Job Opportunity: London-based, with overseas travel.

Organisation: 

The CDAC Network

Location: 

London-based, with overseas travel.

Application Deadline (optional): 

May 18, 2015

   
Reporting to: CDAC Network Director, with a dotted line to the DEPP Programme Manager
Staff reporting to this post: One. May involve recruitment and management of consultants, interns and admin support and management of other Network staff for specific projects.
Terms of Employment: 4-day / week role with a 24-month fixed-term contract from 1 July 2015, 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, which is where this role will be hosted.
Budget Responsibility: There is some budgetary responsibility for this role.
OVERVIEW
The CDAC Network 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 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 preparedness, 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.
The Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP)
The DEPP is a four-year DFID programme that will invest £40m in disaster and emergency preparedness. This is in response to DFID’s 2011 Humanitarian Emergency Response Review.  It is intended to significantly improve the quality and speed of humanitarian responses in countries at risk of natural disaster or conflict-related humanitarian emergencies. 
As part of the DEPP, the CDAC Network has been awarded a grant to trial two-way communications initiatives at the preparedness stage to improve the quality of humanitarian responses. It will do this through: a) capacity strengthening, b) working through in-country networks and platforms, and c) generating and capturing learning and evidence. Over a three year timeframe the project will deliver interventions in two countries: Bangladesh, to capture evidence from a natural disaster context, and South Sudan for a conflict context. This will be done through a combination of proven capacity strengthening interventions, and locally-defined, contextually appropriate activities to be agreed upon at country level. The programme also targets systemic change at the global level through advocacy and capacity building.
JOB PURPOSE
The External Communications & Advocacy Advisor will provide technical expertise and lead the communications, policy and advocacy work of the CDAC Network DEPP project. The post-holder will lead on the design and roll out of key communication activities, and manage the documentation and dissemination of project achievements - proactively raising awareness of the project internationally. The External Communications & Advocacy Advisor will also utilise project learning to frame advocacy around communicating with disaster affected communities from the local to the global level, targeting stakeholders in national, regional and international policy fora.
In this way the  External Communications & Advocacy Advisor will be critical in CDAC Network strengthening and advocacy, developing the right messaging to donors, Members, and other key stakeholders, and also supporting the CDAC Network in the event of joint action in an emergency – primarily in DEPP-focused countries. To enable s/he to carry out this role, the post-holder will manage the Network's website, social media platforms and support to other team members on external communication, advocacy/policy and media work related to communicating with communities affected by crisis.
The post-holder will be a strong, adaptable individual with the ability to drive work forward while maintaining active collaboration and engagement with project stakeholders and partners. The ideal candidate will have exceptional technical experience of communications in a development and/or humanitarian context, and demonstrable experience advising high-profile, multi-stakeholder projects.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES