- 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.
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.
- 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
- 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 approachesespecially 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.
- 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.
- 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 exclusionespecially related to age, gender, disability, displacement, or economic injustice.
- Familiarity with ageing, inclusion, and rights issues in Global South contexts is a key asset.