Background/IRC Summary:

 The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 30 years, and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet the needs in health, education, protection, environmental health and livelihoods for displaced, poor and disaster affected communities. IRC works in partnership with local government and non-governmental organizations and currently works in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces.

Job Overview/Summary:

Communication and Media Officer will be leading on information and communications needs in line with the IRC’s SAP, Strategic and Programmatic requirements. Reporting to the Department/Unit Lead, the  following position will work closely with country office and field office program staff to collect, analyze and share information and communicate the IRC’s work to key stakeholders internally (e.g. HQ, Region, Country Office programs etc.) and externally (e.g. donors, beneficiaries, partners, relevant government institutions, wider public etc.)

The Communication and Media Officer will be responsible for documenting overall progress, lessons learnt, case studies, developing communication material with internal and external key stakeholders, preparing donor briefs, supporting the development of advocacy briefs/material, support in designing and implementing information/awareness raising campaigns and preparing the internal periodical reports for ongoing program (as and when requested). This position requires a very frequent and close coordination with all key program staff within IRC and externally with implementing partners, clusters, government authorities and other NGOs.

Major Responsibilities:

• Maintain and provide support to country office and field team against internal information channels & communication policies and protocols, branding and marking guidelines i.e.in consultation with relevant focal points
• Build the capacities of key program staff on documenting success stories, case studies, media write-ups, press releases etc.
• Field visits to learn and understand the contexts and documenting and capturing stories from field which can/should be shared widely
• Respond to internal information requests from staff (CO/FO), partners and donors in consultation with respective program staff/supervisor
• Prepare briefing packs for donor and other visitors to IRC Advise the IRC’s Senior Management on innovative means and ways of communicating internally as they respond to staff’s mutual concerns, issues, announcements etc.
• As needed, research and writing of briefing materials and advocacy papers in coordination with the Regional Advocacy Office
• Transform reports/updates gathered from program implementation teams/partners into effective and useful information and disseminate efficiently to key relevant stakeholders
• Assist in planning and delivering various capacity building initiatives planned in addition to information dissemination/ awareness raising campaigns for IRC broadly
• Draft internal progress reports, presentations and updates as per donor’s and IRC requirements with highest quality standards
• Produce high quality case studies and document the learning as shared in different forums or highlighted during course of project implementation

COORDINATION:

• Liaise with other sectors and IRC program teams to ensure that all relevant colleagues including department/unit lead and SMT members have updated information available at hand
• Attend all relevant  Program Coordination Meetings, opening/implementation/review meetings
• Liaising with different NGOs, INGOs, UN Organizations, Govt. organizations to support LNGB program particularly in protection mainstreaming and advocacy initiatives
• Support supervisor in  organizing meetings;
• Contribute to overall project support regarding internal/ external communication with partners with least supervision

REPORTING:

• Writing and editing high quality analytical reports, publications, website content and taking minutes during meetings
• Writing of different high quality progress & analytical reports, workshop reports, grants report, interim reports

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Department/Unit Lead Position directly supervises: N/A 

Job Requirements:

a)      Education:

• Master’s degree in mass communications, Media/Portfolio Management or equivalent

b)      Work Experience:

• At least 4 years of relevant work experience

c)      Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Excellent reporting writing skills in English
• Sound skills and experience of designing and implementing awareness and advocacy campaigns
• Fluent spoken English & Urdu
• Innovative & creative (with content development, generation and visualization)
• Excellent communication, reporting/documenting and analytical skills
• Proficient in qualitative analysis and documenting them into high quality analytical reports
• Computer skills including MS- Office, Excel, Power Point, Outlook.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks; proven self-initiative and problem solving abilities;
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Ability to meet short deadlines.
• Knowledge of research methods, media management 
• Ability to work under pressure

Language Skills:

• Fluent in local languages along with good Urdu and English speaking/writing skills

Others: 

Gender Equality:

• IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission.
• As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs.
• Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.
• Women candidates and differently able persons are highly encouraged to apply.

The IRC Core Values and Commitments;

• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.
• These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation and Combating Trafficking in Persons.
• IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children
• IRC ensures that its staff must actively practice the roles and responsibilities related to client responsiveness, accountability to people in affected communities and must have competencies to solicits and listens to feedback and other’s perspectives, responds to feedback with maturity and sensitivity and takes appropriate decisions and makes changes to behavior or actions in response to feedback.
• IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission.
• As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs.
• Our organizational policies, procedures and actions demonstrate this commitment.

Women candidates and differently able persons are highly encouraged to apply.