Advocacy team on various projects, including the monitoring and evaluation of advocacy-related objectives, mapping of key opportunities and events, organisation of Save the Children ‘moments’ and events as well as the identification of key potential partners, coalitions and networks
11. Undertake tasks or research as designated by the Senior Advocacy Adviser or the Director of Advocacy
12. External representation as required.

Person Specification:
•Substantial experience of health-focused advocacy or advocacy work in a related field, as well as contributing to the development and implementation of advocacy strategies
•Superior written communication skills, including the ability to translate complex arguments into accessible English for a non-specialist audience, and the ability to write articles that would be published in the mainstream press
•Experience of policy research, having written and published policy reports and briefings and evaluating evidence of their impact
•Excellent verbal communication skills, appropriate for high-level external representation (for example lobbying Ministers, presenting to Select Committee)
•Experience of developing advocacy strategies, knowledge and understanding of a range of advocacy techniques
•Experience of effective team work and outstanding inter-personal communication skills
•Experience of coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change
•Excellent understanding of the Millennium Development Goals, specific understanding of newborn and child survival and key global health institutions
•Fluency in spoken and written English
•Commitment to SC UK’s mission, values and approach.
Desirable
•An academic qualification directly related to health.
•Good knowledge of the health field, including the work of academic/research contacts, NGOs, UN agencies
•Other spoken languages an advantage.

For the full job description and to apply please refer to the Save the Children website, www.savethechildren.org.uk, job reference 6690.