Policy and Communication Manager Syria Damascus AO2

Contract

This is a Professional contract, Grade 9 (NRC) contract. More about Professional contract, Grade 9 (NRC) contracts.

Background:

NRC’s country programme in Syria implements WASH, and Education for vulnerable communities.

Role Summary:

The Policy and Communication Manager is responsible for ensuring that NRC’s advocacy strategy is relevant to the needs of communities in Syria and is informed by evidence from NRC’s programmes. The post-holder, in line with the overall country strategy, supports Programme Specialists to develop and deliver on sector advocacy strategies and Area Managers and their teams to implement advocacy plans at field level as appropriate.

The Policy and Communication Manager also supports the development of communications-related visibility for programme activities.

General Responsibilities:

• Identify and coordinate NRC’s advocacy response to prioritised issues both within the country and internationally
• Develop and implement country-specific advocacy and communication strategy, aligned to overall country strategy
• Line management of the Policy and Communications team, set their strategic direction, and ensure that planning and commitments are executed; including development of staff where applicable
• Ensure advocacy coherence and reinforce effective synergies between programmes and advocacy by working closely with programme staff to integrate advocacy into programme planning and implementation
• Sound political judgement on issues of extreme sensitivity. Makes decisions and solves problems on complex issues, requiring creative thinking to find best solutions and drawing on information from a variety of sources to inform decision making.
• Ensure systematic training on advocacy, policy and communication and build capacity of technical staff
• Provide high quality analysis on key humanitarian trends and prepare evidenced-based policy briefing papers, policy position statements and other advocacy products when strategic and relevant
• Liaise with other NRC Country, Regional and Global Representation Offices to coordinate the strategic delivery of advocacy messaging and to maximise impact
• Oversee communications strategy, ensuring potential risks associated with NRC’s positions are assessed and sign-off procedures are adhered to
• Coordinates with NRC head office, regional office and representative offices, participate and represent NRC as needed in relevant country coordination groups and mechanisms, including sectors, DINGO and technical working groups, through information sharing to inform best practices, identifying gaps and avoiding duplication, with the objective of enhancing our joint influencing capacity and impact.

Specific responsibilities

• Monitor influential research produced by key donors and think tank institutions and as well as activities of relevant influential actors, organisations and institutions on governance, humanitarian assistance, protection; and ensure they are considered in advocacy work
• Ensure oversight of sign off for all influencing and media and communication products in Syria as per NRC guidelines
• Supervise and steer media and communications activities conducted by the media and communications staff, ensuring that these are aligned with the team’s priorities, and comply with NRC’s media guidelines for content gathering.
• Build relationships with advocacy, media/communications colleagues in other organizations (eg. NGOs, UN agencies, civil society) to coordinate and collaborate on projects.
• Provide advocacy, policy and communication input into programme proposals to ensure that they are in line with NRC positions, priorities and guidelines.
• Ensure streamlining of NRC communication and media content across all programs in Syria.
• To improve the internal communication in country through the development of newsletters, social media, posters, internal campaigns, information sharing…. etc
• As a member of the CMG - actively participate and contributes to the strategic direction of the country programme, provide analysis/reports to Senior Management Team and advise on programme & policy based advocacy

Critical Interfaces:

By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are:

• Programme and M&E Staff: to ensure that a sound evidence base underpins advocacy work and policy recommendations

• Regional Head of Advocacy and Communications, regional communication advisers MERO: to ensure active contribution to regional advocacy initiatives and Lebanon-specific input to advocacy messaging

• External Relations, Oslo: Providing stories and information for Norwegian and international media and the NRC website
• Consortia Secretariat & Partners: ensure coordination and effective advocacy and communications are engaged in consortia that NRC is leading and/or participating in
• UN, Donor and NGO Networks: to ensure effective advocacy channels are maintained inside Lebanon and that information flows to NRC
• NRC Representation Offices (Geneva, Brussels, London, Washington and Berlin) in coordination with the NRC Middle East regional office

Competencies:

Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following three categories:

1. Professional Competencies:

These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.

Professional competencies for this position:

• Bachelor degree in Political Sciences, Journalism, Law, or any other relevant field
• Minimum 5 years of experience working in advocacy in the humanitarian context
• Professional knowledge of humanitarian and protection principles
• Communications management, including internal communications and communicating with communities
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts
• Experiencing planning and overseeing communications planning
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal

Context/specific skills, knowledge and experience:

• Knowledge of the context in the Middle East
• Knowledge of Arabic is an advantage
• Experience with humanitarian protection programmes and humanitarian policy and advocacy
• Strong writing skills and analytical skills, preferably with a history of writing communications materials, and ability to produce quality advocacy work within tight deadlines.
• Excellent teamwork skills and has experience working closely with programme teams, technical experts, partners and management to provide sound communications advice.
• Strong organisational and personal management skills, with ability to prioritise work issues to meet deadlines.
• Ability to work creatively, effectively and in an innovative manner and to identify and develop new ways to use the advocacy and media to NRC’s advantage.
• Excellent networking and negotiation skills to develop good working

2. Behavioural Competencies:

These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies, the following are essential for this position:

• Planning and delivering results
• Analysis
• Communicating with impact and respect
• Strategic thinking
• Influencing
• Handling insecure environments

Performance Management:

The employee will be accountable for the responsibilities and the competencies, in accordance with the NRC Performance Management Manual. The following documents will be used for performance reviews:

• The Job Description
• The Work and Development Plan
• The Mid-term/End-of-trial Period Performance Review Template
• The End-term Performance Review Template
• The NRC Competency Framework

What we can offer:

• Contract period: 12 months –Fixed Term Contract renewable based on performance, funding & need for the position
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s salary scale and terms and conditions
• Duty station: Damascus, Syria
• Travel: 50% ((Areas of Operations)