Communications Specialist

"About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Program / Department Summary

The USAID Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa) is a five-year USAID-funded program that started in 2022 and aims to support Jordan's HBBs and MSEs to grow, transform, and become resilient to future shocks. Iqlaa’s approach explores new ways of doing business and improving access to finance, markets, and services.

The program focuses on four sectors: agriculture, hospitality and tourism, manufacturing, and services, with a special focus on technology development and implementation. Iqlaa infuses a gender, youth, and social inclusion lens throughout all interventions. Through research and adaptive collaborative learning, Iqlaa will identify opportunities, incentives, and market constraints that facilitate or restrict formalization and growth. Based on the findings, Iqlaa will implement best practices in enterprise strengthening, inclusive job creation, and financial sector development within a market systems development (MSD) framework. Iqlaa will also leverage innovative behavioral change methodologies to facilitate long-term, sustainable changes in the MSEs ecosystem in Jordan. Mercy Corps leads on the implementation of Iqlaa, and weaves together technical expertise from a robust set of national, regional, and international partners.

General Position Summary

The Communications Specialist is an important position for the Iqlaa program that will support in the implementation of the program’s communications and public outreach strategy, and its internal information structures, in line with USAID guidelines and branding and marking requirements. The Communications Specialist will develop, implement, and monitor communications activities to promote Iqlaa program and maintain informative and effective communication channels with the project’s different stakeholders.

The Communications Specialist will mainly:

• Develop high-quality communications tools, materials, and donor reports, ensuring messaging, style and branding compliance, backstopping our media relations and events participation.

• Make sure our online and offline presence meets the desired communications objectives, and that all program communications content aligns with Iqlaa’s needs and standards.

• Implement creative, consistent, and effective communications and outreach activities leveraging tools like public awareness and advocacy campaigns, printed advertising, radio, website, social media, and other forms of electronic communications.

Ultimately, the objective will be to help ensure clear and timely communication of Iqlaa’s message to target beneficiaries, stakeholders, and donor across all needed channels and platforms.

The Communications Specialist should be a well-organized professional and a strong communicator with excellent writing skills in English and Arabic, excellent editorial skills, high attention to detail, excellent digital marketing experience, and administrative skills. The Communications Specialist needs to have deep experience of working in USAID-funded projects.

Essential Responsibilities

In coordination with the Communications Director:

STRATEGIC

● Implement Iqlaa’s communications and advocacy strategies and plans in accordance with USAID standards and guidelines and ensure that all activities are in-line with the provisions laid out in the plan.

● Establish deep understanding of program progress and activities and identify potential stories or news for publishing.

● Document and disseminate key findings from program studies and evaluations in a simple manner to influence program design and donor and policy makers’ priorities.

● Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to ensure project results are communicated in an effective and compelling manner to a varied group of stakeholders and audiences.

● Refine and maintain Iqlaa’s desired identity throughout all channels of communication.

● Develop and maintain a clear simple narrative which effectively communicates Iqlaa’s story through its activities, goals and objectives to stakeholders and beneficiaries.

● Manage the donor reports development process including collecting information from function leads, and drafting and editing high-quality reports in a timely manner.

IMPLEMENTATION

● Lead the development and administration of quarterly, annual, and closing program reports.

● Collaborate with technical and administrative staff to finalize communications materials.

● Regularly produce success stories and other communications pieces for distribution as well as for use in project communication and for all outward-facing campaigns and in line with the Iqlaa narrative.

● Create and edit compelling communications content – draft and manage the design and distribution of press releases, articles, web content, blogs, social media posts, mass emails, surveys, and other electronic content as well as print materials.

● Work with Mercy Corps communications team to pitch message-based stories to media and manage requests for press comment and interviews.

● Identify and leverage opportunities to secure guest blogs, op-eds, and other media coverage of Iqlaa.

● Develop and release public communications in conjunction with Mercy Corps communications teams when appropriate.

● Draft speeches and prepare presentations.

● Maintain a well-structured archive of success stories and produced communications material.

● Manage events planning, execution, and protocols.

● Develop and manage professional relationships with relevant local/regional media representatives.

● Review communications content and material developed by Iqlaa’s partners, service providers, beneficiaries to be aligned with Iqlaa’s messaging, branding, marking and style.

● Support program staff in the drafting, editing, and creation of communications materials supporting program goals and special events and campaigns.

● Build and execute digital and social media strategies and track and analyze media exposure.

● Draft requests for quotations/proposals and scopes of work for communication activities.

● Facilitate effective internal/ external communications.

● Manage contacts databases and media lists.

● Coordinate with the Communications Team to execute work plans with excellence.

● Support program initiatives and program goals.

● Communicate effectively to ensure relevant overall project targets and donor obligations are met.

● Demonstrate flexibility to work across different sites in Jordan on day missions.

● Attend to other communications-relevant duties as assigned by direct supervisor and/or senior program leadership.

HUMAN RESOURCES, SAFEGUARDING AND DIVERSITY

● Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development.

RISK MANAGEMENT

● Engage and support countries across the region to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place.

● Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.

● Engage with country teams on the internal audit process to track findings and ensure country team compliance with IA findings and recommendations.

● Engage with country level Ethics and Assurance managers as well as the global Ethics and Assurance department to track and analyze trends and needs across countries.

Accountability

Reports Directly To:

Communications Director

Supervisory Responsibility

(In coordination with the Communications Director) Communications Officer, Creative Officer

Works Directly With: Communications Director, Communications Team, Deputy Chief (s) of Party, Technical Leads, other relevant staff members, partners, service providers, beneficiaries.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification

● BSc/BA in Marketing, Communications, Business or a related field is desired. A Master’s degree is a plus.

● 7 to 10 years of experience demonstrating growing responsibilities in communications.

● Experience working in USAID-funded projects, UN agencies or NGOs; demonstrating practical knowledge of such organizations’ standards and guidelines - especially regarding branding, marking and communications.

Success Factors

The Communications Specialist will have a deep commitment to humanitarian principles and values as well as to the overall objectives and approach of the Iqlaa program. They will be curious and have a willingness to learn new skills and methodologies while bringing a solid foundation in communication and marketing donor-funded programs ideally in Jordan or the region. They will have the ability to work under pressure, independently and with limited supervision and will be highly organized with creative problemsolving skills. They will have high attention to details and demonstrate proactivity, collaboration teamwork, excellent communication and interpersonal skills. They will have strong time management skills, including the ability to juggle multiple tasks and respond rapidly to new events and competing priorities.

Competencies

● Native Arabic speaker with solid editing skills in English and Arabic

● Outstanding communication abilities and writing skills with proven capacity to produce highquality briefs, press releases, reports and other communication pieces in English and Arabic for internal and external stakeholders

● Demonstrated expertise in dissemination of information through print, web and email

● Digital and social media strategy building, management, and analysis

● Media and public relations management

 ● Events planning and management

● Research skills

● Excellent computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Office

● Photo editing skills; Photoshop, InDesign, and content management systems is a plus

● Video editing is a plus

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Amman, Jordan and it requires in-country travel across governorates to support program activities. Staff will have access to good medical services.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
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