Senior Communications Officer / Erbil or Baghdad

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC established programs in Iraq in 2003 to address the overwhelming needs of displaced people in Iraq and the neighboring countries. Since re-establishing its presence in Iraq in November 2007, the IRC has been assisting thousands of internally displaced families in the northern, central, and southern governorates in the sectors of protection, gender-based violence (GBV), early childhood development, economic recovery, Child Protection, and emergency humanitarian assistance. Today, the IRC works in close coordination with the humanitarian and development partners in Iraq and local stakeholders to address the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Returnees, and Host communities. We operate in several governorates throughout Central and Southern Iraq, including Anbar, Ninewa, SAD, and Kirkuk, with additional offices in Erbil and Baghdad.

 

Job Overview/Summary:

IRC Iraq seeks an experienced professional for the position of Senior Communication Officer (SCO) to support project-specific communications deliverables and visibility requirements, as well as the content collection for and development of proactive and reactive communications elements across the program portfolio. The SCO will ensure regular, timely, and high-quality communications content to showcase the project’s/programs’ successes on our respective comms channels through a range of products including success stories, information and fact sheets, social media posts, etc.  The SCO will report to Policy, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator and will work in close collaboration with the Iraq program’s grants, partnerships, and MEAL teams, as wells the Middle East Regional Communications team and global content  and creative teams. This role will help to elevate the internal and external visibility of the IRC Iraq country program in alignment with the country office strategic action plan.

 

Major Responsibilities:

Managing visibility and branding requirements:

• Work in close collaboration with IRC grants team to ensure adherence to branding and visibility requirements across IRC Iraq programs and in partner locations.
• Maintain a calendar of donor deliverables which is accessible to program and other colleagues, and support in the collation and submission of products to the donor by deadline.
• Regularly liaise with regional communications and global communications/content teams to stay up to date on relevant processes, manage timelines, and ensure smooth processes.

·       Advise program colleagues on compliance with the IRC and donor branding and visibility guidelines on communications materials as needed.

·     Coordinate sign off on branded items and products as necessary.

 

Collecting and packaging communications content:

• Work in close coordination with PAC coordinator and program teams to develop a communications work plan including collection and production of high quality communication materials such as human interest stories, photos, blogs, and videos in English and Arabic.

·       work closely with the regional senior communications and media manager, and content and digital specialist to archive quality content to IRC’s multimedia bank and ensure content is accessible by all relevant stakeholders from different offices.

·       Work closely with the content and digital specialist at the regional office to edit donor-requested videos as per IRC’s standards.

·       Participate in joint communications initiatives by regional and HQ offices to raise visibility of IRC Iraq’s programming and success stories and participate in IRC MENA’s monthly communications call to present updates from country program and exchange knowledge with counterparts.

·       Develop communications calendar with regular updates to showcase program activities.

• Organizing and archiving all communications content and consent forms to IRC’s internal content management systems and digital storage platforms.
• Stay updated on all ongoing and upcoming project/program activities to anticipate and plan comms opportunities.

 

Gathering, managing, and summarizing information related to projects and programs:

• Working closely with program and MEAL teams to collect program information, updates on the impact of our work, and updated quantitative data to use in communications products and posts.
• Support information and briefings requests, updating information materials such as fact sheets, newsletters, and infographics. Lead in creation of social media posts in Arabic and English as requested.
• Keep up to date on relevant reports, data, national news articles, research, and partners’ communications related to IRC’s client populations, social and political developments, and local context and produce regular updates for colleagues.

 

Internal communications and visibility:

• Lead in production of IRC Iraq internal newsletter for other IRC stakeholders, highlighting IRC Iraq program activities, success stories, and partnership goals.
• Support to senior management as needed for visibility including blogging on ‘Rescuenet’, social media posts in English and Arabic, and key messaging for important dates.
• Provide trainings as relevant to IRC staff on best practices for communications.
• Provide English-Arabic and Arabic-English translations as needed.

 

Media:

• As assigned, liaise with regional senior communications and media manager and PAC coordinator for emergencies and media-related opportunities.
• Work closely with PAC coordination to develop and manage relationships with national media and and journalists.
• As applicable, support media visits in-country.
• Archive media coverage on IRC and partner activities in Iraq and prepare semi-annual reports on reach.

 

 

 

Key Working Relationships:

 

Position Reports to:  Policy, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator (Iraq); Regional Senior Communications and  Media Manager (Jordan).
Position provides technical support to:  IRC Iraq program and partner staff; Iraq Program senior management
Other Internal and/or external contacts: Internal: Technical coordinators, grants staff, MEAL staff, regional senior media and communications manager. External:  IRC Iraq partners, local media.