Position: Communications Specialist
Background Information: The Agile and Harmonized Assistance for Devolved
Institutions (AHADI) is a five year USAID program implemented by the State
University of New York’s (SUNY) Center for International Development (CID).
AHADI is funded by both USAID and
DFID. The program is designed to support Kenya’s vision and agenda for
achieving the promise of devolution.
AHADI has three main objectives;
1.
Targeted counties provide higher
quality services through improved governance
2.
Improved representation of citizen
interests and oversight of targeted county government performance
3.
Functionality and effectiveness of
the devolved system increased through intra-government engagement and
cooperation.
AHADI is primarily a Democracy Rights
and Governance (DRG) project focused on improving the governance of Kenya’s new
decentralized system.
It is an integrated governance
program that uses sector entry points to achieve both governance and sector
outcomes. These sectors include but are not limited to good governance,
resilience and economic growth, education, climate change and WASH.
The program is currently seeking a
skilled, diplomatic, effective, and highly motivated Communications Specialist.
Position Summary: The Communications Specialist will be responsible for
overseeing and coordinating all aspects of communications and outreach
including designing and implementing effective outreach and communications
strategies for AHADI and developing interventions to strengthen targeted county
media entities in full compliance with USAID policies and regulations, on-time,
within budget, and with maximum impact.
S/he will identify activities for
documenting into snapshots and success stories, flickr stories and newsletter
articles.
S/he will be responsible for
knowledge management in the Program. The main function of the knowledge sharing
responsibility will be to help champion organization-wide knowledge sharing, so
that the organization know-how, information and experience is shared inside and
(as appropriate) outside the organization with clients, partners, and
stakeholders.
In addition, s/he will assist the
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in collecting and synthesizing data and
reports to support the AHADI reporting function.
Qualifications:
·
Bachelor’s degree in any or a
combination of the following fields; International Affairs, Data Management,
Journalism, Public Management or related field relevant to the position
requirements.
·
At least 10 years’ experience
designing and implementing communications and outreach programs for USAID
funded development programs;
·
Demonstrated ability to serve as a
principal liaison among development partners, the media, and key government
counterparts, both at the national and county level, as well as civil society
and private sector leaders;
·
Highly developed communication skills
(spoken, written and presentational);
·
Experience originating, soliciting,
writing or editing complex or sensitive materials for distribution in newsletters,
websites and reports;
·
Solid understanding of cross-cutting
issues such as gender, youth, and the needs of marginalized communities.
·
Demonstrated ability to write clearly
and concisely, to work in a fast-changing political environment, to work well
under pressure and to handle concurrent projects including organizing media
coverage, technical workshops, briefings and interviews.
·
Demonstrated ability to serve as a
principal liaison among a donor-funded program, the donor, the media, and key
Government of Kenya and county counterparts as well as civil society and
private sector leaders.
Duties:
Communications:
·
Oversee the continuous review and
implementation of USAID AHADI Communications Strategy;
·
Serving as the point of contact with
USAID/Kenya and East Africa on media and public relations matters, and as the
in-house expert on branding, marking, and positioning of AHADI communications
materials and deliverables;
·
Providing advice to the COP, other
staff members, grantees and AHADI partners on media engagement, deliverables,
outreach, communications, and public relations issues; and
·
Performing other duties as assigned
to achieve AHADI objectives and results.
·
Establishing and cultivating contacts
with Government of Kenya officials at all levels (Governors, Senators, and
Members and staff of County Assemblies, among others), journalists, and other
USAID implementing partners in order to keep apprised of governance and
devolution developments and trends, as well as opportunities to promote AHADI;
·
Creating snapshots, success stories,
articles, and other outreach materials for external distribution;
·
Designing and implementing
interventions to strengthen targeted media county entities;
·
Collaborating with other AHADI staff
and partners to organize, carry out, and report on media interventions;
·
Liaise with the relevant teams to
produce monthly, quarterly and annual reports for the project.
Knowledge management
·
Promote knowledge sharing through the
organization’s operational processes and systems by, among others, strengthening
links between knowledge sharing and the information systems, and improving
integration among departments in the Program, to facilitate seamless exchange
of information across the program;
·
Promote collaborative tools such as
activity rooms to facilitate sharing of ideas and work among internal teams and
external partners;
·
Provide support for the establishment
and nurturing of forums where information on programming is shared;
·
Share experiences across various
departments, beneficiaries on innovative approaches in knowledge sharing,
including preparation of case studies;
·
Help monitor and evaluate the
knowledge sharing program, including external benchmarking and evaluation
programs/opportunities;
·
Help disseminate information about
the organization’s knowledge sharing program to internal and external
audiences, including organizing knowledge sharing events (such as knowledge
fairs, devolution study groups maintaining communications on knowledge sharing
across the organization, and preparation of brochures/presentations.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting:
·
Serving as a key member of the AHADI
research and learning team;
·
Collaborating with AHADI staff and
partners to support the AHADI learning agenda;
·
Support the development of the
necessary communications and reporting templates for use by AHADI staff and
implementing partners;
·
Assisting with editing of AHADI
monthly, quarterly and annual reports;
·
Providing internal editorial support
to ensure that AHADI documents and/or reports are of high quality and comply
with the USAID branding requirements;
·
Advising the AHADI M&E
Specialist, COP, staff and partners on effective methods for presenting or
communicating AHADI data and results.
Location: The
Communications Specialist will be based in the AHADI Nairobi office.
Travel: Travel
in country is expected. Transportation, accommodations and per diem will be
provided by the project in accordance with AHADI and USAID regulations.
It is anticipated that in the travel
will be between 30%-40%.
If you possess the skills and
qualifications as contained in the respective position descriptions, please
send
(1) a Cover letter
(2) CV and
(3) References from three
Professional Referees, one referee should be previous or current supervisor
to hr@ahadi-devolution.org
Closing date: 18th November 2016.
Please note only short listed
candidates will be contacted.
Kindly put the subject line for the
position you are applying for.
Applications without the subject line
will not be evaluated.
SUNY-AHADI
is an equal opportunities employer.