Vacancy title:
Head of Advocacy and Evidencing
Employment type: Full time, Industry: Nonprofit, and NGO, Category: Management, Social Services & Nonprofit, Business Operations, Human Resources, Communications & Writing, Legal, Advertising & Public Relations
Jobs at:
HelpAge Tanzania
Deadline of this Job:
Sunday, November 1 2026
Duty Station:
Dar es Salaam | Dar es Salaam
Summary
Date Posted: Tuesday, October 13 2026, Base Salary: Not Disclosed
JOB DETAILS:
About HelpAge International
HelpAge International works with a diverse global network of approximately 200 organisations across 99 countries to promote the rights of older people to live dignified, healthy, and secure lives.
Through partnerships and collaboration, HelpAge strives to ensure that older people are included in all aspects of society and to create a just and fair world for people as they age. Its work is driven by a commitment to achieving meaningful impact, promoting inclusion, strengthening partnerships, and learning from shared experiences.
Job Purpose
The Head of Advocacy and Evidencing will provide strategic leadership and organisational accountability for HelpAge International’s global advocacy, policy, and research agendas.
The successful candidate will ensure that external engagement is grounded in rigorous evidence, informed by the lived experiences of older people, and aligned with the organisation’s strategic priorities.
The role involves leading global advocacy initiatives, strengthening research and evidence generation, influencing policy, building strategic partnerships, and ensuring that the voices and rights of older people are represented in global and regional decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Leadership and Advocacy
- Lead the development, implementation, and delivery of HelpAge International’s global advocacy and evidencing strategy, ensuring alignment with the organisation’s impact areas and collaboration with network members.
- Monitor global, regional, and national policy trends and advise colleagues and network members on opportunities for engagement and influence.
- Promote inclusive, partner-led advocacy approaches that place older people and civil society actors at the centre of decision-making.
- Work with the Fundraising and Strategic Partnerships Director and supporting members to align donor advocacy initiatives with organisational priorities.
- Advise the Executive Leadership Group and Board on advocacy positions and external engagement, and oversee the preparation and quality of relevant papers and briefings.
- Represent HelpAge’s positions externally alongside senior leaders where appropriate.
- Lead and coordinate influencing activities in priority global and regional policy and donor markets, including Europe, to strengthen the visibility of ageing and older people’s rights in development and humanitarian agendas.
- Work with the Fundraising team to strengthen engagement with institutional donors and partners.
- Be accountable for achieving agreed advocacy and evidencing income targets, contributing to the development of fundable proposals, donor engagement, pipeline development, and relationship management.
- Ensure advocacy, research, and evidence-generation activities comply with ethical standards, safeguarding requirements, data protection rules, and organisational policies.
- Represent HelpAge at senior level in global and regional coalitions, alliances, and policy forums, building relationships with governments, multilateral institutions, donors, and other influential stakeholders.
2. Evidence and Research
- Lead HelpAge’s global research and evidence agenda, ensuring that it is coherent, ethical, inclusive, and aligned with advocacy and programme priorities.
- Provide strategic oversight of evidence generation, policy analysis, and advocacy initiatives across the organisation’s key impact areas.
- Ensure research activities are consistent with organisational strategy and draw on the knowledge and experiences of network members.
- Develop partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks, and research organisations to produce and validate robust evidence that can influence policy.
- Ensure research outputs are accessible, actionable, and designed to support strategic influence at global and national levels.
3. Capacity Strengthening and Network Engagement
- Lead advocacy capacity-strengthening initiatives for HelpAge network members and older people through mentoring, training, and tailored technical support.
- Promote knowledge exchange and peer learning across the global network.
- Ensure inclusive participation in advocacy platforms and decision-making processes.
- Collaborate with regional colleagues to support the development and implementation of national and regional advocacy strategies led by network members.
4. Team and Resource Management
- Lead, manage, and coach a multidisciplinary team of advocacy advisers to achieve high performance and organisational objectives.
- Support a team whose roles are structured to dedicate approximately 50% of their time to global advocacy and 50% to technical support for network members and programme development.
- Manage advocacy and research budgets effectively.
- Ensure compliance with donor requirements and the strategic allocation of financial and other resources.
5. Cross-Organisational Collaboration
- Work closely with Programme Support, Network Development, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), Fundraising, and Communications teams to integrate evidence and influencing across organisational activities.
