World Vision International is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision - Iraq Office is looking for a highly qualified and motivated person for the position of Advocacy and Policy Director – Erbil.
PURPOSE OF POSITION:
While living in radically different contexts, children in Iraq and Afghanistan face complex and mutually
compounding challenges related to food insecurity and precarious family livelihoods, lack of access to
essential services, exposure to protection risks and other threats to well-being. Both contexts bear the
marks of recent conflicts that have caused immeasurable visible and invisible harm, and both are
increasingly impacted by climate change. Moreover, in both contexts, resources that would enable
children to begin to secure their rights and meet their most fundamental needs are woefully inadequate.
Both countries are at a crossroads, where proper resourcing for appropriate interventions could create
a virtuous cycle of relief and resilience, while ongoing failure to support relief and resilience will increase
the number of children requiring that dwindling emergency support and further entrenching structural
problems.
At this critical juncture, the successful candidate will hold key positions in World Vision Afghanistan and
Iraq, acting internally as a thought leader who shapes messaging that advocates for evidence-grounded
policies that help secure children’s rights and protection and strengthen responses across the
Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus. Internally they will harmonise the representation of WV
Afghanistan and WV Iraq through colleagues’ in-country engagements with decision-makers. They will
be responsible for ensuring that a shared approach to advocacy across each office is at once responsive
to audiences and authentically expressive of the respective identities of these national offices.
Reporting to the National Directors, the Advocacy and Policy Director will shape an advocacy strategy
for each office, help to create a sense of shared ownership over this strategy across the two national
office teams, and oversee the implementation of this strategy, through a combination of in-country
and/or remote work.
In this role, the successful candidate will identify opportunities and seek to influence policy and practice
of humanitarian actors, key duty bearers, power holders and relevant international institutions, working
collaboratively with World Vision Afghanistan and Iraq team members through whom much of this
advocacy will be delivered.
The successful candidate will be deeply committed to principled humanitarian action and adherence to
key humanitarian law and policy, especially as it pertains to access to affected populations, children’s
rights and protections, addressing humanitarian needs, and promoting access to basic services,
economic recovery, resilience and development. Moreover, they will be passionate about the cultural
resources that Iraqis and Afghans, not least children most affected by recent and ongoing crises, bring to
the table, seeking every opportunity to give their experiences a voice.
Moreover, the successful candidate will be capable of engaging with, commissioning and contributing to
the design of research that informs policy as it impinges upon World Vision Afghanistan and World
Vision Iraq’s operational environments.
Time in the country will enable the development of a firm understanding of each office’s programming
portfolio and team capacity, while creating the opportunity to support colleagues by harmonizing and
maximizing the impact of external messaging at all levels.
This role consists of building internal policy and advocacy capacity across World Vision Afghanistan and
World Vision Iraq’s programs and operations teams, as well as the following core areas of work:
Leading the design, internal adoption and implementation of World Vision Afghanistan and
World Vision Iraq’s advocacy strategies
Developing a policy and advocacy identity for both offices
Expressing these through the development of appropriate proactive and reactive messages
Overseeing the development of tools and products that foreground children’s experiences,
needs and voices.
Identifying gaps in World Vision’s available evidence base that inhibit policy engagement, and
conducting, commissioning or engaging with new research to inform policy positions, in dialogue
with MEAL teams
Identifying opportunities for influencing stakeholders, including by liaising with relevant
humanitarian coordination mechanisms, networks and platforms in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in
regional contexts
Engaging, or appropriately delegating engagement, with key in-country and global stakeholders
to advance collective and bilateral advocacy agendas
Providing support, advice, and technical assistance to WVA’s senior leadership and other WV
entities to advance the fulfilment of children’s rights and needs in Afghanistan and Iraq,
especially for the sake of securing positive engagement from governments and multilateral
institutions via WV Global Capitals and Support Offices
Harmonizing advocacy messaging to influence duty-bearers' policy and practice across sub-
national, national, regional and international levels, ensuring the consistent expression of
distinctive World Vision Afghanistan and World Vision Iraq’s identities, grounded in our
programming experience and relationships with affected communities, for the sake of the
children we seek to support
Line managing heads of Communications in both teams
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
Thought leadership
Support both office’s external engagement with context-specific, timely and relevant messaging,
talking points, policy positions or pertinent statements and evidence.
