About the organisation

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development Confederations. Drawing on its 75 years of experience, through its 20 Members,  Candidates and Affiliate, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

At the core of the Confederation is a small, globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its Members, Candidates and Affiliate in the areas governance, policy and accountability, advocacy and communications, coordination and engagement with the EU, and external representation globally at the United Nations and European Union.

CI is governed by a representative Assembly, made up of delegates from its membership, and by an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee oversees the performance of the CI Secretariat. CI is registered in both Switzerland and Belgium as an Association and regulated by respective Statutes in each country.

The impact we want to achieve will only be possible if we continue to transform how we organize ourselves, become more diverse, networked, agile and accountable. Therefore, the central part of CARE’s 2030 Vision is to strengthen the diversity and legitimacy of CARE’s global presence and membership, as well as to support effective membership engagement and accountability. While our network has grown because of expanding our membership, affiliations, and partnerships, we will continue to evolve and innovate different collaborative models and structures, with a portfolio of country offices, transitioned presences, new members and affiliates, effective equitable partnerships with local actors, social enterprises, and more.

About the role

The Senior EU Advocacy Advisor will be based at CARE International AISBL’s office in Brussels, Belgium. Under the direction of the Director and EU Representative, they will lead the CI advocacy work at the European Union level in order to build relations with the EU institutions, strengthen
CARE’s representation to the EU, and influence EU policies that have an impact on CARE International’s programmatic objectives. The EU Advisor will also manage the EU Advocacy Action Plan and coordinate the advocacy work of European CARE offices towards the EU.

The Senior EU Advocacy Advisor works in close collaboration with the CI Global Advocacy and Communications team, CI Belgium colleagues and CARE International Members and Country Offices for the fulfilment of their objectives.

Your responsibilities

The Senior EU Advocacy Advisor will provide strategic guidance to and implement CI’s advocacy work at the European level, particularly on the priority areas for CI and the CI Belgium office, namely: gender equality; countries in crisis; humanitarian policy; climate change; food and nutrition security; and external action budgets.

The Advisor will also follow and provide limited support in other priority policy areas under Vision 2023 strategy, participatory governance, and in other issues related to development and humanitarian aid policies impacting on CI’s work.

1. Leading CI’s European Advocacy work (approximately 65%)

• Identify and act on opportunities to support the implementation of CI’s global advocacy priorities through CI’s interaction with European institutions in Brussels, including CARE’s commitment to cede space to local and national women leaders;

• Monitor and influence policy developments at the EU level;

• Undertake research and analysis on relevant EU policies and identifying opportunities;

• Draft updates, briefing notes, policy positions and talking points on relevant EU processes;

• Support the organisation of advocacy meetings and events;

• Maintain and further develop a network of contacts within EU institutions and Civil Society Organisations in Brussels;

• Actively represent, participate in and influence European NGO networks, namely CONCORD, VOICE, CAN Europe, Crisis Action and EPLO, and create other alliances as required to achieve CI advocacy objectives;

• Through advocacy work, identify and create opportunities to position CI for EU funding, in liaison with EU funding team;

• Participate in key meetings, briefings and conferences organised by EU institutions, UN agencies, and other NGOs;

• Provide overall supervision of the EU Advocacy Assistant. 

2. Contributing to strengthening coordination and information sharing on European advocacy (approximately 20%)

• Lead the work of the European Advocacy Group, including assuming responsibility for developing and monitoring implementation of the EU Advocacy Action Plan;

• Coordinate the interaction of CI’s European members and the European Advocacy Group, and country offices with the EU around EU policy processes and decisions;

• Support the organisation of the European Advocacy annual meeting, bi-monthly and ad-hoc calls, and other relevant meetings as required;

• Provide ad hoc support and advice to European members’ advocacy teams.

3. Participating in and supporting the work of CI Brussels office and the CI Secretariat advocacy team lead by the Director of Global Advocacy and Communications as required (approximately 15%)

• Assist in the preparation of annual operating plans, reports, and MEL for CI Brussels’s advocacy work;

• Represent CI in meetings/conferences;

• Support global advocacy efforts beyond Europe as required and feed in CI EU and European perspectives into global advocacy efforts and working groups;

• Organize conference calls, meetings and workshops, including preparatory processes, documents and reports;

• Participate in relevant internal meetings;

• Support administrative functions as needed.