Communications Specialist

The Market Development Facility, an Australian Government funded initiative, aims to:

• Create additional employment and income earning opportunities for poor women and men through broad-based and sustainable pro-poor growth;
• By making rural and urban sectors of the economy in which the poor are involved as producers and workers, more competitive and making them grow; 
• By trigger lasting, 'systemic' changes in the markets systems around these sectors to reduce constraints to growth and to increase their capacity to innovate and deal with competitive, regulatory, social and environmental pressures, so that the benefits for the poor will sustain and expand in time.

The Facility is committed to implementing a systems approach to stimulating pro-poor growth:

• Rather than working with the poor directly, the Facility will seek to develop partnerships with players in the private and public sector with the ability and leverage to trigger lasting systemic changes that create broad-based, sustainable pro-poor growth
• With each partner, the Facility will design and negotiate detailed action plans, which include clear financial and resource commitments, to arrive at appropriate, innovative and sustainable solutions.
• Sector players take the lead in implementing and the Facility's role is limited and short-term.

MDF is a multi-country facility, currently operational in Fiji, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, PNG and Sri Lanka. In subsequent years it is expected that MDF will be operational in an expanding number of countries. Each country will have its own Country Team (CT) on the ground.

A small Core Leadership Team (CLT), led by the Team Leader has the responsibility to work across all MDF countries to ensure the uniformity and integration of approach and systems across countries while at the same time providing sufficient operational flexibility for the CTs on the ground.

The Communications Manager is a member of the CLT. Across the Facility, thematic working-groups work on Facility-wide work areas such as communications. The Communications Working Group is headed by the Communications Manager and is made up of Communications Coordinators, Communications Specialists and Communications Anchors – who also work on other functional areas within the Facility.

The Communications working-group should safeguard the quality and coherence of MDF communications effort, so that relevant audiences identified by MDF have access to regular, up to date, informative and appropriately diverse communications materials in various formats on how MDF works and what it achieves. 

Assignment Objectives

• The purpose of the job is to develop communication products and local strategies to communicate the effectives of the MDF approach and the results that it generates to relevant stakeholders as identified in the MDF Communications Strategy. The Communications Specialist is an integral member of the Pakistan Country Team. This means that in addition to his/her primary responsibility for communications (s)he will be involved in the implementation of partnerships.
• The Communications Specialist is expected to spend approximately 80% of his/her time on communications related efforts and the remainder of his/her time on implementation of partnerships and all other tasks that members of the Country Team need to perform.
• The Communications Specialist is also a member of the Facility-wide Communications Working Group. As such, while the Communications Specialist is primarily responsible for the day-to-day communications activities in Pakistan, (s)he will also support Facility-wide communications efforts.      
• The Communications Specialist reports to the Country Representative, but will consult closely with the Communications Manager.
• The Communications Specialist must help ensure that MDF’s communications are correct, timely and in no way misleading.   

Specific responsibilities

A. Essential functions and responsibilities – Communications

• Under the guidance of Communications Manager and the Communications Coordinator(s), together with the Country Representative, lead the implementation of MDF’s Communication Strategy in country and collaborate with other members of the Country Team for effective country communications on a day-to-day basis. 
• Under the guidance from and with the support of the Communications Manager, generate content for all relevant MDF communications formats, the website and other platforms and ensure their quality, consistency and timelines; support Facility-wide communication efforts when as and when required.
• Work closely with the Country Team to identify and capture relevant content and stories to be produced; analyse results, make these insightful and “communicable” to a variety of audiences and suggest ways to improve the Facility's effectiveness and visibility.
• Produce multimedia products:
  • Photos – all partnerships and activities are covered and shared on Flickr
  • Video – lead on the production of video material for Pakistan
  • Exposure photo essays
  • Infographics and diagrams.
• Lead on managing and developing country level social media engagement (including Facebook and Twitter) – updating on a daily basis.
• Organise events and visits and generate coverage from events for media and MDF's online platforms.
• Travel where needed to “report” stories in detail and verify that information is correct, or to work with MDF staff on communications products.
• Together with the Communications Manager and the Communications Coordinator(s), manage contracts with Short-Term Technical Experts and lists of retained Technical Specialists/Service Providers (such as photographers, videographers, editors, writers, event managers etc.).
• Together with the Communications Manager, ensure that all MDF communications products are in line with relevant guidelines, such as the DFAT visual identify guidelines, the MDF visual identity guidelines, and DFAT Child Protection Guidelines and MDF style guide; ensure that DFAT Child Protection Guidelines are met. 
• Under the guidance of the Country Representative, engage with media and DFAT around specific events and activities - write press releases.
• Contribute to the monitoring of communications initiatives impact and assist on recording results.

