International Communications Advisor at Christian Aid

About the Role

• This is a new temporary post to strengthen Christian Aid’s and partners’ communications outside the UK in the run up and during COP27 -  this year’s UN climate talks.
• The post holder will identify opportunities and produce content for traditional and new media promoting climate justice policy and messages. It will also support others to produce high-quality  written content for mainstream and specialist media, in support of climate justice and its arguments.
• Working across different partners and teams in Christian Aid this role will lead on media strategies for advocacy campaigns targeting national and international key influencing moments.

Role Purpose

• This role aims to amplify Christian Aid’s and its partner’s messages in the lead up to COP27 on climate justice through international and national media in the countries where Christian Aid operates.
• Climate Justice is an important part of Christian Aid’s policy and advocacy and its programmatic work and the main theme of our strategic communications in 2022.

Key Outcomes

• Positive, on brand media coverage for the climate justice policy and advocacy messages and campaign of Christian Aid and its partners, in the run-up and during COP27 across traditional and new media outside the UK achieved by you personally and by colleagues you advise and support.
• Colleagues and partners are supported to produce high-quality comment articles / blogs and other content that is published by the mainstream and specialist media, in support of climate justice and its arguments.
• Drive and/or support GAP, PPRL and Communications colleagues and partners to create and promote activities, tools, resources, case studies and impact stories that support our climate justice messaging GAP, country teams and partners are supported to develop media strategies for advocacy campaigns targeting national and international key influencing moments.
• Work with colleagues to ensure content is produced and used on Christian Aid and partners digital platforms and to liaise with relevant staff and partners at country level to maximise the use of the content generated.
• Journalists are engaged and productive relationships developed with target journalists in the Global South working in key regional and national media outlets.
• Colleagues across the organisation get sound, timely advice on potential media interest in the campaigns, publications, and other work that they are planning in relation to climate.

Role Agility:

• Expected national travel per annum; Up to 30 days
• On call/unsocial hours: Yes
• Expected international travel per annum: Choose an item.
• Surge capacity for emergency responses: Choose an item.
• In order to respond to ever changing demands within the environment, Christian Aid operates within an agile framework (both in workforce and operational) that requires from all employees, a high level of responsiveness and adaptiveness to processes and structures making flexibility and a project based working approach the norm.
• To sustain this system, managers may/will agree further details of specific tasks and duties as part of the performance agreement. Any reasonable duty may be assigned that is consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility, and employees may be required to change the focus of their role from time to time.

Role Context

• In order to fulfil its mandate to strengthen national advocacy, provide further visibility and voice to partners working on Christian Aid’s long term global climate advocacy strategy, this post complements the work driven by the UK Media team, joining experts in delivering a consistent and coherent set of stories that deliver our core message, on brand and on time to a wide range of audiences using a wide range of channels.
• The team works with colleagues across most of the organisation and especially in different countries - to protect and enhance the organisation’s reputation and its partners.

Relationships:
External:

• Very frequent with journalists outside the UK and international media organisations.
• Frequent contact with opposite numbers in other NGOs. Regular contact with people in partner organisations and coalitions, including faith-based organisations.
• Irregular contact with suppliers of services such as content management systems and legal advice. Irregular contact with supporter of Christian Aid and other members of the public.

Internal:

• The post-holder will need to be in very frequent contact with colleagues, especially in the media team and GAP, as well as proactive contact with country programmes and partners.
• This will vary from day to day but the post-holder should expect to have very frequent contact with colleagues who do policy and advocacy work, in other countries and colleagues in fundraising, human resources and supporter relations.

Decision Making:

• Budgetary/savings responsibility The post-holder has no budget of their own but from time to time may need to spend Christian Aid money in a responsible way, for instance if planning and executing a trip overseas with a journalist. In addition, the post-holder will need to protect Christian Aid resources such as a laptop computer.

Developing self and others:

• Number of Direct reports - 0
• Overall people management responsibility - 0
• The post-holder is responsible for managing their own day-to-day work in order to achieve tasks and contribute towards shared goals as agreed with their manager and a wide range of other colleagues.
• To succeed, they will need to show a high degree of initiative, self-discipline and self-motivation.
• They will often need to support or advise colleagues, including more junior and more senior people (up to and including the CEO), using their skills, knowledge and experience.

Role related checks:

• DBS clearance - Basic
• Counter terrorism screening - Required.

Person Specification
Applied skills / knowledge and expertise:

Essential:

• Educated to Degree level.
• Experience working as a journalist for national or regional media organisation (broadcast, print, online or a mixture) and or press officer for a civil society organisation.
• Strong and demonstrable understanding of news values, based experience of working as a news journalist/press officer in the mainstream media.
• You must have the confidence and ability to sell particular Christian Aid and partners stories to individual journalists – and the news sense to understand which journalist(s) you should contact about particular stories.
• Strong ability to write and edit for publication by the mainstream media, evidenced by news, features and/or comment articles published by print on online mainstream media organisations (or their broadcast equivalent).
• Proven experience of using social media effectively and appropriately and the ability to translate this into effective social media work for Christian Aid.
• Ability to produce newsworthy, accurate and legally sound press releases for Christian Aid, working together with all the colleagues who ought to have a say. Your writing ability may be assessed in a test, if you are chosen for interview.
• Ability to translate potentially dry, academic or specialist material into stories that will be covered by the mainstream media.
• Excellent communications skills, including written, oral and professional networking - especially with journalists.
• An excellent working knowledge of IT and all applications that relate to communications.
• Sensitive to diversity issues and able to champion them.

Desirable:

• Deep knowledge and understanding of climate politics to counter the climate emergency and the policy issues at play.
• Ability to interrogate financial and technical data.
• Knowledge and understanding of churches and faith based advocacy
• Experience of working in a media relations team, for a charity or in the public or private sector.
• Ability to work in French, or a major African language
• Experience of story-gathering in developing countries.
• Ability to use produce and/or use case studies of grassroots, programmes and people affected by climate change to support advocacy messaging
• Ability to liaise with a wide range of people, both internally and externally and on many levels, with credibility, tact, and diplomacy.
• Awareness of the different media markets in which country teams operate and the differing opportunities, challenges and risks they face
• Good knowledge of international development and international relations.

Analytical Skills:

• The post-holder needs strong analytical skills, including the ability to rapidly gain understanding of a new, complex and potentially controversial topic and to identify options, questions, risks and benefits associated with it – and to advise others including the most senior colleagues accordingly.
• They also need to be able to reach sound decisions about competing priorities. The post holder needs to have a strong understanding of media organisations’ news values and what stories will ‘work’ for the media and why.

Digital / IT competencies required:

• Word, Excel, PowerPoint Advanced Web content design & development - Basic
• Internet based collaboration tools and video calling - Intermediate
• Social Media - Advanced
• Data Visualisation - Choose an item.

Salary & Currency

• The Salary and Currency for this role will be aligned to Band D-mid of the Country Payscale where the role will be based and will be offered as appropriate based on the ranges attached in the table alongside this vacancy announcement.