Advocacy & Policy Officer

Job Title: Advocacy & Policy Officer

Country & Location: Occupied Palestinian Territory (Opt)

Position Based In: Ramallah (west bank) with frequent movements to Jerusalem, the rest of the west bank and the Gaza strip

Line Manager: Head of Mission

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief in order to help vulnerable communities recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads in average 190 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: protection, food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to 7 million people in 21 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.

Première Urgence Internationale has been operational in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2002.

Our overall objective is to provide assistance and protection to the most vulnerable Palestinians, exposed to the risks of forced displacement and violations of international humanitarian law. In doing so, PUI contributes to protecting their rights, improving access to basic humanitarian services and building resilience among the most vulnerable groups by applying an integrated multi-sectoral approach based on the needs, vulnerabilities and priorities of individuals, specific groups and communities.

PUI initially worked with communities in the northern part of the West Bank heavily affected by the construction of the separation barrier built by Israel in the early 2000’s and communities impacted by nearby settlements expansion. As such, PUI has been successfully providing emergency humanitarian aid to vulnerable communities through income generating activities (i.e. distribution of professional tools kits), food assistance (i.e. emergency jobs creation, distribution of livestock kits or support to small-scale farmers, food distribution) and Water and Sanitation projects (water network construction and chlorination awareness campaigns).

Following the Israeli military operation “Cast Lead” in 2009, PUI expanded its intervention to the Gaza Strip to support families affected by the repetitive conflicts and violations of IHL mainly in the Access restricted Area (ARA) of the Gaza strip.

In 2012, PUI formalized its protection approach in its humanitarian programs with a strategic focus on protecting livelihoods and securing economic access to food in communities where populations are directly exposed to violations of Human Rights (HRL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and at-risk of forced displacement.

PUI is leading on several issues including settler violence (WB) and the Access restricted Area (ARA) in the GS.

 Technical Sectors: Protection; MHPSS, Food Security and Livelihoods, Agriculture; Emergency Preparedness and Emergency response Shelter / NFI / WASH;, Cultural Heritage; Humanitarian advocacy

Description

This position is under the line management of the Head of Mission, but entails a substantial coordination with the West Bank & Gaza Strip Field Coordinators and other colleagues in the field, as well as HQ, in close collaboration with the relevant external stakeholders.  This position requires a substantial presence in the field both in West Bank, including East-Jerusalem and in Gaza, estimated in at least half of his/her time. The position holder will, in some instances, be the one delivering the advocacy messages directly to the targets, but in other instances s/he will hand over or share that responsibility with the HoM or other relevant PUI colleagues (i.e. HQ).

Tasks and Responsibilities

1. Update and operationalize an Advocacy strategy for PUI oPt Mission:

• Update the Advocacy Strategy of PUI oPt mission in line with the country programming as well as with broader advocacy efforts (HCT AWG, AIDA AWG, West Bank Protection Consortium among others);
• S/he develops and/or maintains links with community stakeholders, making sure they are consulted and they participate in the advocacy strategy and implementation.
• Implement the advocacy strategy and all the deliverables related to the latter, by guaranteeing a timely delivery according to the timeframe of specific projects and/or relevant working groups;
• Support advocacy initiatives and ensure that they are included in the proposal development;
• Ensure that PUI staff (especially field and MEAL staff) understand and are able to feed our advocacy work with evidences and relevant information from operations.

2. Policy analysis and notes:

• Conduct researches on root causes of humanitarian needs, in order to draft evidence-based and high quality analysis on key humanitarian issues identified to be used internally (for PUI at mission or HQ level), as well as advocate for them externally upon validation;
• Analyse political and normative frameworks affecting the humanitarian situation, brief and discuss the relevancy of the response and the positioning of PUI with HOM;
• Closely monitor relevant humanitarian and policy issues (i.e. media or statistical reports, databases and relevant literature) in order produce reports and suggest background notes or position papers to HoM;
• Draft policy notes (or/and other written deliverables) with concrete recommendations, based on evidences from the ground and sound secondary data, stemming from the IHL framework and in line with the humanitarian mandate of PUI, to be adapted to a wide range of audience (for government, donors and the diplomatic community among others).