B. Essential functions and responsibilities – Implementation

• Understanding the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach to development and design and manage interventions in line with its principles.
• Understanding the DCED guidelines for results measurement in order to be able to conduct results measurement in line with these principles.
• Analyse (sectors) of the economy in a qualitative an qualitative manner, develop a 'deep' understanding of their functioning,
• Identify their potential for pro-poor growth, constraints to growth and innovative solutions and opportunities to unlock this growth potential, making enterprises more competitive and creating job and income earning opportunities for the poor and underprivileged.
• Develop sector growth strategies for inclusive, pro-poor growth.
• Communicate with, negotiate with and develop partnerships with a large variety of strategic private and public players in these (potential) growth sectors to introduce innovation and unlock the pro-poor growth potential, with a focus on partnership involving media and/or communicating with large audiences (e.g. rural extension).
• Draft partnership justifications and partnership agreements.
• Contribute to maintaining a results measurement system in line with DCED guidelines and collaborate with the Results Measurement Manager and the Results Measurement Specialist for effective results measurement. 
• Develop intervention plans and, in collaboration with the Results Measurement Specialist, develop results chains and measurement plans for each intervention and sector in which the Facility is active, and execute those plans in collaboration with the Results Measurement Specialist, applying good research practice.
• Work in a flexible, professional, business-friendly manner, driven by a wish to create real collaboration, real changes and real results, and be a team player.
• Willing to travel extensively to develop a deep insight in the economy, meet the players and potential partners, and verify whether the interventions designed achieve their objectives.
• Be self-critical about the sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency of the results achieved and willing to learn from them.
• Be sensitive to gender equality and actively search for opportunities for women to participate in economic growth.
• Be sensitive to the obstacles faced by persons with a disability and actively search for opportunities for such persons to participate in economic growth, to the extend possible.
• Actively promote environmentally and socially responsible business practices and avoid promoting business practices that are not sustainable from an environmental or social point of view.
• Serve as a representative of Cardno Emerging Markets (Australia) Pty Ltd., displaying courtesy, tact, consideration, and discretion in all interactions with other project employees, partners and the wider public.

B. Other duties and responsibilities:

• The incumbent may at times be required to perform duties that are beyond the scope of the job profile given above. This includes matters related to the programme as a whole such as staff development, representation and recruitment. Also, given the professional and flexible nature of the programme, staff can be asked to contribute short-term to other Country Implementation Teams if the need arises. Such activities will be taken into consideration in assessing performance under the job profile defined above.

C. Allocation of work responsibilities

• Work loads between sectors, interventions and between implementation and communications will invariably vary. To preserve the professional nature of the organization and to be able to work in an efficient and flexible manner, responding to communications speeds and needs, responsibilities and work allocation will be defined on an activity-by-activity basis by the team leader (or his delegate) and can change in time. This will encourage good performance and also define areas for further development.

D. Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• The individual must possess these skills and abilities, or explain and demonstrate that he/she can perform the essential functions, with or without reasonable accommodation, using some combination of skills and abilities.

E. Fiscal Responsibility:

• Budgeting responsibilities, approval privileges on purchase orders and disbursement requests, as well as reporting and auditing functions remain with the Facility management.

F. Extent of public contact and marketing:

• The position, as part of the job description, requires contact with potential partners in the selected sectors. These exchanges should be limited to information sharing except in cases where the Team leader (or his delegate) has delegated authority to negotiate on joint activities. The position should not reach agreements with programmatic and budgetary implications without the permission of the Team leader (or his delegate).

G. Physical demands:

• Fieldwork plays a large part in the activities of the Facility. Therefore, it is expected that the incumbent be willing and able to take part in such activities.

H. Working Conditions and environment:

• This will be according to the MDF Operations Manual.

Selection Criteria:

• At least a Bachelor Degree (Masters preferred) in a relevant discipline: journalism, communications or marketing preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to write high quality, engaging content quickly.
• Demonstrated ability to edit others written materials into concise engaging communications materials.
• Strong working knowledge of MS Office programmes. Knowledge of and ability to use other relevant software preferred (photo/video editing and graphic design programmes).
• Experience using website Content Management Systems (CMS).
• Demonstrated ability to organize high quality events.
• Experience producing video and other multimedia products preferred.
• Highly adept in the use of social media.
• Good media contacts and ability to engage with local (and international) media an asset.
• Excellent command of both verbal and written English and Urdu, knowledge of other languages an asset.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy within all aspects of work.
• Excellent level of interpersonal, negotiation and conflict resolution skills.
• High level planning, multi-tasking and time management skills.
• A high degree of personal initiative, enthusiasm for the work, strong organizational skills and the ability to work with minimum supervision in a multi-cultural environment and with people in multiple countries.
• A police clearance certificate.

Application Requirements:

• Position is open to people based in Pakistan. Rates of pay are based on local labor standards.
• This position requires some travel (domestic and international).
• Please provide examples of your prior work relevant to this job.
• You may be required to undertake a written exercise or presentation as part of the recruitment.

 

To apply, please submit a CV and Cover Letter which demonstrates how you meet the above criteria to: [email protected] stating “Pakistan Communication Specialist” in the Subject Line.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.

 

Applications close 7^th July 2017 17:00 PKT Pakistan Time. Previous applicants need not apply