- Coordinate joint advocacy and research initiatives that connect policy engagement with programme implementation and impact measurement.
Team Management Responsibilities
The Head of Advocacy and Evidencing will directly manage the following positions:
- Humanitarian Advocacy Advisor
- Social Protection Advisor
- Health Advisor
- Rights Advisor
Skills and Experience Required
Essential Requirements
Candidates must demonstrate the following qualifications and experience:
- Proven strategic leadership experience 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 diverse, high-performing, and remote multidisciplinary teams.
- A deep understanding and practical application of rights-based, inclusive, and intersectional approaches, particularly concerning age, gender, disability, and displacement.
- Demonstrated success in designing and implementing partner-led advocacy strategies that prioritise lived experiences and community needs.
- 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, including experience designing or overseeing ethical, participatory research and translating evidence into compelling policy and advocacy outputs.
- Proven ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships with academic institutions, think tanks, and policy platforms.
- Experience securing funding for advocacy or research initiatives, including developing fundable proposals and engaging institutional donors in collaboration with fundraising teams.
- Strong budget oversight and resource management skills, including accountability for donor-funded initiatives.
- Ability to monitor advocacy impact, policy developments, and funding landscapes and adapt strategies accordingly.
- Experience strengthening the capacity of civil society organisations, 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 Requirements
- Strong knowledge of and established networks within European and global institutional policy and donor environments.
- Experience engaging with the media to support advocacy initiatives.
Education and Qualifications
- A degree in International Development, Public Policy, Human Rights, Social Sciences, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- A postgraduate qualification is an advantage but is not essential where practical experience is strong.
Other Requirements
- Willingness to travel internationally.
- Ability to work effectively across cultures, sectors, and geographical regions in inclusive and equitable ways.
- Excellent written and spoken English communication skills.
- Additional languages used in the Global South, such as Spanish, French, or Arabic, are highly desirable.
- Strong commitment to locally led development and the principles of Partner-Led Programming.
- Familiarity with ageing, inclusion, and rights issues in Global South contexts is a key asset.
HelpAge values and encourages applications from candidates with lived experience of inequality, marginalisation, or systemic exclusion, particularly in relation to age, gender, disability, displacement, or economic injustice.
Key Behavioural Competencies
Working Collaboratively with Others
Build mutual trust and respect with external organisations and partners, work collaboratively to achieve strategic objectives, and remain accountable for joint activities and outcomes.
Adaptability and Flexibility
Respond effectively to changing organisational priorities and emerging opportunities, using feedback to learn, improve, and adapt working approaches.
Supporting and Facilitating Change
Promote behavioural and cultural change by fostering a supportive, collaborative, and inclusive working environment in which everyone feels respected and engaged.
Extending HelpAge’s Reach and Impact
Identify new business development opportunities and build relationships with new partners to expand the organisation’s reach and influence.
Diversity and Inclusion
Promote a culture that ensures older people’s voices are represented across organisational support, convening, and thought leadership activities, with particular attention to people experiencing discrimination based on gender, economic status, disability, or other factors.
Leading Others
Demonstrate effective leadership, manage the department responsibly, build trust, and create an enabling environment where staff can contribute effectively and develop their potential.
Safeguarding
HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities it serves, its partners, staff, and all other people who come into contact with its work.
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
- Preventing harm and abuse arising from the organisation’s personnel, operations, and programmes.
- Reporting safeguarding incidents that they witness, hear about, or suspect through the established internal reporting mechanisms.
- Complying with all safeguarding policies, frameworks, and practices.
- Completing mandatory safeguarding training and complying with relevant human resources vetting procedures.
Safer Recruitment
All appointments at HelpAge International are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks. These may include misconduct disclosure schemes and terrorism finance checks.
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: 240
Level of Education: bachelor degree
Job application procedure
Interested in applying for this job? Click here to submit your application now (Jobs@helpage.org) .
Qualified and experienced candidates are encouraged to review the full job description and submit the following documents:
An updated Curriculum Vitae (CV).
A Cover Letter.
Subject: Head of Advocacy and Evidencing
Application Deadline: Sunday, 1 November 2026.
Applicants must have the legal right to live and work in one of the stated locations. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Important: Ensure that the role title is clearly indicated in the mail subject line and that both the CV and cover letter are submitted before the deadline.
Deadline for Applications: 1 November 2026.
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