Advocacy Officer, Save the Children, Malawi

Placement Organization: Save the Children
Placement Location: Lilongwe, Malawi
Eligible Citizenship: Malawian

About: Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children, working in over 120 countries and comprised of 30 members organizations. In 2013, Save the Children reached over 143 million children through their work, including over 52 million children directly.  Save the Children works to save children’s lives, fight for their rights, and help them fulfill their potential. They provide various services that function to better the lives of children through education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as offer emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Save the Children understands a breakthrough as a remarkable shift from the current trend and a sustainable change in the way the world treats children as experienced by the majority of affected children in the world. We have a clear Theory of Change on how to make this happen, which is to be the Innovator and develop evidence based breakthrough solutions to problems facing children; be the Voice for and with children by advocating for best practices and policies to fulfill children’s rights and to ensure that children’s voices are heard (particularly those children that are marginalized or live in poverty); Achieve Results at Scale by supporting effective implementation of best practices, programmes and policies for children, leveraging our knowledge to ensure sustainable impact at scale; and Building Partnerships by collaborating with children, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), communities, governments and private sector to share knowledge, influence others, and build capacity to ensure children’s rights are met.

Position Overview: The Advocacy Officer will work closely with Save the Children colleagues on the Advocacy Team and Health Department. S/he will work on a range of health and nutrition-related advocacy initiatives. These may include: Health budget tracking and analysis, and related advocacy for additional resources for MNCH in Malawi; Collaboration with external partners to raise the profile and understanding of nutrition as a public health priority; Implementation of a social and behaviour change communications (SBCC) strategy specific to newborn health; and Support on other advocacy and external communications initiatives. While the focus will be on health and nutrition, there will be opportunities to support Save the Children’s advocacy work in other, related thematic areas, including education and child protection.

Responsibilities:

• Assist Save the Children Malawi to more effectively use programme-based evidence in its advocacy work
• Make a significant contribution to the development and implementation of an effective health and nutrition advocacy strategy for Save the Children Malawi
• Collaborate on, and where appropriate lead, discrete health and nutrition-related advocacy initiatives
• Build effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders

Required Skills and Experience:

• Demonstrated experience working in a public health role within a national or international organization
• Demonstrated ability to work as an effective and collegiate team member
• Skills in designing and coordinating effective learning meetings and events
• Self motivated with a strong ability to identify and develop relevant areas of work

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• A tertiary (MSc or equivalent) qualification in Public Health or a related discipline
• Good understanding of Malawian media
• Understanding of key policies and stakeholders in the fields of public health and specifically MNCH in Malawi
• Knowledge of children’s health and rights issues
• Knowledge and/or demonstrated experience with health-specific SBCC initiatives

Living Conditions: Fellows will be provided with housing, health insurance and a living stipend of $650/month. Fellows will receive an award of $1500 upon successful completion of the fellowship year. Flights to and from the placement site and all other costs associated with GHC programming are included, including $600 in professional development funds.

*Note: the living stipend and completion award may be paid out in USD or local currency, as determined by the placement organization

To apply to this position click here: http://ghcorps.org/fellows/apply/application/