Multimedia and Communications Officer

Work Arrangement:

Job Description

Background:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world's leading crisis response agencies, providing life-saving assistance and supporting recovery and reconstruction for people affected by war and natural disasters. Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women's empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, IRC assists people from harm to home.

The IRC has been working in Uganda since 1998 supporting refugees, vulnerable host communities and various institutions in the country notably the government, community-based organizations, the civil society, and the private sector. Currently, the IRC in Uganda has presence across six sub-regions and six refugee settlements, implementing programming in the sectors of health, protection, and rule of law (PRoL), women’s protection and empowerment (WPE), economic recovery and development (ERD), and education. IRC Uganda also implements cross-cutting programming focused on systems strengthening and accountability to affected persons. As part of IRC Uganda’s strategic ambitions, the IRC works closely with local actors, including civil society organizations, local non-governmental organizations, local and national governments, among others, to strengthen their capacity and with intentions of transferring more resources for locally led implementation and support to our clients.

Job Overview/Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is implementing a three (03) year project titled ‘Kulea Watoto’ – meaning ‘nurturing children’ with funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Kulea Watoto is an initiative aimed at improving early childhood development and transforming livelihoods of refugees and host communities in Uganda by providing nurturing care and early childhood learning opportunities, and to build their own skills to generate income for their families. The project uses a unique two-generation approach to reach out to young children under five years of age and their caregivers in Yumbe, Kyegegwa and Kampala districts, implemented in partnership with four local partners – the AfriChild Centre, Madrasa Early Childhood Program, Kabarole Research and Resource Centre and Literacy and Adult Basic Education (LABE). To achieve this, the project offers learning sessions for parents and caregivers on responsive caregiving and provision of early learning opportunities, improved links to children’s services in local communities, livelihoods training, and start-up funding for promising business ideas, and more.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) and caregiving is a core organizational priority at the IRC with links to Health, Education, Child Protection, and Nutrition as detailed by the Nurturing care framework. Through Kulea Watoto program, the partners seek to meaningfully create policy change that will strengthen the enabling environment for quality ECD service provision with a focus on government and multilateral actors, humanitarian structures and systems. At the same, document the best practices, lessons learned to inform program impact and future actions.

To support these efforts, IRC under Kulea Watoto (KW) project is looking for Multimedia and Communications Officer to communicate and document best practices, lessons learned among others by collecting and developing communications and media content on behalf of the project. The desired candidate will have strong experience in writing press releases, media articles, developing blogs, success stories, documenting video and print media content, creating social and mainstream media content and understands well the importance of early childhood development and responsive caregiving.

The Multimedia and Communications Officer will report directly to the KW Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager with oversight support from the IRC Communications and Advocacy Coordinator in the conceptualization, planning and implementation of the program’s internal and external communications.

The Officer will be responsible for collecting and developing communications and media content on behalf of the project. The tasks will include but not limited to writing press releases, media articles, developing blogs, and creating social and mainstream media content.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

Technical implementation of project activities

- Draft, edit, and distribute various types of content, including material for the KW website, blogs, press releases, media articles and other types of content for public consumption. - Conduct client interviews to collect stories of change, case studies and other relevant project content. - Support video, and photo coverage for project events and documentation for dissemination to various audiences and reports. - Collaborate with management to develop and implement an effective communications strategy for Kulea Watoto based on our target audience. - Create and produce internal newsletters for the project as agreed.

Coordination, representation, and partner/stakeholder relationships:

- Develop and maintain working relationships with journalists from multiple media outlets including print and electronic with guidance from the country communications and advocacy coordinator. - Ensure regular and accurate coverage in the media particularly during special days/events in consultation with Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager, Country Communications and Advocacy Coordinator and other relevant project staff and partners. - Work closely with the consortium partners and the technical leads to identify needs and opportunities for multimedia content development and dissemination.

Monitoring, reporting and communication responsibilities.

- Support in the preparations for advocacy activities and writing reports. - Maintain records of media coverage and collate analytics and metrics. - Liaise with the MEAL team to proactively monitor multimedia solutions, documents, manage collected data, and disseminate learnings to key stakeholders. - Manage relationships with partners especially where conflicts arise in media related activities and escalate to management.

Other duties

- Other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable implementation of the IRC programs, - Raise purchase requests as and when required, - Participate in regular team meetings and supervision sessions. - Ensure that all materials are ready for info sessions before the activity. - Work constructively within the team and take the initiative on new tasks. - Promptly report concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment for the ERD program. - Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to perform in their positions successfully.

Personal qualities:

- Works well in the refugee contexts and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure well. - Demonstrable ability to engage and build excellent working relationships with local partner organizations, create synergies while implementing the project is vital.

Qualifications

Qualifications and skills required:

- Must hold a degree in Communications, Journalism, Digital Marketing, Public Information, International Relations, or a related field.

- A minimum of three years of relevant work experience in communication, Journalism, news writing and reporting, - Excellent writing skills, graphic design, illustration, and audio-visual production.

- Excellent technical affinity for media content including knowledge of a wide range of multimedia, web, and digital tools. - Experience in content creation, for example, writing blogs, press releases, videos, and designing online posters, writing, editing articles and reporting. - Proficiency in using communications gadgets (DSLR/HD cameras, video other production equipment). - Proficiency using creative graphic design and video production software, including but not limited to: Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Premier Pro, Final Cut pro and/or related software for graphic design and video/audio production to produce aesthetically pleasing and engaging materials for a wide audience. - Outstanding writing and editing skills. - Good organizational skills: the ability to be flexible and work well under pressure, dealing with competing priorities, in a fast-paced team environment. - Fluency in English is required.

Standards of Professional Conduct

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of 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, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons, and several others.

Gender Equality & Equal Opportunity

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request reasonable accommodation.