Deadline: 29 September 2025 at 23:59 Central European Summer Time (CEST)
ILGA World is hiring an Advocacy Senior Manager – a leadership role ensuring that our advocacy work remains intersectional, impactful, evidence-based, and aligned with the organisation’s strategic plan. Apply by 29 September 2025 at 23:59 Central European Summer Time (CEST)!
The Advocacy Senior Manager leads the newly-formed Advocacy Programme, which integrates ILGA World’s former UN Programme and GIESC Programme into one dynamic and strategic advocacy hub.
The Advocacy Senior Manager is a leadership role within ILGA World, advancing the rights of people and communities of diverse SOGIESC globally. The role ensures ILGA World’s advocacy programme, ensuring that our advocacy work remains intersectional, impactful, evidence-based, and aligned with the organisation’s strategic plan (2025-2029), supporting the human rights of LGBTI people globally.
The Advocacy Senior Manager oversees and strategically guides ILGA World’s advocacy work, ensuring coherence and impact across all advocacy priorities, including engagements at the United Nations and with multilateral institutions. Working closely with ILGA World’s Director of Programmes, advocacy program staff and consultants, ILGA regions, and member organisations, this role also plays a key part in linking advocacy work with knowledge production and movement strengthening efforts, in collaboration with other ILGA World programmes.
Responsibilities
The Advocacy Senior Manager supports and reports to the Director of Programmes, in the implementation of the Advocacy Programme, and is part of the organisation’s managers team. Specific to this position, this includes to:
- support the implementation of ILGA World’s advocacy strategy, directing the design and execution of comprehensive advocacy projects, employing rigorous methodologies and maintaining ethical standards
- develop and implement an annual advocacy operational plan and project plans, manage budgets, and monitor progress across multiple advocacy projects whilst ensuring alignment with ILGA World’s strategy and organisational goals and contributing to shared outputs and timely delivery of impactful results
- build ILGA World’s advocacy capacity by establishing efficient processes, resources, and best practices
- oversee ILGA World’s engagement with the United Nations system, including the Human Rights Council, Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, CSW, and the High-Level Political Forum on the SDGs
- build and maintain strategic relationships with states, UN officials, donors, civil society allies and multilateral institutions
- serve as ILGA World’s lead on the Human Rights Council
- coordinate ILGA World’s participation in and co-leadership of major international advocacy initiatives (e.g., UPR Advocacy Week, Trans Advocacy Week, intersex advocacy at the UN)
- oversee engagement with regional human rights mechanisms and intergovernmental bodies
- ensure strategic leadership and visibility on intersectional related human rights issues, including bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive rights, legal gender recognition, and anti-discrimination frameworks
- oversee and ensure coherence across all areas of the Advocacy Programme: multilateral, thematic, and national advocacy support
- integrate feminist, decolonial, intersectional, and anti-oppressive approaches into all aspects of ILGA World’s advocacy work
- ensure that all advocacy activities comply with ILGA’s ethical standards, data protection policies, and best practices, upholding ILGA’s mission and values in all activities
- ensure that advocacy efforts are grounded in the lived realities of people and communities of diverse SOGIESC and informed by ILGA World’s research and monitoring tools
- conceptualise and develop advocacy funding proposals to support ILGA’s advocacy objectives
- collaborate with colleagues to develop evidence-based materials and briefings for stakeholders, policymakers, and allies
- prepare narrative reports for donors and ILGA’s operational needs, documenting and promoting ILGA’s research contributions
- work closely with the communications team to translate complex advocacy messages into clear, engaging narratives for public dissemination
- serve as a spokesperson for ILGA World’s advocacy programme, providing expert commentary and analysis to media outlets and other stakeholders
- lead and manage the Advocacy Team by setting goals, supervising work plans, and fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture
- provide strategic direction, professional development, and support to staff and consultants to ensure delivery of high-quality outputs
- actively represent ILGA World at conferences, coalitions, and key events, presenting research findings and fostering alliances within the global LGBTI and human rights sectors.
General
- Actively contribute to promoting and achieving the organisation’s objectives
- Engage and collaborate with the management team to strengthen a shared organisational culture and management ethos that reflects ILGA World’s values, balancing organisational priorities with individual and movement needs
- Ensure that all activities are carried out with full regard to ILGA World policies
- Work as a part of the ILGA World staff team
- Perform other duties as required
Relationships with colleagues
ILGA values creative and inclusive approaches to work and management that have been achieved through cross-service area working and the participation of staff at all levels in the organisation. Staff have line management arrangements and specific key relationships, which are detailed in their job descriptions, but they will also need to work collaboratively with their colleagues in order to achieve their agreed targets and outcomes to the required standards.
Performance of duties, remuneration and benefits
- This position requires relocation to Geneva, Switzerland
- The position is advertised at 100% of a full-time position
- ILGA World remunerates under a three-tiered salary matrix structure. The annual salary being offered for the post is 106,000 CHF for the 100% position.
- In addition, ILGA World offers 35 days between legal holidays (“bank holidays”) and annual leave and contributions to health care costs
- ILGA World operates under a flexible working system that – among others – includes flexible working hours
- The weekly working time is 37.5 hours on a 100% position.
Requirements
ILGA World strongly encourages applicants from and living in the Global South, particularly candidates who identify as women in all their diversity.
Filling the application online survey
The application for this position needs to be submitted online here: https://recruitment.ilga.org/node/74
We recommend you download the application form in Word format from here, prepare your application and copy/paste it into the application form. Should there be well-found reasons why this was not possible, you may submit the application form as well by e-mail to recruitment@ilga.org.
Rename this file SURNAME_Name_Advocacy_senior_manager.docx (for instance: SMITH_John_Advocacy_senior_manager.docx) before you submit it.
Should you have questions in regard to this call, please reach out to recruitment@ilga.org.