3. Advocacy products:

• Develop advocacy products including publications (studies, fact sheets, infographics), audio-visual products, social media; and setting up a dissemination strategy for those advocacy products, ensuring the relevance and feasibility of targets;
• Guarantee the implementation, follow up and monitoring of all advocacy activities/deliverables, as defined in single projects or working groups;
• Monitor the political events / statements linked to oPt context and PUI programmes specifically, and flag them to the HOM.
• Contribute to lobby missions, jointly with the HoM, and relevant stakeholders. i.e. identifying suitable targets; arranging bilateral meetings and other types of events when relevant; preparing briefings with recommendations and asks; following up and keeping regular contacts, if relevant.

4. External representation:

• Represent PUI and proactively cooperate with existing advocacy coordination mechanisms (AIDA AWG, HCT AWG, the West Bank Protection Consortium, etc.) and other relevant partners;
• Represent PUI in advocacy fora and media, as well as networking with donors, UN and diplomatic community as necessary for the strategy and under overall supervision of the HOM;
• Provide other public advocacy products when strategic and relevant
• Jointly with the HoM, S/he will encourage and organize regular meetings and/or field visits with diplomats, donors and journalists located in Jerusalem / Ramallah / Tel Aviv. To do so, she/he will maintain regular contacts with journalists and suggest angles of coverage. S/he follows up on major protection incidents and reports internally with PUI coordinators and externally with other relevant organizations

5. Program Designing, Grant Proposal & Reports Writing

• S/he contributes to the efforts of linking advocacy and protection into PUI’s program in oPt.
• S/he timely contributes to the writing of grant proposals and donors’ reports
• S/he provides ad-hoc report and prepares briefing when needed
• An handover note will be provided at the end of the assignment

Main expected achievements

• Update the Advocacy Strategy for PUI
• Draft policy notes and deep analysis on topics related to oPt Mission’s operations
• Represent PUI in various fora
• Maintain a strategic overview of PUI’s advocacy priorities and identify opportunities for engagement at oPt, Paris and EU level

Coordination

• Line Management HoM
• Substantial coordination with WB & GS Field Coordinators, Project managersas well DHoM
• External coordination with existing advocacy working groups in OPT, as well advocates of Partners’ agencies; in agreement with HoM, media and other stakeholders (like diplomats, donors etc.).

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Educational background

• Master or post-graduate programme in political sciences, International Humanitarian Law and/or Human Rights
• Specific studies related to the EU institutions is appreciated

Professional Background

• International & Strategical
• Humanitarian / Human Rights
• Good knowledge of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law
• Excellent knowledge and experience of the EU institutions and functioning.
• Knowledge of the political and humanitarian context in the oPt and Israel
• Proven ability to analyze complex policy issues, identify opportunities for influence, and articulate strategies to achieve policy change.

Appreciated Professional Background

• Former experience in designing and implementing an advocacy strategy.
• At least five year advocacy experience in the oPt or related to the oPt
• Understanding of protection-related issues in the oPt
• Experience in policy development and formulating policy standpoints for an NGO
• Good knowledge of humanitarian agencies work and existing advocacy mechanism in OPT

Knowledge & Skills

• Excellent command in written and spoken English
• Proven capacity in working in a team, networking, influencing and federating actors around a common objective
• Public speaking skills
• Proven capacity to draft policy briefs
• Good analytical skills and capacity to present data in a clear & concise manner
• Ability to plan and prioritize multiple tasks
• Strong and proven capacity in diplomatically working in a multi-cultural team

LANGUAGES

• Fluent English and Arabic
• French, Hebrew is preferable

COMPUTER

• Pack MS Office (Word, Excel Outlook, PowerPoint)
• Graphic & Photo software are strong assets

Required Personal Characteristics

• Analysis and synthesis abilities (discernment, pragmatism)
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strategic and clear minded
• Motivated and determined
• Reactive
• Calm and stress resistant

Other

• Strong & objective interest for the Israeli-Palestinian context: knowledge about the history of the occuption and the main trends is mandatory.
• Innovation : capacity to propose new visions, new tools for advocacy

PUI provides a work environment that reflects the values of integrity, diversity and gender equality. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from women and underrepresented cultural or social groups, particularly people with disabilities and people from communities highly affected by occupation-related violence (including settler violence).

All PUI workers adhere to the values and principles outlined in the PUI Code of Conduct and policies, including the Protection from Exploitation and Abuse Policy and the Child Protection Policy.”

If you believe you are the candidate we are looking for, please fill in the form in the link below:

Advocacy & Policy Officer - Application Form

In addition, please submit a cover letter and a detailed resume before 30 June 2023, by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Please indicate the Position Title you are applying for "Advocacy & Policy Officer" in the E-mail subject line.

Incomplete applications or Unfilled Forms will not be considered. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.