Reporting to: CDAC Network Director
Staff reporting to this post: None. May involve recruitment and management of consultants, interns and admin support; management of other Secretariat staff for specific projects.
Terms of Employment: 17-month fixed-term contract from April 2014, with possibility of extension subject to funding. All roles are subject to a six month probationary period.
Location: London-based, with overseas travel. Internews Europe (based in Old Street) currently hosts the CDAC Network Secretariat.
Budget Responsibility: There is some budgetary responsibility for this role.
OVERVIEW
Communication is Aid
Communicating with, and providing information to, people affected by crisis are two of the most important elements of humanitarian response. They are also two of the most overlooked. This is the case even though information can save lives and help mitigate risk.
People also have the right to participate in dialogue with aid providers; the right to ask questions and get answers. In the midst of a disaster, it is often the affected communities who have the deepest and most immediate knowledge about their greatest needs, and listening to their voices can help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian response. When people are given the opportunity to voice their opinions and provide feedback, this enhances their sense of well-being and can help them adapt to the challenges they face. It can also better enable them to take an active role in their own recovery.
Communication with, and information to, crisis affected communities are cross-cutting functions that facilitate greater accountability and effectiveness of aid delivery; enhance resilience-building; and promote understanding between humanitarian organisations and the communities they serve. Yet despite their potential to save lives and improve aid delivery, communication with and information to affected communities have not been given sufficient attention by humanitarian organisations and are not systematically institutionalised within the humanitarian sector. Their importance to quality programming is not widely recognised and rarely implemented effectively.
The Role of the CDAC Network
The CDAC Network was established in response to this communication and information ‘gap’ and promotes the provision of life-saving and risk-mitigating information and communication with crisis affected communities as key humanitarian deliverables. The goal of the Network is that communities affected by or prone to crises are supported to better withstand, and recover from, humanitarian emergencies through active engagement in decisions about the relief and recovery efforts in their country.
To achieve this, CDAC Network Members are committed to mainstreaming the provision of life-saving information and communication with crisis affected communities in emergency response. They do this by supporting humanitarian response through coordinated communication that makes use of appropriate media and communication tools and platforms. Members also focus on how partnerships, particularly with new humanitarian actors such as media development organisations, telecoms companies and the private sector, can deliver effective and locally appropriate outcomes.
The CDAC Network is unique in terms of who it convenes: humanitarian and media development organisations and, increasingly, technology and telecoms providers. By collaborating across traditional boundaries, CDAC Network Members increase mutual understanding of the challenges they face and identify opportunities for partnership in order to bring about innovative and effective field practice and, ultimately, a more sustainable and improved response. Members seek to build capacity together, share learning and research, and advocate to ensure that two-way communication with affected communities becomes a predictable, consistent and resourced element of crisis resilience, response and recovery.
The CDAC Network delivers through four pillars: action research and learning; capacity strengthening; convening; and advocacy. Under its capacity strengthening pillar, the CDAC Network is implementing a range of initiatives intended to build global surge capacity to support communication with disaster affected communities; develop staff skills and abilities at all levels; provide capacity strengthening support to staff at country level; improve global and in-country operational preparedness; and build on lessons learned in past responses for better dialogue, better information and better action.
JOB PURPOSE
This is a new and significant role in support of Members’ efforts to build capacity for communicating with disaster affected communities. The main purpose of the role is to:
1. Lead the implementation of the Network’s capacity strengthening programme, working closely with Network Members and Communities of Practice, as well as the CDAC Secretariat’s Senior Programme Manager and Roster Manager. This will likely include the development of communication-focused simulations, common approaches to information and communication needs assessments, a communications foundation training, and refinement of theinfoasaid Message Library.
2. Perform an advisory function for Network Members, for example, in their development of organisational communicating with disaster affected communities strategies; integration of ‘cdac’ approaches into organisational policies and systems, and into preparedness strategies and plans.
3. Provide direct operational support to Member agencies at field level, particularly in support of country level programmes. The focus here will be on support to joint preparedness and capacity strengthening activities, as well as in providing advisory support to country-level operations.
It is also anticipated that the post-holder will make a significant contribution to the development of a Results Framework for the CDAC Network, as well as the Network’s policy and advocacy work. S/he will work closely with the Research and Learning Officer on monitoring of the different capacity strengthening initiatives, and to capture learning and good practice.
The right candidate will have a background in a media development organisation and/or an international aid organisation or UN agency. The right candidate will have a strong understanding of how media and humanitarian communication can help in a crisis, of humanitarian preparedness and response, and demonstrable international training / capacity building experience.
A key skill is the ability to develop and maintain strong relationships between all stakeholders responsible for the creation and delivery of the capacity strengthening programme, including relevant Secretariat and host agency staff, consultants, Member agency technical advisors, and others. We are also looking for someone who has good influencing, interpersonal and negotiating skills, and who is comfortable facilitating multi-stakeholder groups, is experienced in working collaboratively, and in building coalitions and consensus.
The Humanitarian Communication Trainer and Advisor will be self-directed and comfortable taking the initiative within an agreed programme of work. S/he will have experience in delivering a programme of work that is needs-based, and responds to organisational capacity strengthening requirements. The post-holder will need well-developed analytical skills to understand the challenges presented by a wide range of stakeholders involved in the Network. S/he will need to develop a range of pragmatic solutions to these challenges, operating in a dynamic environment where unexpected events, including emergencies, will require a flexible approach. Finally, s/he will understand how to ensure that effective use is made of learning from programme monitoring and evaluation in order to strengthen programme delivery and inform the wider ‘commisaid’ agenda.
