Policy and Membership Development Officer

Policy and Membership Development Officer

Eurodiaconia

Brussels, Belgium

Closing date for applications is Monday 29^th January 2024 09:00 CET.

However, we will review applications on a rolling basis and reserve the right to close applications if suitable candidates have been found before this date. We therefore encourage applicants to send their applications as soon as possible.

Interviews are foreseen to take place on the week starting on 5^th February.

Eurodiaconia is a European network of churches and Christian NGOs providing social and health care services and advocating for social justice. Together our membership represents the needs and unique experiences of 58 national and regional organisations in 32 countries.

Diakonia is Greek for service and in the biblical sense, this means service for and with people in need. We want to see an end to social inequality through the provision of services and support that enable each person to live with dignity and fulfil their potential.

Eurodiaconia creates a platform for diaconal actors to facilitate trans-national networking. It also creates a link between the regional, national and European levels, developing ideas and feeding into policies to combat social exclusion, isolation, poverty, injustice and inequalities.

The Job

We expect you to have practical and/or academic experience in the social policy field with experience of working at European level in the Brussels environment or a comparable national environment. You should be very proactive, confident in initiating dealings with our partners, members and external stakeholders and able to develop and steer the work of your specific portfolios to have maximum policy impact. You are expected to dynamically engage with the European Institutions, NGO’s, Think Tanks and Social Partners. Although you should be able to work autonomously on your policy files you must also be able to work collaboratively with colleagues, members and partners. You should have a clear and demonstratable commitment to social justice, social equity and know the policy and service driven approaches that can bring about positive systemic and structural change.

You need to be a strategic thinker, able to manage multiple tasks and be both proactive and reactive on policy issues. You need to be skilled in advocacy and seeing opportunities for alliances and partnerships in both the EU institutions and civil society. You should have a good working knowledge on current EU social policy initiatives and be able to see how our members can be engaged in advocacy work on social policy at EU level as a result. You will lead our work on extreme destitution, particularly focusing on homelessness, child poverty, and minimum income. You will work in collaboration with all the members of our policy team, led by our deputy secretary general.

Our members will be at the heart of your work, empowering their advocacy and practice by bringing members together to share their practical experience on specific areas of work through our internal networks. You will also have an understanding of project development and be able to actively contribute to building our portfolio of funded project work including participating in grant writing and management. You will also be committed to ensuring the co-ordination of your work with our communications team so that we share our practice, policy and stories with as wide an audience as possible.

You should be able to relate to and sympathise with our vision and mission and understand the traditions that unite our membership. You should appreciate the diversity of our membership and the various cultures that they represent. Our day to day working language is English but other languages are always an asset.

Purpose of job: to lead Eurodiaconia’s policy work in the area of social equity.
Reporting to: Deputy Secretary General.
Supervision of: Policy Assistants.
Purpose of job: to support, advise, and strengthen Eurodiaconia in its policy and advocacy work in the area of social equity and contribute to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Eurodiaconia strategic plan.

Main tasks

• To be responsible for advocacy work for identified areas of Eurodiaconia’s policy work, proactively working for policy influence;
• Initiate and implement effective advocacy strategies on agreed areas in line with Eurodiaconia’s policy positions and members interests;
• Develop written and oral contributions to policy discussion through the gathering of key information from members and other stakeholders and being able to synthesize this material into relevant documents such as reports, presentations, policy papers etc.;
• Be able to speak passionately and with conviction on relevant policy areas in public meetings as well as in one-to-one settings;
• Be able to track and analyse policy developments on an EU level and relate them to the wider policy work of Eurodiaconia and ensure timely responses in both a proactive and reactive manner;
• Coordinate and where necessary facilitate and speak at meetings, networks and public events on agreed topics;
• Carry-out capacity building for members on EU social policy topics;
• Liase with members and contribute to their active engagement in the work of Eurodiaconia including visits to members and presentations to visiting groups;
• Work with members and other colleagues to develop projects on specific themes;
• Be responsible for and/or contribute to developing funding proposals on specific themes or for grants that support the general work of the organisation;
• Provide relevant and up to date content on identified policy areas for Eurodiaconia’s communication tools;
• Share in the organization, support and follow-up of meetings, seminars etc. when appropriate;
• Contribute to developing an effective team approach with colleagues in the secretariat;
• Contribute to the strengthening and the understanding of Diaconia and its advocacy role;
• Any other tasks as required.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Knowledge and Experience

Essential:

• Knowledge of EU social policy gained following academic study and/or work experience including at least 3 years employment experience at EU level or a comparable national/regional level;
• Experience of working with the European Union institutional context;
• Experience of working in a membership organisation and engaging members in the policy process;
• Knowledge and experience of the engagement of nongovernmental stakeholders in EU policy processes;
• Demonstratable evidence of achieving impact in policy advocacy;
• Knowledge of social justice and its practical policy approach;
• Sympathy with the values of Diaconia in both practice and theory.

Skills/abilities

Essential:

• Strong interpersonal and intellectual skills demonstrated through effective relationships and creative analytical processes in the advocacy field;
• Strong commitment to the goals of Eurodiaconia and to the principles of Diaconia;
• Excellent organisational skills;
• Ability to analyze and synthesize different perspectives and positions and summarize content as well as capturing data and evidence to support policy positions;
• Ability to develop effective and impactful advocacy strategies and to promote active participation by members and other stakeholders in our initiatives;
• Sense of initiative and ability to be work autonomously while maintaining positive working relationships with other colleagues;
• Willingness to engage in the work of the whole organisation, contributing experience, opinion and ideas where possible;
• Excellent ability to communicate in writing and orally (in English) to a variety of target audiences;
• Fluency in English, knowledge of other languages an advantage;
• Sound understanding of working methods in membership-based organizations;
• Ability to travel on a regular basis.

We offer a competitive salary and benefits, generous holiday allowance, a supportive and dynamic working environment, training opportunities and an international environment. The job is offered at 100% but we are happy to consider an 80% option. You will also have some regular travel and the opportunity to share in the development of our vision of a socially just Europe.

How to apply

Please send a CV and cover letter outlining your experience and how you match the job description to recruitment@eurodiaconia.org. Cover letters should be no more than 2 pages in length. Please do not send any additional documentation such as references, certificates etc. Applicants should have the existing right to live and work in the European Union and we are not able to sponsor any work permits for this post. We are looking for candidates who can start as soon as possible and will review applications on a rolling basis so please apply as early as possible. Due to the high level of applications anticipated we will not be able to reply to each application. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.

The deadline for applications is Monday 29^th January 2024 09:00 CET. However, we will review applications on a rolling basis and may start interviews with suitable candidates before the deadline.