Represent, and delegate where necessary, WV Afghanistan and Iraq engagement with strategic
advocacy networks and alliances in-country
Represent, or support Partnership colleagues representing, WV by developing strategic and
sustained relationships with platforms, networks, and other NGO groups working on influencing
International actors such as interagency groups and UN agencies, funds, and programmes
Work with each office’s SLT and the WV Partnership to prioritise and capitalise on new and ad hoc advocacy opportunities in-country and externally
Represent WV Afghanistan and Iraq on all internal advocacy fora and meetings to ensure regular
positioning of advocacy work.
Capacity building and reporting
Develop and deliver Staff Training on advocacy that increases their capacity to contribute to
their office advocacy strategy, and understand the relationship of the advocacy strategy to their
programming- or external engagements
Lead the Advocacy Strategic Measures (annual reporting on the efficacy and effectiveness of
advocacy and policy) reporting process to the RO
Engage collaboratively with field staff and partners to strengthen local advocacy capacity
Collaborate with resource development and program teams to ensure the integration of advocacy
Activities in program design and proposal development
Where appropriate, integrate policy and advocacy to grant proposals, in alignment with the strategy
and donor requirements.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
1. Demonstrated ability to build evidence, develop advocacy products/research/policy
positions to influence humanitarian or development policy or practice, ideally with a focus on
WV Afghanistan and Iraq priority areas of intervention (child rights and protection, health,
WASH, food security and livelihood recovery, climate change, education)
2. Firm understanding of IHL, IHRL, IRL and child rights, humanitarian principles, humanitarian
architecture, humanitarian response and development in fragile contexts including the UN
system, with a passion to learn and develop this knowledge further
3. Master's degree in law, Advocacy, humanitarian policy, Child Rights, Child Protection,
Humanitarian Aid, International Development, Social Sciences or related field
4. Keen sympathetic attentiveness to context and cultural specificity
5. Proven research, policy analysis and writing skills.
6. Experience as a spokesperson in public and private briefing formats.
7. Experience leading or heavily contributing to strategic planning and delivery (e.g., Advocacy
strategy, country office strategy and plan, cluster strategy or work plan process).
8. Proven ability to self-manage collaborate and network superbly well with colleagues
and partners
9. Demonstrated ability to think strategically, proactively manage a plan and meet deadlines
10. Fluency in English is required, Arabic, Dari, Pashto or Kurdish are advantageous
11. At least five years of progressive work experience in advocacy and international
exposure/external engagement in humanitarian emergencies or fragile country contexts
12. Experienced in external engagement/lobbying with various levels of stakeholders
13. Experienced in the area and discipline of child rights or a relevant thematic area.
14. An energetic team player, capable of successfully managing their broad portfolio of
work, while demonstrating a keen eye for an opportunity to position successfully for
influence
15. Dynamic, self-motivated, able to think creatively and proactively to seize initiatives to
pursue shared, agreed objective
16. Demonstrated ability to work and deliver independently if needed
17. Comfortable in research, listening posture as much as a representing, spokesperson
posture
18. Understanding of and ability to integrate gender, age, and diversity considerations in
strategic decisions and daily work
19. A keen follower of all issues and updates related to the context and ability to adapt and react
accordingly
20. Ability to work in difficult, insecure and sometimes stressful environments
21. Prior experience with World Vision i.e., its programs, operations, structures, policies, etc. is
desirable.
Work Environment Requirement
The position is offered on a Work from Home basis, with a preference for a location near a World
Vision Support Office, in Geneva or New York.
Additionally, it requires ten weeks in total in-country per annum, including at least two weeks
per six months in each national office, permissions allowing
The position requires the ability and willingness to travel domestically to the field locations across
World Vision Afghanistan and Iraq’s programmes within that ten weeks
The position requires engagement with support offices and global capitals, with occasional
international travel.
Note: International & Local applicants are acceptable
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted
Mode of Application:
If you are interested in this position, to apply, please register at:
https://worldvision.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WorldVisionInternational/details/Advocacy-and-Policy-Director_R24436-1
No information inquiries will be handled over the phone. Only short-listed candidates will be
notified of the interview. The deadline for application is 1 October 2023.
As a Child-focused organization, World Vision is committed to the protection of children and does not
employ staff whose background is not suitable for working with children. All employment is
conditioned upon the successful completion of all applicable background checks
