Senior Director, External Engagement at Kenya Red Cross Society

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

The Senior Director, External Engagement provides overall leadership, coordination and alignment of global level external engagement, seeking to achieve influence, support income and ultimately to impact external targets in support of WV objectives for children as articulated in Our Promise. The Senior Director will develop and deliver annual plans that maximize the external engagement of Senior leaders, sector and thematic experts, policy advisors and children. The Senior Leader leads and facilitates the External Engagement (EE) Advisory Group for aligned and impactful external engagement across the Global Centre, including through analysis and prioritization of external stakeholders and partnerships, and through regular reporting, innovation and excellence. The Senior Director leads the alignment of EE in WV Global Capitals, leads a team of EE advisors (including in the Global Capitals) and ensures that WV voices are addressing the most important and impactful stakeholders, forums and processes in support of the rights and well being of children, especially the most vulnerable. The Senior Leader will support strong external engagement across all entities of the Partnership, including support to Regional Advocacy Directors in their EE planning. S/he will support Senior WV leaders, including the President, in their participation in major multilateral events and dialogue with external bodies.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop and deliver a global External Engagement agenda focused on the rights of children and the achievement of priority Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) External Engagement agenda provides the best opportunities for WV to advance its external objectives and positively impact the lives of most vulnerable children.

Examples include:

• Work with Global Capital leads to represent or position WV within the UN, diplomatic, and NGO communities.
• Coordinate and facilitate external relationships that enable WV to articulate its concerns to NGO, UN, Governmental, and other multilateral bodies.
• Strategic briefings to inform organizations of WV's work and policy positioning.
• Direct meetings with key individuals and active participation in meetings of multilateral bodies.
• Support, coordinate and facilitate representation at agreed global events on behalf of the wider A&EE.
• Translate in-depth policy work in A&EE priority thematic areas into messaging for use in external relationships.
• Maintain good relations and work effectively with other members of the GC, SOs and GFO teams to ensure that World Vision presents a professional and efficient point of contact to global institutions.
• Including maintaining awareness of the activities of other members of the team to enable mutual support during times of high pressure activity.
• Management of the EE team, including across Global Capitals in New York, Geneva and Brussels. Support regional capitals in other locations (Africa, Asia and LAC).
• Aligned, well functioning team supporting overall EE objectives of the A&EE team and Global Centre.
• Develop team culture in line with agreed A&EE behaviours and mindsets.
• Contribute to the overall leadership of the A&EE team.
• Set and monitor the team’s annual workplans and the individual workplans of the team.
• Manage budget.
  • Represent World Vision, and/or support representation of World Vision leaders at priority external forums, events, networks and other processes to promote agreed policy positions.
  • Strong and effective World Vision representation at priority global forums and processes, through:
  • Consistent use of strategic planning processes and tools. This includes working with Global Communications to develop communications plans for all priority engagements, and working with the President’s communications team when he is participating.
  • Support for participation in international meetings, and provision of direction re: networking with multilateral leaders. Briefing key World Vision leaders before key events and debriefing afterwards.
  • Act as the organisational representative, the representative of the President, or the representative of the Advocacy & External Engagement Partnership Leader at external forums.
  • Advise WV leadership on industry thinking and new developments.
• Provide overall leadership to EE Advisory Group.
  • Aligned, coherent and bold World Vision EE across the Global Centre, directed at the most important and prioritized external stakeholders, leading to influence, income and impact for children.
• Provide guidance for the development of strategic global partnerships.
• WV’s highest priority global partnerships are performing and delivering at their optimal level and, thereby, making substantive contributions to WV’s impact.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Masters degree in International Affairs, Public Policy, International Development, Human Rights, Law or other relevant field.
• Minimum 7 year leadership experience working in child rights focused External Engagement in CSO context and/or government or multilateral context.
• Expert level understanding of child rights policy debates and dialogues, including regarding the Sustainable Development Goals, ODA, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Significant field experience and/or understanding in international development or humanitarian contexts.
• English language fluency.

Preferred Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Excellent communications skills, verbally and written.
• Excellent trends and political analysis skills.
• Excellent team leadership and management skills.
• Strong understanding of World Vision Partnership and Our Promise.
• Strong understanding of global trends, debates and agendas related to development and humanitarian issues.

Work Environment/Travel:

• The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time.