Global Change and Communications Lead at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

Save the Children is the world’s first, and largest, independent children’s rights organisation. Our founder, Eglantyne Jebb, wrote the first draft for the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1923, and we’ve worked to uphold it ever since. Generations later, her pioneering work is being influenced by children themselves. Today, we are still going strong, working in over 100 countries worldwide to build a world where every child can thrive, grow up healthy, educated and safe, and look forward to a future full of promise.

Our ambition for 2030 is to create a world in which all children:

• Survive: No child dies from preventable causes before their fifth birthday
• Learn: All children learn from a quality basic education
• Are Protected: Violence against children is no longer tolerated.

To deliver on these 2030 breakthroughs for children, Save the Children operates in three-year strategy cycles, and has developed an ambitious strategy for 2022-24, focused on transforming and amplifying impact for and with children.

In the last 12 months, the climate crisis has worsened, the conflict in Ukraine has displaced millions of people and children, and the ripple effects and aftermath of the pandemic have resulted in a cost of living crisis and worsening global hunger crisis at an unprecedented scale. Globally, 426 million children live in conflict zones in constant fear, their childhoods stolen. We are witnessing the worst child rights crisis in decades. The needs are greater than ever before and so is the urgency for us to scale our impact.

To continue to deliver impact in this challenging context, Save the Children is committed to becoming a more locally led movement. We believe this will strengthen our ability to adapt and respond to these changes, and ensure we remain relevant and impactful. We are taking steps across our organisation to be more locally led, including becoming more effective partners to local actors, increasing the participation of children, and looking at changes to our own culture and mind-sets. We will accelerate this shift in coming years.

Against this backdrop, Save the Children plans to undertake reforms necessary to ensure it is effectively positioned to deliver on our ambition for 2030, while remaining on a financially sustainable footing. These reforms include re-examining our delivery model, organisation structures, and allocation of resources, as well as ensuring that across the Save the Children Association we are cooperating to take advantage of scale and reduce total support costs where possible. Together these reforms will help make us a stronger, more locally led movement.

Working closely with the Chief Strategy Officer, Director of Strategic Initiatives and the Head of Internal Communications, the Global Change and Communications Lead is responsible for effective change management, facilitating stakeholder engagement and inspiring internal communications in support of the reform program.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to motivate, influence and negotiate both internally and externally
• Proven success in developing and implementing internal communications strategies especially around change
• Demonstrated success in delivering high-quality change communications, products or tools targeting a diverse range of audiences
• Demonstrates a high level of interpersonal and communication skills including influencing and negotiation
• Cultural sensitivity
• Experience in developing and managing communications content and tools and making best use of content
• Written communication skills in English, with a proven ability to distil large amounts of information for diverse audiences; skills in other languages would be an advantage
• Exceptional planning and organisational skills, with an ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple demands and competing priorities, while maintaining high quality standards
• Innovative thinker, enjoys developing and testing new ideas and ways of addressing issues or driving engagement
• Great ability to work as part of a team within a networked structure, and to maintain good working relationships with colleagues across functional and geographical boundaries
• Significant ability to work in a fast-paced environment and to adapt work plans flexibly depending on external opportunities
• Demonstrated commitment to Save the Children’s mission and values