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.