REGIONAL ADVOCACY ADVISOR – ASIA At CARE

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in more than 90 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis. These solutions have a broad range, from clean water to access to education; from microfinance to ensuring that everyone has nutritious food; from agriculture and climate change to disaster response. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because they have proven to be the best hope for creating lasting change in the world. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for over 70 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and fight with CARE.

The Regional Advocacy Advisor (RAA) — Asia plays a key role in developing, updating and driving the roll-out of CARE’s regional advocacy strategy in Asia to scale the impact of its work in the region and beyond. The position is designed to lead evidence-based-advocacy work of CARE jointly with other relevant internal and external stakeholders, advance selected policy development, policy change, and/or policy implementation / policy enforcement aimed at alleviating poverty, promoting social justice, and reducing human suffering. In addition to providing advocacy related leadership at the regional level, this position also provides related guidance and technical support to CARE country level advocacy teams and management of CARE in Asia to help advance country-specific, selected advocacy agenda.

Responsibilities:

Regional Advocacy Strategy Priorities

• Co-lead, jointly with CARE USA’s Global Advocacy Team, and in collaboration with CARE International, CARE Asia Regional Management Unit (ARMU), and CARE Asian Country Offices a Regional Advocacy Strategy development process, in alignment with CARE’s overall Advocacy agenda / priorities.
• Review the global advocacy priorities of local movements and actors, CARE USA and CARE International, learn the advocacy priorities of the organization in both development and humanitarian settings, and coordinate with key internal and external stakeholders to jointly lead a Regional Advocacy Strategy for Asia.
• Review the regional advocacy issues, movements, and campaigns: analyze and identify a few key advocacy issues that may advance CARE’s Vision and Strategies in the region most and best.
• Develop and lead an implementation plan of the Asia Regional Advocacy Strategy priorities, with clear accountability for helping the organization achieving Impact at scale in Asia Region and beyond.
• Ensure alignment of advocacy agenda of each of the CARE Country Offices in the Region with that of the Region.
• Provide technical support to country offices to ensure results of advocacy initiatives are captured, and strengthen program learning and documentation on advocacy initiatives.
• Monitor progress in implementation of the Strategy, and report to steering team, consisting of IPO, ARMU, and Global
• Advocacy team once in a six-month period.
• Ensure a bridge between the advocacy work of CARE in Asia in humanitarian situation, and in development programming setting.
• Identify evidence and potential opportunities for resource mobilization to implement advocacy strategies and support proposals and concept notes in collaboration with country offices, regional office, global team and partners.
• Ensure new and collaborative partnerships with women’s rights activists and CSO’s to offer strategic responses to addressing
• Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action (GEEWGiHA) and CARE’s work on WEJ
• Represent CARE and play a leadership role at key regional and global advocacy platforms, networks, forums and conventionsfor advancing CARE’s Vision in the Region and beyond.
• Prepare written and commission other high-impact communication materials for internal and external advocacy and influencing

Humanitarian Advocacy

• Provide strategic advocacy support to CARE Afghanistan in developing advocacy and capacity-building strategies to support women’s participation and leadership in humanitarian coordination and planning processes. Specifically:
• Support CARE Afghanistan and WCLRF to organize 1-2 strategic advocacy events in Afghanistan (&/or regional level), to launch the study and support dissemination of findings from the policy and coordination study
• Work with CARE Afghanistan and WCLRF and Senior Advocacy and Policy Advisor, GEEWGiHA and Humanitarian in CARE International UK to define joint advocacy, partnership or learning activities based on the findings of the policy and coordination study.
  • * GBV Accountability Framework: This 18-month project aims to institutionalize the GBV Accountability Framework (developed by the Real-Time Accountability Partnership – RTAP) within the global humanitarian system by influencing regional humanitarian leadership to operationalize implementation of the framework by responsible agencies at field level. A critical element to achieve this outcome will be influencing key actors in IASC regional structures in Asia through high level and technical working sessions to be held at IASC Regional Meetings in 2020. In coordination with the Senior Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Adviser and GiE Advocacy Adviser, the position will leverage CARE capacity in the region to support activities such as:
• Advocating for the roll-out of the GBV Accountability Framework internally by CARE offices and partners in the region;
• Co-ordinate CARE’s engagement in strategic Humanitarian/ GEEWGiHA multi-country advocacy initiatives in partnership with global, regional and national CARE teams
• Develop linkages between country-level research and advocacy and GEEWGi advocacy activities at regional and global level.
  • Ensure links between humanitarian advocacy and other regional priority advocacy work to provide a consistent and coherent voice and policy representation to agreed priority external audiences.
  • Provide strategic advocacy support to CARE’s work in humanitarian crises, including conflict, slow-onset emergencies and rapid-onset disasters, in areas of protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, and bridging the financing gap in line with CARE vision and strategy.
  • Lead and co-create regional advocacy strategies linked to the Humanitarian/ Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action (GEEWGiHA) and WEJ work

WEJ/Made by Women

• Support country-level efforts to expand current advocacy efforts, to promoting better policies to protect women workers in the informal sector, funding and policies for rural-urban and cross-border migrants facing lack of livelihood opportunities, broaden ILO advocacy work to also look at other related gender equality conventions.
• Women & Value Chains: support country-level efforts and maximize regional and global opportunities to raise awareness and understanding of WEJ in the private sector at the national level (such as amongst agro-dealers, farm shops, small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives).
• Financial Inclusion: support country-level efforts and maximize regional and global opportunities to promote financial inclusion, and enable tangible progressive steps to financial inclusion for women such as the removal of regulatory barriers to savings groups and formal banking institutions
• Develop and implement an annual plan of technical support for country program advocacy initiatives in line with regional and global efforts, including ratification of the ILO Convention on Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (ILO190), and other relevant advocacy issues to advance strategy
• In collaboration with the regional team and country program teams, proactively identify priority advocacy issues and policy windows, analyze options for engagement and develop associated action plans to advance impacts through the Made by Women program
• Compile monthly summary updates of international, regional and national policy and dialogue relevant to the program, to inform advocacy planning and to promote CARE’s role in influencing agendas

Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree preferably with Masters or equivalent
• 10 years work experience in national, and international level senior advocacy leadership positions with NGO / INGOs, UN organizations or relevant advocacy organizations.
• Experience of working with evidence-based policy advocacy coalitions, networks.
• Strong relationship management experience with government bodies, UN organizations, private sector organizations, and social change entities.
• Experiences of working in an emergency setting and having strong knowledge of the UN led humanitarian coordination system.
• Demonstrated experience in providing advocacy technical support, training and capacity building to country program teams
• Experience in designing advocacy initiatives with a focus on gender equality, WEJ, and humanitarian/Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action (GEEWGiHA) issues.
• High level analytical skills
• Excellent written and spoken English and experience in generating policy and research briefs
• Excellent representation and communication skills.
• Ability to establish collaborative relationships with staff, partners and other stakeholders, and to develop and maintain networks with remote based teams and to work with matrix management environments
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international multiethnic and multicultural environment
• Sound personal organizational skills, including time management, ability to meet deadlines, multi-tasking, prioritization of tasks, and working under pressure
• Experience working in a regional capacity, preferably Asia
• Experience of successful advocacy engagement with market-based actors