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Humanitarian and Media Liaison Officer - Central African Republic (CAR)

Humanitarian and Media Liaison Officer (HMLO) Reports To: Project Director, Central African Republic (CAR) Deadline: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 (noon GMT) Location: Central African Republic (CAR) Duration: Six (6) months, February 01 – July 31, 2012

Background

Humanitarian responses are too often undermined because the sector does not have the capacity to obtain timely, relevant and up to date, quality information about the local context, or possess reliable channels for both receiving and communicating critical information from and to affected communities.

“Integrating Local Media and Information and Communications Technology (ICTs) into Humanitarian Response” is a project recently awarded by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund toll set up an innovative system that will foster a bounded network of trusted local media organizations to gather real-time first-hand information from affected populations to create a two-way communication flow with humanitarians. This system will eventually improve emergency response, community participation and community resilience.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Humanitarian and Media Liaison Officer (HMLO) will play a vital role in the implementation of a groundbreaking project in CAR in the following capacities:

• Develop, maintain, and establish excellent working relationships with a wide range of humanitarian organizations and government representatives, ensuring they understand and participate in the project, the role of the Internews team and what it has to offer them in their daily work. • Represent the coordination and liaison work of the project and actively participate in all relevant humanitarian coordination fora to identify critical information needs for IDP, refugee, and host-community populations. • In coordination with the rest of the team, ensure that feedback gained from project activities is made available to humanitarian organizations (i.e. brief presentations at cluster meetings, inter-cluster coordination, Humanitarian Country Team...), and government officials, as required. • Interface between humanitarian organizations and local media to build trust and facilitate information exchange between them according to the project objectives. • Ensure the distribution of regular rundowns of any Internews humanitarian radio programs via email and other means to all humanitarian stakeholders to strengthen the liaison role with humanitarians. • With the Project Researcher, help to design and implement an assessment of the media and ICT landscape in CAR. • Work with the Internews technical advisors and UNOCHA to ensure that the management of the project’s crowd-sourced mapping platform has direct links with humanitarian actors and local authorities dealing with emergency response. • Coordinate with the production staff of the two pilot radio stations and broader community station network (as required) to ensure a smooth link between humanitarian activities and the production of the stations’ humanitarian information programs (i.e. propose story ideas for production as required, sourcing stories and information from different stakeholders, providing contacts…). • Maintain and update a database with all the relevant contacts (i.e. spokespersons and focal points) from the different organizations and government departments involved in humanitarian response. • Compile regular situation reports on the outputs and activities of the coordination and liaison effort and the overall Internews response. • Liaise with international media and promote the project Internews’ work, as required. • Contribute to overall written program reporting, including blogs and photography, as required. • Contribute to fundraising efforts including, but not limited, to PR/media exercises and proposal writing. • Document achievements and challenges for Internews’ learning purposes, as required. • Any other duties as required.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED (must have all):

• Fluency in spoken and written French and English. • Significant experience using media and communications in humanitarian activities. • Experience of innovative media and communication platforms. • Extensive experience working in relief operations in challenging environments. • Very good working knowledge of the mandates and modalities of the international humanitarian sector. • Proven interpersonal and networking skills to liaise authoritatively with figures from the aid and donor communities and host governments. • Sensitivity to cross-cultural dynamics in the work place. • Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team in a challenging and a highly fluid environment. • An understanding of the vision/mission, core values and objectives of Internews. • Understanding of and passion for the area of communications with disaster-affected communities. • Excellent communication and reporting skills, both written and oral. • Excellent time management and the ability to prioritize a heavy workload under pressure. • Excellent administrative and organizational skills. • Willingness to work in demanding, stressful, and, at times, dangerous situations under difficult living conditions with respect for basic security rules. • Psychological resilience and a sense of humor. • Relevant university degree.

DESIRABLE:

• Knowledge of Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS, mobile technology and citizen journalism and familiarity with ways to leverage social media will be an asset.

TO APPLY:

• Please send your application file (resume in English of no more than 3 pages, motivation letter and the names and contacts of three referees) to jobs@internews.eu • Reference to mention: HMLO+(name) • Deadline for applications: December 20, 2011(noon GMT) -applications will be reviewed as they come in

How to apply:

• Please send your application file (resume in English of no more than 3 pages, motivation letter and the names and contacts of three referees) to jobs@internews.eu • Reference to mention: HMLO+(name) • Deadline for applications: December 20, 2011(noon GMT) -applications will be reviewed as they come in