The HINGO Group is an informal gathering of more than 80 International NGOs legally registered and operating in Ethiopia. Its role is to foster coordination and peer support, but to also support a more effective and principled humanitarian response in the country. Through DRC as hosting agency, the HINGO Group is recruiting a highly qualified Engagement Manager who will be responsible for providing overall leadership, coordination, and strategic direction to the HINGO Forum’s engagement and communications work in Ethiopia. She/He also is in charge of gathering data and trends to support evidence-based collective messages and advocacy efforts. Under the supervision of the HINGO Forum director, the HINGO Engagement Manager will be responsible for engaging key stakeholders in initiatives to influence in support of NGOs’ access and operations in Ethiopia, as well as the development of key positions and messaging around pertinent issues to advance the HINGO Forum’s priorities. She/He will also coordinate efforts on communications of the HINGO Forum and its members.

Responsibilities and tasks

Engagement:

• Lead on the development, update and implementation of the Ethiopia HINGO Forum advocacy strategy
• Work closely with ECSOC on the development of external engagement targeting authorities and government institutions
• Develop and update talking points, top-line messages, and advocacy asks for the HINGO Forum
• Coordinate policy responses and development regarding national policy frameworks and practices, UN coordination, funding, and security concerns that have an impact on INGOs and their access to beneficiary population
• Suggest key advocacy opportunities and targets at national and regional levels and develop an advocacy engagement plan
• Draft and support the creation of advocacy products as outlined in the advocacy strategy for use at the country, regional and international levels
• Support the HINGO Group Director and HINGO Steering Committee to articulate priority advocacy objectives and develop collective advocacy strategies, as well as developing messaging on key issues within clusters, working groups, and area specific forums
• Develop and sustain relationships with key stakeholders in Ethiopia to contribute to the HINGO Forum’s advocacy initiatives.
• Support ongoing HINGO members and stakeholder mapping to inform implementation of an effective advocacy strategy
• Ensure that all advocacy messages, documents and strategies are evidence-based, drawn from members experience, of high quality and effective

Communications

• Lead on the development and implementation of the HINGO Forum’s communications strategy
• Work closely with ECSOC and HINGO members on Communication and campaigns to improve the visibility and understanding of the work of NGOs and CSOs in Ethiopia and increase local acceptance.
• Produce high-quality content to support positive communication on HINGO members’ activities and engagement in Ethiopia, including communication and advocacy materials, and visual materials for use by HINGO members
• Coordinate with national, regional, and HINGO members’ HQ offices on effective communications strategies and messaging
• Regularly visit HINGO members’ projects in the field to ensure a direct link between program work and communication, and identify and generate media and communication, as well as effective case studies, quotes, photographs, and videos

Establish and maintain network

• Maintain a contact list of relevant stakeholders and access influencers.
• Maintain logs of all incidents affecting NGOs operating in Ethiopia and analyze their contributing factors and impact. Verify access and security incidents together with partners and UN agencies.
• Develop a network of local contacts among key stakeholders, including authorities and the humanitarian community to identify, monitor and analyze key access constraints in collaboration with the HINGO Security and Safety Working Group and UN agencies.
• Establish and maintain connection with the embassies and donors and share access and security challenges.
• Establish and maintain contact with all humanitarian actors in the area of responsibility and serve as an information channel and advocate for their issues with relevant organizations.

Strategy and Representation

• Support management to articulate priority advocacy and communications objectives and develop programme-specific strategies
• Ensure HINGO members are in line with the Ethiopia HINGO Forum’s advocacy and communications strategies and understand and promote collectively-developed asks
• Liaise with key Government, UN, NGO, and diplomatic missions in Ethiopia to ensure up-to-date information on humanitarian situation and response, as well as policy developments
• Represent the HINGO Forum and its members in advocacy-related forum

Information Management

• Create and organize surveys and tools to gather data and trends from HINGO members to inform evidence-driven messages and engagement
• Keep, manage and update the HINGO members’ mapping and facilitate its annual compulsory update. Coordinate with technical partners to ensure the systems runs well and issues are delt with in a timely manner

As Manager the post-holder is responsible for the following

• Responsible for coordinating strategy and operations within a specific discipline in a region or country
• Usually has technical line responsibilities within a given discipline, for both strategy and operations
• Provides expert advice and support to set strategy and assure operational quality and compliance

All DRC roles require the post-holder to master

DRC’s core competencies:

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.
• Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.
• Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with our vision and values.

Experience and technical competencies: (include years of experience)

• At least 3-5 years of work experience of humanitarian experience, including experience working in coordination, advocacy and/or communication on humanitarian issues, refugee rights, human rights, and/or development issues
• Strong understanding of the political system and context in Ethiopia and/or the Horn of Africa region, including familiarity with key stakeholders from government, UN, NGOs, Civil Society
  Demonstrated experience using communication tools and technologies to engage and influence stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience using surveys, data gathering and information management for engagement and influence of key stakeholders
• Proven experience crafting messages in various formats (articles, press releases, websites, photos, success stories, blog entries, tweets, etc.) targeting a variety of audiences
• Exceptional, proven writing and editing skills (English) and the ability to summarize and repackage technical information in clear, compelling language
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with an ability to engage with diverse audiences
• Strong literacy in Microsoft packages with knowledge of Adobe products is a distinct advantage
  Full professional proficiency in English (written and orally)
• Full professional proficiency in Amharic (oral), knowledge of other Ethiopian regional languages would be a plus.

EDUCATION: (include certificates, licenses, etc.)

Master’s degree in International Law, Human Rights, political science, peace & conflict studies, history, or disaster management or any other relevant field. A lower degree may be considered with significant additional work experience in the relevant field.

LANGUAGE: (indicate fluency level)

• Excellent verbal and written English and Amharic