POSITION SUMMARY

In recent years global humanitarian needs have grown exponentially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple protracted conflicts, the impacts of the climate crisis, natural disasters and the war in Ukraine.  The current hunger crisis has also led to a doubling in the number of large scale humanitarian crises (Type 4 classification). As a result, there has been a significant increase the number of meetings, consultations and engagements happening with the humanitarian community in Geneva and New York for CI to participate in to advance our advocacy goals, and ensure access to relevant and timely information for CI Members (CIMs), Country Offices (COs), CARE partners and the Secretariat. This role has a specific remit to support our global advocacy team to effecitvely respond to this growing need.

The Humanitarian Advocacy Coordinator will contribute to CARE International’s efforts to influence the humanitarian system and member states, in collaboration with CARE country offices, regions and local partners, by proving support across the two main UN Hubs – Geneva and New York.  The role will be based in the CI Global Advocacy Team and will contribute to the delivery of the advocacy priorities in our humanitarian impact area strategy through supporting effective engagement with key humanitarian actors in the UN system; such as UN agencies, Permanent Missions to the UN, large INGOs with humanitarian mandates and key global humanitarian NGO networks such as the International Council for Voluntary Action (ICVA), Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) and, to a lesser extent, InterAction.

The role will be line managed by either the Humanitarian Advocacy & Policy Coordinator and UN Representative (Geneva)  or the Head of New York Office and UN Representative (New York) – depending on where the role is based.  The role will also work closely with the CI Head of Global Advocacy (TBD) and be an integral part of the humanitarian advocacy team and CI-Advocacy Working Group.  There will be a particular emphasis on providing support to the CARE UN Representative in Geneva in light of their lead role on humanitarian advocacy for the CARE confederation.

In line with our Global Advocacy Roadmap and Humanitarian Impact Strategy, this role will contribute to  advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and centering their meaningful participation and leadership across all aspects of humanitarian action.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES – specifically but not limited to

Support and where appropriate conduct external representation and outreach in Geneva, New York and other relevant global humanitarian spaces

• Provide technical analysis and support (e.g. developing talking points, compiling data and updating information, follow-up reports) to colleagues engaging in influencing meetings in relation to the Grand Bargain (e.g. Friends of Gender Group, Localisation Workstream, Participation Workstream and Caucuses) and Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) meetings (e.g. Talking Points for IASC Emergency Directors Group, Principals, Operational Policy & Advocacy Group and support to our staff in Task Forces)
• Provide technical analysis and support (e.g. developing talking points, compiling data and updating information, follow-up reports), to colleagues engaged in influencing strategic events such as Member States briefings, UN agencies’ events, ICVA & SCHR events
• Provide technical analysis and support (e.g. developing talking points, compiling data and updating information, follow-up reports), to colleagues leading engagement in UN Security Council Working Groups, and other forms of network participation and influencing as required
• Carry out in-person representation for CARE International at appropriate humanitarian advocacy events and meetings
• Support CI advocacy (following trends, gathering evidence, updating positions, preparing talking points, preparation for events) on priority issues in alignment with the humanitarian advocacy strategy such as Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action (GEEWGiHA), forced displacement, protection of civilians, safeguarding humanitarian space, humanitarian financing, localization and the climate change-humanitarian nexus
• Where appropriate, support and/or lead on organization of global advocacy events in support of CARE’s humanitarian advocacy objectives

Strengthen the coordination of advocacy on priority crises within the CARE Confederation

• Work closely with the Geneva UN Representative and relevant members and country teams to develop advocacy positions and messages; support the preparation, convening and reporting back on regular CARE advocacy calls
• Where appropriate, support and/or lead on organization of crisis specific advocacy events
• Promote knowledge of and support adherence with crisis-specific approved positions and messaging and humanitarian advocacy sign off protocols, in alignment with confederation wide global advocacy and crisis specific sign off procedures

Strengthen CARE’s coordination of Women, Peace and Security related advocacy across the CARE confederation

• Work closely with the NY UN Representative to reconvene the CARE Women Peace and Security (WPS) Community of Practice (COP) supporting the coordination and effective delivery of meetings, workplans and actions points
• Support effective outreach to CARE colleagues working on WPS programming to ensure advocacy opportunities are identified and maximized
• Where appropriate, support and/or lead on organization of WPS related advocacy events

Supporting policy and information management

• Support the writing and/or updating of position papers on priority topics and crisis. This includes researching and documenting evidence, policy and contextual analysis, compiling feedback on multiple drafts, consulting colleagues in and outside CARE;
• Oversee effective humanitarian advocacy information management:
  • Reorganise and maintain the Humanitarian Advocacy page on CARE Shares;
  • Gather/compile and share important information for key colleagues (e.g. from CI-Advocacy group, from CI-Humanitarian WG, CEG etc).

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

• Global Advocacy Team: Head of Global Advocacy, Humanitarian Advocacy & Policy Coordinator and UN Representative (Geneva), Head of Office and UN Representative (New York), Global Advocacy & Humanitarian Advocacy Interns, other impact areas’ advocacy leads.
• Main CARE roles to collaborate with: Humanitarian Program and Humanitarian Advocacy staff of all CI members, regional and country offices, CI Senior Humanitarian Communications Coordinator.
• External partners: CARE’s women-led, women’s rights and feminist partners across our humanitarian and WPS portfolios and advocacy, peer INGOs, key humanitarian networks e.g. ICVA, SCHR, Feminist Humanitarian Network

QUALIFICATIONS (Key Selection criteria)

Essential technical competencies for the role:

• Strong knowledge of the global humanitarian coordination architecture from global to local level (IASC structure down to country level coordination), preferably with experience in a country level coordination structure
• Familiar with relevant policy and normative frameworks, especially International Humanitarian Law and Humanitarian Principles and Core Humanitarian Standards
• Proven ability to produce policy analysis, advocacy materials on sensitive issues and to develop processes to effectively share and manage advocacy information and knowledge
• Strong knowledge of NGO humanitarian work as well as the UN and multilateral institutions.
• Able to work under very tight deadlines
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills
• Excellent analysis capacity
• Fluency in written and spoken English. A high level of competency in one of CARE’s other working languages - Arabic, French or Spanish – strongly preferred.
• High level of proficiency with Microsoft Office and Google suites
• Strong attention to detail and organizational skills, able to prioritize workload and multi-task, and work effectively in a fast-paced environment

Other essential competencies for the role:

• Highly reliable and able to work effectively and independently, primarily on-line
• Must possess a collaborative work style to effectively work within diverse cross functional teams & across departments in an inclusive manner
• Diversity: A global citizen that seeks inspiration through working with diverse individuals and teams
• Inclusion: Committed to a just world where all people live in dignity and security and equality is a reality

Education or work experience:

• Relevant degree preferably at advanced level, or equivalent work experience in the humanitarian sector ideally in large scale humanitarian crises; or a related field
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience in delivering humanitarian advocacy or policy work at the multilateral level. Ideally the candidate will have some experience working on these issues in a country affected by a humanitarian crisis