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%.
Position: Senior Program Officer
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.
The program’s interventions aim to
promote governance systems that are transparent, accountable, effective in
service delivery, and responsive to empowered citizens by working at both the
national and county government levels.
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) program 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 disaster risk
reduction.
The program is currently seeking a
skilled, diplomatic, effective, and highly motivated Senior Program officer
Position Summary: The Senior Program Officer for AHADI conceptualizes,
designs, and coordinates a range of interventions to build the capacity of
Kenyan institutions at the county and national level, including but not limited
to: the Council of Governors; the County Executives; the County Assemblies, the
County Assemblies Forum and diverse governmental and non-state actors.
Since many of AHADI’s interventions
will be implemented through its grants facility, the Senior Program Officer
will contribute to the drafting and design of grant proposals and contribute to
in-kind grants and other supports to governmental and quasi-governmental
organizations, developing synergies and constructive engagement between AHADI
and Kenya’s devolved institutions.
She/he will also support the Chief of
Party and Senior Grants Manager in the technical support of grantees in respect
to timely, quality performance.
Reports to: Chief of Party
Interrelationships: COP; DCOP, Program Officer, Sector Heads, Procurement
Manager; Senior Grants Manager, M&E specialist, Communication Specialist;
other program staff as necessary.
Qualifications:
·
Advanced degree (Masters, ) in a
governance-related field,
·
At least 7 years of experience in
progressively responsible experience in designing, implementing and managing
governance programs in Kenya
·
Demonstrated experience managing
successful teams comprised of experienced professionals
·
Demonstrated results based program
management, strategic planning, and problem solving skills working on complex
projects in a highly sensitive environment are required.
·
Experience with USAID-funded programs
·
Ability to work effectively with a
broad range of Kenyan elected officials, technocrats and leaders from civil
society.
·
Ability to work both independently
and in a team environment to achieve consensus on strategies, activities and
administrative matters is a must.
·
Demonstrated outstanding oral
communication skills, tact and diplomacy in establishing and sustaining working
relationships with high-level GoK officials and building a high level of trust
with public/private organizations.
·
Demonstrated oral communication
skills in negotiating activity plans and resolving activity implementation
issues with AHADI partners, government counterparts, and team members
·
Excellent written communication
skills are required to contribute to consultants’ Terms of Reference, regular
and ad hoc project reports, snapshots, lessons learned and briefing notes.
·
Excellent computer skills (MS Word,
Excel, Power Point, and Outlook)
·
Training and or experience in an
education-related field is an added advantage.
Responsibilities:
The incumbent will report to the
AHADI Chief of Party.
S/he will:
·
Assist the AHADI COP and staff
members to initiate and build relationships with government officials
(National, Parastatal, and County).
·
Collaborate with senior staff of
AHADI and implementing partners, to coordinate activities and to identify
appropriate interventions. This includes ensuring that AHADI is aware of all
devolution activities that the partners are implementing,
·
Contributes to the development of
grants strategies and negotiates technical scopes of work for grants; and
coordinates support to governmental and other partners.
·
Prepare regular brief activity
reports and updates, and contribute to activities under his/her purview to
AHADI progress reporting and activity/M&E
·
Support the implementation of the
AHADI work plan, including consolidating for submission to USAID, tracking, and
updating.
·
Maintain and ensure the ongoing
development of an appropriate framework for partner activity coordination
·
Maintaining regular communication
with AHADI Partners
·
Maintain regular communication with
other development partners, Government entities (National, Non-State Actors,
and County).
·
Coordinate with the M&E team to
ensure that lessons learned are used to adjust activity implementation
·
Monitor and advise on the program
learning tools and websites, internally for AHADI team, for collaboration with
USAID and other development partners, for inter-governmental sharing, and for
collaboration with other civil society.
·
Monitor the Activity Database to
ensure that all information is being captured and that the M&E team and
communications team are accessing the information.
·
Any other task as assigned by COP or
DCOP
Location: The Senior Program Officer 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 40%-50%.
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.