SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Pact Inc and the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) are implementing a five-year program – Expanding Access to Justice (EAJ) program in Somalia. The program’s aim is to ensure that individuals and communities, especially women and marginalized groups, obtain a rights-based resolution of their justice issues.

EAJ is looking to recruit a creative, savvy, high achiever with an outstanding record in communications work, especially within an international development context to support the project. This Senior Communications Officer role provides an excellent opportunity to work on both strategic and operational aspects of communications. At the same time, the role will involve bolstering the capacity of other EAJ partners with a view to enabling clearer, more coherent messaging across the program. This is a 1-year role with the possibility of extension.

The position will be based in Mogadishu, reporting to the Chief of Party, with expected frequent travel to all program implementation areas.

Scope of work

Based in Mogadishu, the successful candidate will be challenged to think strategically, tactically to build and implement effective communications platforms for the EAJ program.

The successful candidate will have the freedom to design and deliver a workplan to build on the communications assets developed by EAJ so far. The four main objectives will be to: a) build effective communication platforms that supports EAJ; b) contribute to the design, development, and execution of communications activities to support EAJ, including support multimedia content development and draft materials for internal and external release; c) provide coordination and editing support for program deliverables (quarterly and annual reports) and products; and d) bolster the capacity of EAJ staff and partners with a view to enabling clearer, more coherent messaging.

Specific objectives and activities will include:

• Designing and delivering a comprehensive but practical communication platforms for EAJ. This will involve working with the EAJ senior management to develop and implement communications strategies, brand and visibility guidelines; key partnership liaison strategies, audience maps; targeted contact databases; key messages; digital and non-digital channels; programme and project workplans; editing and packaging reports, planning and execution tools; communication templates; monitoring and evaluation of communication activities; capacity building for EAJ staff and partners; workshop planning and delivery, events planning and management, developing and implementing communications policies and procedures.
• Supporting the design and delivery of communications platforms for EAJ and its partners. This will involve the provision of communications guidance and capacity building to interested partners. With the guidance from the EAJ program management

team, the Senior Communications Officer will help partners to apply this guidance to their contexts. This will require travel to partner and implementation sites.

• Fostering a vibrant working group for communications. The program intends set up a community of practice for communications which will entail working with EAJ partners. With guidance from the EAJ program management team, the Senior Communications Officer will galvanise the working group by injecting energy and ideas and formalising its ongoing modus operandi. The purpose is to share knowledge, strengthen the EAJ communications community and provide a platform for communications training and mentoring.
• Developing and managing innovative tools and channels to capture and share EAJ ideas and impact. This role will provide scope to strengthen existing and create new ways to measure and communicate the impact of EAJ . Working closely with the EAJ senior management team and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) team, these new methods might include case study and research projects, innovative event hosting, visual presentation and storytelling, video diaries, human interest stories, infographics, podcast and blogs.

Competencies

To deliver these objectives and the associated scope of work, Pact Inc. is searching for a candidate with the following skills and experience:

• Excellent knowledge and understanding of strategic communications. EAJ and its partners operate in complex environments and deliver a diverse portfolio of projects. To deliver long-term outcomes (scale up, replication, sustainability etc.) and help the program develop a reputation for excellence (responsive, pioneering, professional etc.) the successful candidate will need to demonstrate a deep conceptual understanding of strategic communications. They will also need to demonstrate knowledge of how communications work can be applied to the field of access to justice.
• Extensive experience of developing and operating communications platforms and activities. The EAJ program is setting up a number of communication assets. The successful candidate is expected to run an active twitter handle for EAJ, develop and maintain contact databases for EAJ, pre-qualify communications consultants, develop templates, send out press releases, create and send out newsletters using Mailchimp. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate a proven track record of delivery, which will allow them to build on this work and fully develop, implement and manage an effective EAJ communications platform. Although not mandatory, EAJ would strongly prefer to hire a candidate with knowledge on expanding access to justice.
• Excellent knowledge and experience of training and coaching others in strategic communications. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their potential to provide targeted support to EAJ staff as well as partners to build in-house communications capacity and improve the coherence of communications activities across the two projects.

Qualifications and Work Experience

• Minimum bachelor’s degree in communication, journalism or related fields from a reputable university. Master’s degree in communication, journalism or related fields will be an added advantage.
• 3 to 5 years of relevant experience.
• Excellent in analytical writing
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Audition.
• Familiarity with social media platforms
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Strategy formulation and execution skills
• Passionate and committed change agent
• Somalia work experience (including Somali language competency) ideal