Head of Advocacy and Evidencing

**Location:** Ethiopia, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya (as long as HelpAge International holds the registration in this country), Nepal, Pakistan, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Türkiye, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe

**Department:** Global Impact

**Reports to (Line Manager):** Director of Global Impact

**Responsible for (Line managing)**

- Humanitarian Advocacy Advisor
- Social Protection Advisor
- Health Advisor
- Rights Advisor

**Grade:** F

**Contract Type:** Open-ended contract

## **About HelpAge**

HelpAge International works with a diverse global network of around 200 organisations across 99 countries to promote the rights of older people to lead dignified, healthy and secure lives. Through partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone as they get older. Our work is driven by our desire to achieve real impact for older people, to be inclusive, to work in partnership and to learn from our shared experience.

## **About the Job**

The Head of Advocacy & Evidencing provides strategic leadership and organisational accountability for HelpAge’s global advocacy, policy and research agendas, ensuring that external engagement is grounded in rigorous evidence, shaped by the lived experiences of older people, and aligned with organisational priorities.

## **Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities**

To deliver impact, the Head of Advocacy & Evidencing will:

- Lead the delivery and evolution of HelpAge’s global advocacy and research agenda, ensuring it reflects lived experience and drives progress on rights, inclusion, and equity for older people.
- Strengthen the capacities of network members and older people to lead and participate meaningfully in advocacy efforts, and ensure inclusive engagement in the design and implementation of influencing strategies.
- Cultivate strategic partnerships with policy, academic, and research institutions to co-produce high-quality, policy-relevant evidence and promote HelpAge’s thought leadership on rights, healthy ageing, humanitarian inclusion, and social protection.

## **Key Responsibilities**

**Strategic Leadership and Advocacy**

- Lead and be accountable for the development, implementation and results of HelpAge’s global advocacy and evidencing strategy, aligned with HelpAge’s impact areas and co-created with network members.
- Monitor and respond to global, regional and national policy trends,advising colleagues and network members on opportunities for engagement and influence.
- Champion inclusive, partner-led advocacy approaches that centre the voices and leadership of older people and civil society actors.
- Collaborate with the Fundraising and Strategic Partnerships Director and supporting members to align donor advocacy efforts with organisational priorities and global influencing strategies.
- Advise the Executive Leadership Group and the Board on HelpAge's advocacy positions and external positioning, and lead the preparation and quality of the related papers and briefings. Where appropriate, represent HelpAge's positions externally alongside senior leaders.
- Lead and coordinate HelpAge's influencing in priority global and regional policy and donor markets, including Europe, identifying opportunities to position ageing and the rights of older people within relevant policy, development and humanitarian agendas and, in collaboration with Fundraising, strengthen HelpAge's positioning with institutional donors and partners.
- Be accountable for achieving the agreed Advocacy & Evidencing income target. Working in partnership with the Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships team, play a lead technical and relationship role in shaping fundable propositions, contributing to pipeline development, and donor cultivation and stewardship for advocacy and research.
- Ensure that advocacy, research and evidence-generation activities comply with HelpAge’s ethical, safeguarding, data protection and relevant organisational standards, and hold team members accountable for compliance within their areas of responsibility.
- Represent HelpAge at senior level in key global and regional coalitions, alliances and policy forums, proactively building strategic relationships with governments, multilateral and donor institutions, policy actors and other influential stakeholders to advance HelpAge’s advocacy priorities and strengthen its external positioning.

**Evidence and Research**

- Lead and be accountable for HelpAge’s global research and evidence agenda, ensuring that it is coherent, ethical, inclusive and aligned with organisational advocacy and programme priorities.
- Provide strategic oversight of HelpAge’s global portfolio of evidence generation, policy analysis and advocacy initiatives across key impact areas, ensuring coherence, quality and alignment with organisational strategy and drawing on the network as a central source of evidence and insight.
- Foster partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks, and research bodies to co-produce and validate robust, policy-influencing evidence.
- Ensure that research outputs are accessible, actionable, and designed for strategic influence at global and national levels.

