About RI:

Relief International (RI) is a leading nonprofit organization working in 16 countries to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty. Relief International combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach — which we call the RI Way—emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them. Relief International includes the four members of the RI Alliance in the USA, UK, France, and Belgium. Under our alliance agreement, we operate under a single, shared management structure with one CEO and one Board of Directors.

Position Summary

The Communications Coordinator plays a leading role in the design and implementation of Relief International’s Advocacy and Communications strategies in Syria.

He/she is responsible for preparing and implementing strategies and messages across all Relief International’s humanitarian and development work. The Communications Coordinator leads gathering and developing engaging visual and written material that reflects the impact of consecutive crises on people in Syria and effectively captures the impact of Relief International’s interventions in alleviating the stress of people in Syria and support their resilience. He/she succeeds in establishing strong and strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations to promote the protection of civilians in Syria.  The Communications Coordinator oversees all media and related external communications activities and leads in developing effective online social media strategies to engage the wider public. In addition, the Communications Coordinator builds capacity of Technical Specialists, Program Managers and field teams in undertaking advocacy activities and capturing communications materials in line with Relief International’s advocacy priorities and strategic goals in Syria.

Staff reporting to this post: 

• Direct: N/A
• Indirect: Communications Officers in operational hubs

Budget responsibilities

The role holder has no direct budget holder responsibility but oversees budget lines for all advocacy, and communications activities across projects.

Key areas of accountability

Strategic leadership:

• Lead the implementation of Relief International’s advocacy and communications strategies in Syria, ensuring alignment with the overall strategic plans for Relief International in Syria and Relief International’s broader advocacy ambitions globally. 
• Work closely with Grants and Awards and technical specialists to develop new projects and ensure that Advocacy and Communications interventions are strategically incorporated and adequately resourced and budgeted for in new proposals.

Advocacy

• Support project teams to effectively deliver advocacy and campaign activities within program areas – more specifically on Health and Nutrition, Protection, Child Protection and livelihoods.
• Lead the implementation of evidence-based advocacy initiatives that aim to have evidenced impact on the lives of families affected by the consecutive crises in Syria.
• Lobbying and relationship-building with policy makers, officials and other key stakeholders and supporting the team in engaging with stakeholders in the field as well as within operational hubs.
• Develop talking points, messages, speeches, briefing papers and other advocacy material.
• Maintain up-to-date stakeholder analyses and map out the work, interests and plans of other stakeholders in respect to identified advocacy priorities and ensure effective collaboration with like-minded organizations.
• Represent Relief International at relevant external meetings, platforms, working groups and fora, with a range of stakeholders including government, line ministries, donors and partners.
• Position Relief International as a leading advocate for the protection of vulnerable populations in Syria.

Communications and Media

• Lead the development/revision and implementation of the Relief International’s Communication Strategy and Plan in Syria
• Produce engaging materials (stories, audio-visual material, brochures, factsheets etc.) to communicate Relief International’s work to a wide range of audiences including donors, media, government and partners.
• Engage with national media and develop media products and relationships.
• Manage Relief International’s online presence, including website, social media channels and online communication.
• Work with program specialists and technical teams to devise effective strategies to communicate evidence of the impact of Relief International’s interventions in the sectors of health and protection, and showcasing good practices and lessons learned.
• Use evidence gathered from programming to influence policy and practice among communities, partners, donors and the general public by developing key messaging and approaches for community-level influencing and social behavior change.
• Lead media/communications responses to emerging crises and emergencies.
• Oversee internal communication to build awareness and cohesion among staff.
• Ensure Relief International’s branding guidelines are known and adhered to by all staff/programmes.
• Cultivate media contacts and appropriately establish proactive and beneficial relationships with media houses that can help in advancing Relief International’s policy, advocacy and response priorities, as well as identify opportunities to profile Relief International’s work.
• Work closely with Program teams in public mobilization and engagements, creating moments and opportunities for campaigning.
• Build and maintain effective, collaborative relationships with Relief International’s regional and global support office to ensuring they consistently receive information from Syria to support and inform their communications activities, by sharing stories, videos, photos etc. to highlight the Syria teams achievements in the context of these initiatives.

Internal alignment and capacity building.

• Ensure all communications efforts are aligned to and contribute to the Relief International’s advocacy strategy and influencing plans.
• Work in close collaboration with Technical Specialists on sector specific communications actions and support their external engagement efforts, especially with coordination clusters and working groups
• Conduct advocacy and communications training for field teams, management, technical specialists and partners.
• Ensure protection and safeguarding priorities across all advocacy and communications activities.

Advocacy impact assessment

• Develop and put in place indicators to monitor and measure the impact of advocacy and communications initiatives and share these achievements with Relief International’s teams via the most appropriate mediums.

• Share success stories and learning related to advocacy and communication initiatives with regional and global working teams to foster a community of practice across Relief International.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant subject such as social science, human rights, development, international relations, journalism/mass communication.
• Master or post graduate degree will be an added advantage.

Experience and skills:

• At least five years of experience in undertaking large-scale advocacy and communication initiatives in humanitarian and development contexts, preferably with focus on child rights issues.
• Proven experience in analyzing complex humanitarian situations and keeping a wider stakeholder group informed about emerging trends and developments.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, to analyze complex information and offer creative, practical and effective solutions.
• Excellent influencing skills, ability to deal with people at all levels with credibility, tact, and diplomacy.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, and an ability to produce good quality documents, information for diverse audiences.
• Experience with developing and implementing online and social media communications strategies.
• Strong interpersonal skills such as networking, negotiation and communication.
• Willing and able to travel field locations to support field teams.
• Proficiency using design and productivity software including Adobe Creative Cloud and/or other equivalent software to produce high quality communications and advocacy materials, including photo and videos, is required.
• Excellent command of the English language, both verbal and written is required.

RI Values

• We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence.
• We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities.
• We value
  • Inclusiveness
  • Transparency and accountability
  • Agility and innovation
  • Collaboration
  • Sustainability

All RI staff, volunteers and interns must adhere and respect these values.

Professional Standards

All Relief International members (staff, volunteers and interns) are committed to the RI policies such as, RI Code of Conduct, Child Protection Policy, Reporting Conflict of Interest, Reporting Misconduct, Reporting Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. All new comers are expected to adhere to all these policies.

Disclaimer Clause 

This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties and responsibilities associated with position.