Background
Location: Erbil & Baghdad
The Iraq Durable Communities and Economic Opportunities (DCEO) is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program implemented by Chemonics International in Iraq. DCEO aims to support vulnerable communities to build community resilience against destabilizing factors by increasing their adaptive capacity and economic well-being. The project consists of two objectives. Objective 1, Adaptative capacity of vulnerable communities increased is achieved through two components. Component 1.1 seeks to mitigate drivers of conflict in targeted communities and Component 1.2 seeks to enhance community leadership of inclusive local development. Objective 2, Economic well-being of communities advanced, will rest on the assessments, analysis, foundations, and groundwork of Objective 1.
Reporting
The Communications and Reporting Specialist reports to the Communications and Reporting Manager.
Responsibilities:
- Uses information from discussions with program staff, interviews with partners, and data from monitoring and evaluation reports to report on program status and impact, including success stories, snapshots, press releases, social media posts, weekly reports, quarterly reports, annual reports, and ad hoc reports.
- Collects, analyzes, and summarizes the political and implementation environment in short and medium-length reports by drawing on program staff, external sources, partners, and other sources of information. Reporting will be frequent, timely, and tailored to various audiences, including Chemonics, key stakeholders inside and outside of the U.S. government.
- Helps coordinate information flow between the Knowledge Team and Grants and Implementation Team.
- Assists in the proofreading and fact verification of various documents and reports, and ensures standardization of documents developed in terms of structure and content.
- As requested by project management and USAID, captures and disseminates key information, lessons learned, and action items from program events.
- As requested, supports the MEL team to document monitoring, evaluation, and learning, draft evaluations of clusters of activities, and other duties to contribute to program learning and adaptation, and demonstrates clearly and rigorously program successes and lessons learned.
- Collaborates and coordinates with all DCEO staff to create a participatory approach for thorough reporting and communication.
- Collaborates with potential short-term technical assistance and the Grants and Implementation Team to support grant activity development focused on media and communications.
- Oversees creative and effective ways to improve program communications.
- Supports DCEO staff in preparation of materials for outreach and other project activities.
- Helps ensure compliance with all USAID branding and marking guidelines.
- Provides support as needed for project events.
- Conducts translation/interpretation as needed to support project implementation and communications.
- Attends workshops, trainings, and other events as requested and takes photos to be used in project documentation.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in international development, public policy, public relations, communications or another relevant field, or equivalent work experience.
- Minimum three years of experience in writing, communications, journalism, or public relations required.
- Demonstrated experience in analysis and reporting on program impact and implementation highly preferred.
- Ability to work independently with minimal supervision to prioritize multiple work assignments in an extremely fast-paced environment, to meet deadlines, and to exercise good, strong professional judgment.
- Prior experience conducting communications or other relevant STTAs preferred.
- Demonstrated interpersonal, written, and oral communications skills required.
- Advanced knowledge of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint required.
- Prior experience on USAID programs preferred.
- Knowledge of Iraq’s operating environment preferred.
- Fluency in written and oral English and Arabic required
- Ability and willingness to travel within Iraq and assist in workshops and conferences.