**Capacity Strengthening and Network Engagement**

- Lead on advocacy capacity strengthening of HelpAge network members and older people through mentoring, training, and tailored support.
- Promote knowledge exchange and peer learning across the global network, ensuring inclusive participation in advocacy platforms and decision-making spaces.
- Collaborate with regional colleagues to support the development and implementation of national and regional advocacy strategies led by network members.

**Team and Resource Management**

- Lead, manage, and coach a multidisciplinary team of advocacy advisers, ensuring high performance and alignment with organisational goals. These are hybrid roles, with approximately 50% of their time dedicated to global advocacy and the remaining 50% focused on technical support to network members and contribution to programme development.
- Manage advocacy and research budgets effectively, ensuring compliance with donor requirements and strategic resource allocation.

**Cross-Organisational Collaboration**

- Work closely with Programme Support, Network Development, MEAL, Fundraising, and Communications teams to embed evidence and influencing in all areas of work.
- Coordinate joint advocacy and research initiatives that connect policy engagement with programme delivery and impact measurement.

## **Skills and experience required**

*Essential*

- Proven strategic leadership in global advocacy, policy influencing, and research within the international development, humanitarian, or human rights sectors.
- Strong leadership, planning, and performance management skills, with a track record of delivering results through high-performing, diverse, and remote multidisciplinary teams.
- Deep understanding and practical application of rights-based, inclusive, and intersectional approaches—especially relating to age, gender, disability, and displacement.
- Demonstrated success in designing and implementing partner-led advocacy strategies that centre lived experience and community priorities.
- Experience influencing policy at national, regional and international levels through coalition-building and senior-level relationships with governments, multilateral bodies and donors.
- Strong analytical and research skills, with experience designing or overseeing ethical, participatory research and translating evidence into compelling policy and advocacy outputs.
- Demonstrated ability to build and sustain high-impact partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks and policy platforms.
- Track record of securing income for advocacy or research, including developing fundable propositions and engaging institutional donors with fundraising colleagues.
- Skilled in budget oversight and resource management, including accountability in donor-funded initiatives.
- Ability to monitor advocacy impact, policy trends, and funding landscapes, and to adapt strategies accordingly.
- Experience of strengthening the capacity of civil society, networks or grassroots movements, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, through mentoring, training and tailored support.
- Lived experience of the Global South or extensive professional experience working in Global South contexts.

*Desirable*

- Strong knowledge and networks in European/global institutional policy and donor environments
- Experience engaging with media to support advocacy.

**Education and Qualifications**

- Degree in international development, public policy, human rights, social sciences, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
- A postgraduate qualification is an asset but not essential where practical experience is strong.

**Other Requirements**

- Willingness to travel internationally
- Ability to work across cultures, sectors, and geographies in inclusive and equitable ways.
- Excellent communication skills in English (spoken and written); additional languages used in the Global South (e.g., Spanish, French, Arabic) are highly desirable.
- Deep commitment to locally led development and the principles of Partner-Led Programming.
- We actively value and encourage candidates with lived experience of inequality, marginalisation, or systemic exclusion—especially related to age, gender, disability, displacement, or economic injustice.
- Familiarity with ageing, inclusion, and rights issues in Global South contexts is a key asset.

**Key Behavioural Competencies**

**Working Collaboratively with Others:** Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organisations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work we do together.

**Adaptability and Flexibility:** Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in our work area; being flexible in our role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further.

**Supporting and Facilitating Change:** Lead behavioural and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged.

**Extend HelpAge’s Reach and Impact:** Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.

**Diversity and Inclusion:** Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination.

**Leading Others (for managers):** Demonstrate strong leadership to own unit/department and manage people in a well and reputable manner. Create an atmosphere of trust and an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.

**Safeguarding**

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with. The post holder will also be responsible for:

- Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work.
- Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism.
- Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices.
- Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.

**SAFER RECRUITMENT**

All employments at HelpAge International will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include misconduct disclosure schemes and terrorism finance checks.