Advocacy Manager-Iraq At Norwegian Refugee Council

NRC In Iraq

Since the Government of Iraq declared that combat operations against the Islamic State Group (IS) had ended in 2017, Iraq has been recovering from the significant damage and destruction caused by the armed conflict. Of the more than six million Iraqis who fled their homes since 2014, 4.78 million Iraqis have returned to their area of origin and 1.28 million remain internally displaced. Many Iraqis have returned to areas that lack basic infrastructure, services and livelihood opportunities, or where explosive devices have not been cleared. Other challenges returnees and secondarily displaced people face include the lack of security, community acceptance, housing, property and civil documentation issues as well as critical educational and health service gaps. Throughout this, Iraq continues to host over a quarter of a million Syrian refugees.

The UN estimates that more than 4.1 million Iraqis will have needed assistance in 2020, 1.77 million of them in acute need. With military operations against IS group having ended, the Iraqi government faces new challenges to ensure an inclusive reconstruction and reconciliation that will sustain peace.

Since 2010, NRC Iraq has been assisting internally displaced Iraqis, Syrian refugees, returnees, and host communities in Ninewa, Dohuk, Erbil, Kirkuk, Basra, Salahdeen and Anbar Governorates. We focus on assisting the newly displaced, those experiencing protracted displacement in camps, people moving to new areas of Iraq and resettling, and people returning to and living in hard-to-reach places by improving their chance of obtaining a durable solution. NRC runs integrated programmes across Iraq to respond to people in need through our shelter and settlements, education, camp management, legal assistance, livelihoods, cash activities, and partnerships.

Despite the end of the armed conflict with ISIS in end 2017, large numbers of Iraqi’s impacted by the conflict are trying to rebuild their lives. Many still face danger or are stuck in a protracted displacement situation. A large proportion of the displaced have returned to their area of origin. NRC Iraq works with all the populations in need including IDPs in and out of camps, returnees and host communities. In addition, NRC supports Syrian refugees in Iraq as well as populations impacted by climate-change induced displacement.

Duties and responsibilities

Generic responsibilities:

Identify and coordinate NRC’s advocacy response to prioritised protection issues both within the country and internationally.
Develop and implement country-specific advocacy strategy, aligned to overall country strategy.
Line management , including development of staff if applicable.
Ensure advocacy coherence and reinforce effective synergies between programmes and advocacy by working closely with programme staff to integrate advocacy into programme planning and implementation.
Ensure systematic training on advocacy and communication and build capacity of technical staff.
Provide high quality protection analysis on key humanitarian and displacement trends and prepare evidenced-based policy briefing papers, policy position statements and other public-facing advocacy products when strategic and relevant.
Liaise with other NRC Country, Regional and Global Representation Offices to coordinate the strategic delivery of advocacy messaging and to maximise impact.
Advise on media lines and media strategy, ensuring potential risks associated with NRC’s positions are assessed and sign-off procedures are adhered to.
Represent NRC to key stakeholders, strengthen strategic advocacy networks and identify opportunities to advocate NRC’s position.

Specific responsibilities:

Lead the development and implementation of the NRC Iraq advocacy & communications strategy and support the development and implementation of area level advocacy & communications strategies.
Ensure NRC’s global, regional and Iraq advocacy strategies and associated initiatives are effectively implemented.
Develop and manage the implementation of a media and communications plan for NRC Iraq in support of the advocacy strategy.
Establish strategic networks and alliances for advocacy activities with humanitarian partners, UN officials, international donors and political actors in close cooperation with the Country Director and programme staff.
Play a lead role in access-related advocacy including the production of regular access briefs to donors and partners.
Working with NRC programme staff, contribute to the development of user-friendly information management and data collection methods for use in media and advocacy products.
Produce regular reactive and pro-active advocacy and media products such as briefing notes, fact sheets, talking points, research papers and articles and, where appropriate, support field staff in the production of advocacy products, in line with country and regional priorities.
On a daily basis be a focal point and source of information on advocacy issues internally (for Amman, Oslo, Geneva and other NRC offices) and externally (for relevant stakeholders).
Lead in the planning and implementation of advocacy initiatives tied to specific projects (education, refugee issues, etc).
Represent NRC in relevant fora and act as a spokesperson as agreed with the CD, including with the media.
Participate and represent NRC in coalition and coordination fora, including the NGO Coordination Committee for Iraq’s (NCCI) Advocacy Working Group; contribute to joint advocacy products.
Contribute to the strategic decision making of the country programme as a member of the country management group.
Manage and report on donor commitments tied to advocacy, media and communications; support programme staff to develop advocacy specific objectives and logframes for new funding.
Contribute to the development of NRC analysis and policy on prioritised protection issues, linking them to prioritised advocacy issues.
Support and train programme staff to understand humanitarian principles and to mainstream advocacy and do no harm into their programmes and activities and to identify issues for action.
Ensure that advocacy is mainstreamed into the 2022 -2025 country strategy and programmes.
Play an active and strategic role in the humanitarian community to strengthen the advocacy response in accordance with the country strategy.
Support the work, where relevant, of crisis management teams.
Manage an advocacy, media and communications team based across Erbil and Baghdad.

Critical interfaces:

By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are:

Country Management Team, including Country Director, Deputy Country Director and Head of Programmes
Core Competency Specialists
Middle East Regional Advocacy Adviser and Regional Media Adviser
Advocacy fora in Iraq
NRC Representation offices (Geneva, Brussels, London and Washington D.C.) in coordination with the NRC Middle East regional office

Competencies

Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following two categories:

Required Professional Competencies:

Minimum 5 years of experience working as an Advocacy Manager in a humanitarian/recovery context
Fundamental principles of humanitarian action
Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts
Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
Fluency in English, both written and verbal Context/ specific skills, knowledge and experience
Knowledge of the context in the Region/Iraq
Knowledge of Arabic an advantage
Experience with humanitarian protection programmes and humanitarian policy and advocacy.

Required Behavioural Competencies:

These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies and the following are essential for this position: