ROLE PURPOSE

The Humanitarian Advocacy Manager leads the development and implementation of Save the Children’s humanitarian advocacy strategy in Sudan, working to influence key decision-makers, duty-bearers, and stakeholders to advance and protect the rights of children in humanitarian contexts. The role supports country program priorities in humanitarian protection, access, child rights, and emergency response, ensuring effective coordination with partners and clusters. This position works closely with the ACCM Director and program teams to integrate advocacy objectives into humanitarian programming, representing Save the Children externally in relevant forums and coalitions

The role holder will carry out these responsibilities in line with Save the Children’s vision, country strategic plan, and principles of Child Rights Programming. Additionally, the role holder will work closely with global advocacy teams to ensure internal and external advocacy messaging remain consistent.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

General

• Serve as part of the ESMT for Sudan Country Office, demonstrating behaviors aligned with Save the Children’s Mission, Vision, and Values, and promoting these across the program.
• Foster a collaborative and productive work environment built on teamwork.
• Act as delegate for the ACCM Director when required.
• Represent the organization as spokesperson and facilitate media interviews with the Country Director or designated representatives.

Humanitarian Advocacy Strategy

• Lead the development and implementation of the humanitarian advocacy strategy aligned with the country strategic plan and Save the Children’s global priorities.
• Identify critical humanitarian issues impacting children in Sudan, based on assessments, evidence, and programmatic experience.
• Map key actors, power dynamics, and advocacy opportunities within humanitarian policy and response systems at national and regional levels.
• Collaborate with program and technical teams to ensure advocacy objectives complement and enhance humanitarian response programming.
• Monitor, evaluate, and adapt advocacy engagements/ activities based on results and emerging opportunities.
• Collaborate with peer advocacy colleagues to ensure collective advocacy messaging across platforms.
• Work closely with technical advisors, PDQ and MEAL, and programme colleagues to maintain consistent messaging aligned with program priorities.
• Mainstream cross-cutting themes such as protection, child participation, gender, and disability in all media and advocacy outputs.
• Respond promptly to advocacy products and requests from members and INGO forum and coordinate accordingly.

Policy Analysis and Advocacy

• Conduct analysis of humanitarian access, protection issues, policy changes, and humanitarian operational space affecting children.
• Provide strategic leadership on integrating engagement with armed actors and humanitarian negotiations into organizational policies and programming frameworks, ensuring coherence and alignment across advocacy, humanitarian, and development initiatives.Develop advocacy products including policy briefs, position papers, and messaging used for influencing stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Inform and influence humanitarian coordination bodies, clusters, government agencies, UN actors, and donors to prioritize child rights and humanitarian needs.

External Representation and Partnership

• Represent Save the Children in humanitarian advocacy forums such as Humanitarian Country Team, clusters, and other relevant coalitions.
• Foster collaboration with local and international partners, INGOs, UN agencies, and civil society for joint advocacy initiatives.
• Support capacity strengthening of national partners on humanitarian advocacy and child rights engagement.

Child Participation and Accountability

• Ensure meaningful participation of children and youth in humanitarian advocacy initiatives, promoting their voices in relevant platforms (national, regional and global).
• Support accountability mechanisms and feedback systems related to humanitarian advocacy interventions.

Emergency Preparedness and Response

• Support rapid advocacy response during humanitarian emergencies, adapting advocacy approaches as necessary.
• Collaborate with surge teams and contribute to emergency preparedness advocacy plans.
• Support strategies for principled engagement with armed actors to ensure safe access for aid delivery.
• Ensure advocacy efforts align with humanitarian programming and organizational priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree or equivalent in international development, humanitarian affairs, social sciences, or related fields.
• Minimum 8 years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian advocacy, preferably within complex emergencies or fragile contexts.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing humanitarian advocacy strategies and influencing policy change.
• Excellent communication skills in English; Arabic proficiency highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of child rights, international humanitarian law, and protection principles.
• Familiarity with child protection and safeguarding issues, including experience with vulnerable populations.
• Experience engaging with government, UN bodies, donors, and other humanitarian actors.
• Capacity to work under pressure, adapt to changing priorities, and support emergency response efforts.
• Operate on tight deadlines and use independent judgement within agreed parameters 

Competence

• Strategic thinking and analytical skills in humanitarian contexts
• Strong inter-organisational skill such as networking, negotiation and communication
• An initiative-taking, proactive, inspiring attitude with the ability to manage and prioritise an unpredictable workload and solve problems quickly with limited support
• Excellent communication, writing and reporting skills 
• Excellent planning and organization skills with attention to detail

Other Requirements:

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (Our values in practice)

Achieving results effectively: ACCOUNTABILITY

• Promotes accountability and resource efficiency by ensuring transparent use of resources, coordinating with stakeholders to avoid duplication, and documenting lessons learned for future improvement.
• Demonstrates strong leadership and decision-making through staff engagement, addressing challenges calmly, and considering both short- and long-term impacts of decisions.

Maintaining and developing collaborative relationships: COLLABORATION

• Fosters inclusive communication and collaboration by actively listening to diverse perspectives, maintaining open dialogue with affected communities and stakeholders, and participating in networks to share and adopt best practices.
• Builds trust and drives performance through approachability, honesty, and clear objective-setting, while monitoring progress and valuing contributions from individuals and teams.

Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions: CREATIVITY

Encourages innovation and growth through developing creative solutions, providing constructive feedback for capacity building, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Manages risk and promotes safety by identifying and minimizing threats for self, partners, and communities, taking disciplined risks responsibly, and leveraging UN/NGO security coordination mechanisms for organizational benefit.

Managing yourself in a pressured and changing environment: INTEGRITY

• Demonstrates integrity under pressure by maintaining ethical behavior, using position responsibly, planning and prioritizing effectively, and taking ownership of actions and their impact.
• Supports well-being and resilience through modeling self-care, helping teams manage stress, and fostering a fair and professional work environment.

Leadership: Action; Thinking; Self; Inspiring; Developing Others: AMBITION

• Demonstrates global awareness and influence by gathering insights from diverse sources, understanding others’ interests, and aligning solutions to meet stakeholder needs.
• Shows courage and commitment to growth through addressing difficult situations confidently, championing ideas, and actively seeking feedback for continuous self-development.