Communications and Advocacy Coordinator At International Rescue Committee

Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a leading emergency response and development organization, supporting communities in transition in over 40 countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has implemented programs in Yemen for over 10 years, and has reached over 5 million beneficiaries in Yemen through health, nutrition, protection, economic recovery, WASH, and emergency response programs.

Scope of work

Reporting to the Deputy Director of Grants and Accountability, this role will focus on developing and implementing IRC Yemen’s communications and advocacy strategy, ensuring consistent messaging to support high-quality external relations and to enable every staff member to be an effective ambassador for the mission. This role will hold responsibility for the development of content and materials suitable for dissemination to donors, stakeholders, potential partners, and sharing via IRC’s website and other channels, in the context of the broader strategy. The post-holder will also coordinate closely with the Programmes, MEAL, and Grants Units and the SMT in order to inform and advance advocacy messaging to donors, within the humanitarian architecture in-country and within IRC’s global advocacy framework.

Communications

• Develop an initial strategy for IRC Yemen’s mission communications, including core and sector-specific messaging.

• In coordination with relevant HQ staff, develop a content calendar for the year to highlight IRC Yemen’s successes on IRC’s social media

• Develop a draft budget outlining different scenario, and the associated costs, for potential iterations of the communications strategy (basic outputs, medium-level outputs, and a large-scale strategy).

• Develop factsheets (Arabic/English) suitable for external dissemination, and for sharing on IRC’s website, outlining the mission aims and sectors of intervention. Factsheets should outline intervention locations, intervention strategy, key activities, and ideally a human interest or success story.

• Develop a core body of communications materials (Arabic/English) suitable for use with donors and other external stakeholders to demonstrate the history and impact of IRC’s mission in Yemen.

• As required, develop situation reports (sitreps) to demonstrate the progress and impact of IRC’s emergency interventions.

• Collect and develop human interest and success stories related to IRC’s interventions in Yemen for use in donor reports, social media posts, and other communications materials.

• Identify appropriate stories, or, as relevant, IRC staff and/or clients for inclusion in external communications by third parties (such as donors or journalists). As needed, accompany donor or press visits for this purpose.

• Develop a photo library for use in communications material and project teams.

• Develop project communications strategies, if required.

• Support the design and layout of other visual materials required within the mission, such as IEC or safeguarding materials.

• Build the capacity of the programme teams in topics related to effective communications, such as identifying appropriate success stories and informed consent for visual content collection.

Advocacy

• In coordination with the SMT and global teams, elaborate IRC’s top-level advocacy messaging and ensure that it is contextualized to Yemen

• Maintain a sound understanding of changes to the Yemen, regional and global political context, and adjust messaging as necessary

• Maintain a sound understanding of changes to IRC’s operating environment, and adjust messaging as necessary

• Regularly gather information from programmes and MEAL teams to ensure that messaging is supported by relevant, recent evidence from IRC’s work

• Act in an advisory role to senior staff participating in external events, ensuring that they are well-briefed on IRC’s mission and relevant messages to be shared

• Draft or edit, as required, advocacy documents such as press releases, reports, position papers and contributions to external advocacy actions

• Identify strategic opportunities to advance IRC’s messaging, both on a regular and issue-specific basis

• Ensure strong coordination of advocacy messages throughout communications content

Requirements:

• At least four (4) years of international work experience in relief or development programs, including playing a significant role in external communications production

• Excellent written and spoken English is required. Written and spoken Arabic would be an advantage.

• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing similar strategies within the Yemen context is required

• Demonstrated understanding of the Yemen operating context and its opportunities and challenges

• Familiarity with international standards for key program areas.

• Familiarity with the humanitarian and cluster system, including advocacy and accountability mechanisms

• Familiarity with graphic design software such as InDesign will be an advantage

• Ability to support in development of visual (photo/video) content will be an advantage

Personal specifications

• Excellent organizational skills and ability to determine priorities and meet multiple deadlines

• Willingness to travel to potentially insecure implementation sites

• Detail-oriented with good multi-tasking abilities and communication skills, both oral and written

• Able to work well both within a team and independently, in a challenging and fast-moving multicultural environment

• Ability to work under pressure, long work hours, and high workload

• Ability to independently organize work and prioritize tasks

• Self-motivated, honest, highly responsible, and punctual

Housing
Lodging in Aden is in shared IRC guesthouse apartments. All IRC sites have electricity and internet.

Working environment

There is active conflict in parts of the country and a possibility of the conflict advancing and expanding into other locations. The situation in Aden is currently quiet but remains unpredictable. Security will be thoroughly discussed during the interview process.

Standards for professional conduct: The IRC and IRC staff must adhere to the values and principles outlined in The IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces a range of policies, including on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Gender equality & equal opportunity: We are committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer generous benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. We welcome and strongly encourage qualified female professionals to apply.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.