RAFT Communications Associate (Local Recruitment)

About RAFT
Established in 2007, the Responsible Asia Forestry & Trade partnership (RAFT) brings together the skills and knowledge of seven leading organizations to provide capacity-building and knowledge-sharing services in support of the trade in responsibly harvested and processed commodities from forested landscapes. The partnership assists governments, businesses and communities to achieve higher standards of practice in land use allocation, forest and plantation management and commodity trade.

RAFT is supported by the Australian and U.S. Governments, Norad and the Arcus Foundation, and is implemented by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC), the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), TFT (The Forest Trust), the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF), TRAFFIC – the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network, and WWF. In addition to these core partners, RAFT works with government, industry, IGOs and educational institutions from across the globe.

RAFT works on the ground in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam, as well as with regional markets (e.g. China) and inter-governmental organizations (e.g. APEC, ASEAN) to strengthen incentives for responsible governance and management.

RAFT3 Communications
In order to build ownership, access available communications expertise among RAFT partner organizations and share responsibility for communication and promotion of the RAFT partnership, a RAFT ‘Communications Sub-Committee’ has been established. This includes communications experts from those partner organizations that have available communications capacity on staff. This is the main mechanism for collaborative development and implementation of RAFT’s communications activities.

In November 2016, RAFT Communications Sub-Committee members came together with program and M&E colleagues for the annual RAFT Partners Meeting in Bangkok. At this meeting a number of regional priorities and supportive communications activities were identified.

This position will have a key role in both coordinating the work of RAFT Communications Sub-Committee and prioritizing and taking forward follow up communications actions from the November meeting.

The RAFT Communications Associate will work under the guidance of the RAFT Program Manager, and in close coordination with members of the RAFT Communications Sub-Committee, the RAFT Regional Program Coordinator and the Regional Policy Manager, to provide programmatic communications, information management and logistical support to the RAFT Regional Team and the implementation of RAFT activities at the regional level.


PROGRAMMATIC COMMUNICATIONS
1. Manage RAFT website (www.responsibleasia.org) and social media networks (i.e. Twitter, YouTube) to engage stakeholders and deliver strategic communications, including working with RAFT partners to ensure a consistent flow of new content from across the partnership;
2. Coordinate the completion and implementation of the RAFT3 Communications Strategy (based on existing communications priorities/activities identified in November);
3. Coordinate and facilitate the work of the RAFT Communications Sub-Committee (i.e. the collaborative body tasked with jointly implementing the Communications Strategy), including organizing regular calls/meetings, tracking members’ progress on designated tasks, and providing support as needed;
4. Create a wide range of well-written and accurate print and electronic materials, including web stories, factsheets, press releases, event summaries, case studies and relevant project materials as needed;
5. Publish and disseminate RAFT products and communications materials, including contracting and managing relationships with designers and printers, and supporting communications staff in RAFT countries to tailor RAFT communications materials to in-country audiences as needed;
6. Maintain the RAFT Community Page on ‘CONNECT’ (i.e. TNC intranet), including regularly updating RAFT news and events;
7. Oversee and seek out opportunities to expand RAFT’s engagement with traditional news media outlets;
8. Propose areas/channels to improve communications and engagement with target audiences;
9. Track and report on impact of communications work.


INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
1. Create and maintain content and event calendars;
2. Create and maintain a ‘library’ of RAFT communications materials, including ensuring proper labelling/captioning of content and accessibility to all RAFT partners;
3. Create and maintain and up-to-date RAFT dissemination list including individuals and RAFT partner communications channels;
4. Support the collection and maintenance of evidence to support RAFT M&E work as needed.

LOGISTICAL SUPPORT
1. Oversee logistics for selected events and stakeholder meetings, including handling invitations and promotion, selecting and liaising with venues, liaising with participants supported by RAFT and with RAFT partners to identify and provide necessary preparatory support to resource persons, etc.;
2. Support preparations for and hosting of annual Regional RAFT Partners Meetings as needed.

OTHER
1. Support the RAFT Regional team in promptly responding to requests for information (e.g. from fundraisers, donors, senior staff etc.), including the collection and compiling of information from TNC staff and partners, additional research and the preparation of presentations, talking points, fact sheets and other materials as needed;
2. Participate in events on behalf of the RAFT Regional Team and represent the RAFT partnership as needed;
3. Carry out any other duties you may be called upon to perform from time to time by the supervisor.