Vacancy Announcement

Subject: Vacancy Announcement Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:19 am

Internal/External Vacancy Announcement

Actionaid Liberia, an international non-governmental organization, wishes to recruit qualified Liberians for the below listed positions. AAL is a multi-sectoral development agency, which supports communities in their search for lasting improvement to their condition and position mainly through community capacity building.

1. Job Title: Communication Officer
Line Manager: Country Representative
Others: Liaise with and collaborate with other Program staff including Program Coordinator, Thematic Coordinators, Project and DA Managers

JOB SUMMARY
Communication is an essential component in the success and survival of any organisation, institution or corporate entity. ActionAid Liberia see this function as cardinal in highlighting its program and impact on people it works with in Liberia’s post war recovery process. Therefore, a better part of this job will be documentation – in a way that can be consumed easily by the public (human interest and jargon free) – ability to communicate simply. Work to be done is mainly building relationship with media, writing and coordination of events and publications.

KEY RESPONSIBILITY
The communications function within the country programme to include:
• Documenting the impact of ActionAid Liberia’s work with partners on poor people using various public friendly ways; i.e. online and off line, print and electronic tools as well as the mainstream media.
• Develop promotional materials for ActionAid Liberia and participate in various issue based exhibitions and forums to project AAL as an organisation committed to protecting the rights of poor people.
• Liaise with AAL coordinators to increase technical knowledge on thematic areas
• Co-branding of key researches and publications done jointly with government or other agencies on issues of poverty, injustice, rights and development.
• Producing and circulating publications about AAL work to stakeholders.
• Develop collaborations with regularly used communication centres or resource centres for distribution of AAL and partner materials.
• Facilitating journalists’ field visits to see and document the impact AAL is making on people’s lives in Liberia
• Effective use of information communication and media strategies for change including:
• Liaising with media to highlight issues of injustice to give poor people a voice within the media.
• Collaborating with other agencies to produce or sponsor production of programmes and documentaries to highlight issues of poverty and social injustices so action can be taken.
• Supporting programmes to design effective information, communication and media strategies to empower people to taken action and influence policy makers to adopt positions in favour of the poor.
• Develop and disseminate focused pro-poor communications materials/messages and programmes to challenge issues of social injustices that cause and perpetuate poverty
• Gaining quality understanding of AAL technical approach to poverty reduction

Capacity building

• Strengthen the capacity of staff to document and share information about their work
• Strengthen the capacity of staff to interact with media and use media effectively to report issues and also project AAL work in their respective areas
• Provide or facilitate tools to enable staff share information regularly about their work

Qualification Required

Candidates applying for this post should have at least a diploma in journalism. A full university degree in journalism or communications with minor in either of the social sciences will be an added advantage. Candidates should have at least three years experience in a busy news or film production environment. Experience in activism would be a plus but passion for social justice and ardent believer in pro-poor development is a key requirement.

Candidates must demonstrate their ability to use and manage both on line and off line platforms and be able to interact with staff and local communities with ease. The candidates should be familiar with various communications tools – web, print and electronic as well as production of publications. They should have good inter-personal and communication – writing skills and be able to interact with people easily. Additionally the person should be able to analyse complex situations and relate them to issues affecting people on the ground in a simple way.

2. Job Title: Child SPONSORSHIP MANAGER
Line Manager: Country Representative
Others: Liaise with and collaborate with other Program staff including Program Coordinator, Thematic Coordinators, Project and DA Managers

Job Summary: Reporting to the Country Representative, the Sponsorship Manager is responsible for planning and implementing all sponsorship activities in the DAs; providing support and carrying out all administrative processes relating to child sponsorship in accordance with child sponsorship mechanism regulations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure communities understand and support the ActionAid (AA) child sponsorship mechanism. Good relations are maintained with community members through the provision of training and orientation on the AA approach to community development and the use of child sponsorship as a funding mechanism.
• Ensure and facilitate Case Histories (Child Profiles) are collected according to the case history allocation for each DA and cover child withdrawals. Collection is planned in consultation with DA management. Supervision is provided to fieldworkers involved with case history collection. Case histories and photos are processed according to standards in sponsorship manual and dispatched to Alliance Partner (AP) according to agreed deadlines. Any variance to the set plans is reported to the AP as soon as possible.
• Ensure that AA policies relating to child sponsorship are adhered to
• Ensure that staff in the DA understand the child sponsorship mechanism and are able to explain it to community members through the provision of training and support on all aspects of child sponsorship.
• Annual plans sponsorship activities in DAs in the DA are produced and implemented
• Develop an annual communications plan and ensure it is implemented
• Develop all standard reports for review and submission to Alliance Partner (AP) by deadline and comments incorporated. Ensure that approved texts of community and annual reports are ready within time frame indicated in plans.
• Ensure child sponsors receive a message from the sponsored child twice a year. Message collection exercises are planned and monitored. Supervision is provided to field workers undertaking message collection exercises through regular visits to the field. Training needs are identified and attended to. Child messages are processed and dispatched and results of collection exercises are reported to DA management, CR and AP through the production of agreed standard reports and ad hoc reports as required.
• Ensure sponsors are promptly informed of any changes to the status of their sponsorship link.
• Ensure letters from sponsors to children are passed on and acknowledged in fieldworker comments section of child message. Sponsor questions and concerns are attended to and answered, making the necessary field enquiries.
• Ensure accurate and orderly sponsorship records are maintained.
• Resources of the sponsorship office including office equipment, computer hardware, stationery etc are maintained in good order.

Resource Management
Ensure cost effectiveness in reviewing and recommending proposals, budgets and giving timely feedbacks on partners’ reports.

Qualification Required

Candidates applying for this post should have a full university degree in sociology or either of the social sciences. Candidates should have at least three years experience in designing, managing and implementing a child sponsorship and community driven development program. Experience in activism would be a plus but passion for social justice and ardent believer in pro-poor development is a key requirement.

Candidates must demonstrate their ability to exhibit good inter-personal relationship as a team player and communication skills – writing and oral skills and be able to interact with people easily, articulating the values and strategic goals, objectives of both ActionAid International and Liberia. Additionally the person should be able to analyse complex situations and relate them to issues affecting people on the ground in a coherent and practical manner. Demonstrate high level of responsibility by taking on additional assignments across themes and outside working hours when necessary.

Planning and organization; customer orientation; problem analysis; results orientation; judgment; organizational sensitivity; learning ability; creativity; oral communication; written communication; persuasiveness; integrity; sociability; team-working; gender awareness are additional competencies required for this position..

Please address all applications to the Country Representative
Actionaid Liberia, Oldest Congo Town
Adjacent WINNERS Chapel

Or to
evelyn.weeks@actionaid.org.
Deadline for applications is October 3, 2008 at 5:00pm
Only short listed candidates will be contacted
Note: Actionaid has an equal opportunity employment policy. However, female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.