International Communications Specialist

USAID Paani Program

Request for Applications

DAI seeks a Short Term International Communications Specialist for USAID Paani Program, for three months. The Short Term Communications Specialist will be responsible to oversee implementation of the Paani Outreach and Communications Plan and lead the communications, outreach, and coordination aspects and staff/consultants of the project for the duration of the contract period. The Short Term Communications Specialist will fill in for the Paani Program’s Long Term Communications Specialist while she is on maternity leave.

Applicants should submit a CV and cover letter to PANI_recruitment@dai.com by January 23, 2019.  Please mention the position in the subject line of the email.

Detail Scope of Work

Position:International Communications Specialist 

Employer:DAI Global

Type of Employment:Short Term Technical Assistant (STTA)

Period of Performance:On/about March 1, 2019 – On/about July 19, 2019

Level of Effort: 75days

Location:Kathmandu with possible travel to field sites in Nepal 

Background:

The Paani Program—also known in Nepali as the “USAID Water Project”, यà¥à¤à¤¸à¤à¤¡à¤ªà¤¾à¤¨à¥€à¤ªà¤°à¤¿à¤¯à¥‹à¤œà¤¨à¤¾—is a 5 year, $25 million USAID-funded Project in Nepal. Water is the single most important natural resource underpinning Nepal’s economy and livelihoods. Inclusive, the sustainable management of water resources in Nepal depends on addressing climate change and protecting healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. The Paani Program aims to enhance Nepal’s ability to manage water resources for multiple uses and users through climate change adaptation and the conservation of freshwater biodiversity. Through activities at the watershed, basin and national scales, Paani aims to reduce threats to freshwater biodiversity and strengthen the resilience of targeted communities in the Karnali, Mahakali and Rapti river basins to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change through improved water resource management.

Purpose: 

The STTA Communications Specialist will fill in for the LTTA (Long Term Technical Assistant) Communications Specialist while she is on maternity leave. The Communications Specialist serves as a member of the program’s key strategic team, supporting the Chief of Party (COP) to achieve Paani’s focused initiatives and strategic approaches, in particular those related to platform building to create a common vision in target river basins. The STTA Communications Specialist will be responsible to oversee implementation of the Paani Outreach and Communications Plan and lead the communications, outreach, and coordination aspects and staff/consultants of the project for the duration of the contract period. She/he will be an expert in the principles, methods, practices and techniques of communications and stakeholder coordination for diverse stakeholders including local communities, academia, media, civil society, and government agencies.

Tasks

• Lead implementation of Paani’s Outreach and Communications Plan, including the communications, outreach, and coordination aspects of the project. This includes: 
• Ensuring the Outreach and Communications Plan is in alignment with the Annual Workplan
• Oversee implementation of the dissemination of Paani knowledge products
• Support strategies for river basin vision and platform development and other focused initiatives.
• Manage Paani staff, including the Capacity Building and Higher Education Specialist, Communications Officer and consultants, including STTA Technical Knowledge Products and Graphic Designer, to ensure they deliver high quality work that meets Paani program objectives.
• Manage/provide technical input on all Paani grantee media and communications activities, including an approximately 400,000 USD grant with the Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), and ensure theirs and other grantee communications/outreach activities are in line with the Paani work plan and objectives. 
• Serve as the lead for two Paani strategic approaches (i.e., 2a: River Basin Planning and 3b: Advocacy for Sustainable Hydropower), ensuring tasks under the strategic approach are implemented on time and in line with Paani’s focused initiatives and overall objectives in coordination with the technical, cross-cutting and field teams.
• Provide input on a variety of technical documents, grant proposals and scopes of work related to river basin planning, advocacy and sustainable hydropower
• Review/edit post event proceedings/reports after completion of the Third National River Summit to be organized by grantee NRCT at the end of March
• Manage final production (including editing) of Paani watershed profiles, health reports, other technical documents and sub-products for dissemination to key stakeholder groups.  
• Oversee production of a wide range of communication tools to advance Paani objectives, such as: the Paani Facebook page, site visits to Paani’s target landscapes and rural municipalities/municipalities, success stories, beneficiary testimonials, professional photography, public service announcements, videos, webcasts, group e-mail lists, press releases, press conferences, media interviews, etc. 
• Collaborate with COP, field- based staff and grantees to create Integrated River Basin Management Platforms (IRBMPs) for the Mahakali, Rapti, and Karnali river basins 
• Serve as technical lead and/or convene multi-stakeholder fora, including:
• Quarterly national level speaker series with IFC and USAID on sustainable hydropower/irrigation that will bring diverse stakeholders together to cover topics such environmental impact assessments, cumulative impact assessments, e-flow, fish passage, stakeholder engagement, etc.; and
• Work with STTA Technical Knowledge Products on the development of a bilingual civil society guide to healthy rivers, climate resilience, and sustainable hydropower 
• Continue development of the Paani Freshwater Center of Excellence (in person and online platform) to be housed by a government/academic/CSO partner to ensure that Paani-produced studies are available in the public domain to inform the broader freshwater resource agenda in Nepal and internationally, while recognizing that different groups access information differently – women and men, urban and rural populations, higher and lower caste members, etc. 
• Draft speeches and talking points for senior USAID staff for Paani events and submit advance requests to USAID for all public and media documents, speeches, and events in accordance with USAID/Nepal’s outreach and communications procedures as required
• Coordinate preparation and ensure submission on time and in accordance with proper branding and marking guidelines of high-quality Paani deliverables, including the Year 3 (Y3)Annual Report/Y3 Quarter 4 (Q4) Quarterly Report, Weekly Updates, Year 4 Annual Workplan and technical studies. 
• Attend external events on behalf of Paani (e.g. hydropower workshops, river basin planning events, USAID communications events, etc.)
• Attend internal events, including the program’s annual Theory of Change and Annual Work Planning workshops to be held in early June 2019

Deliverables:

• Weekly updates for the program finalized and submitted to USAID on a weekly basis
• Y3 Q4/Y3 Annual Report for submission to USAID on June 30, 2019
• Final copy edit of Y4 Annual Work Plan for submission to USAID 
• Finalize report on Third National River Summit to be held in March 2019
• A brief (ca. 2-page) report that summarizes the consultant's activities, accomplishments, and recommendations.

Reporting Relationships

The STTA Communications Specialist will work under the direct supervision of the COP and in close coordination with the Deputy COP and technical, cross-cutting, field and operations teams.

Level of Effort and Timeline

The level of effort (LOE) for this assignment is up to 75working days between the period of on/About March 1, 2019–July 19,2019.

Qualifications 

• At least 10 years of relevant experience working with programs that are of a similar scope and scale to this program
• Experience working effectively on multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to establish, maintain, and manage relationships with diverse groups of stakeholders 
• Professionally proficient and fluent in written and spoken English. 

Preferred: 

• Master’s degree
• Experience with biodiversity and/or climate change adaptation projects
• Experience on USAID funded projects
• Experience in Nepal or South Asia
• Proficiency in Nepali.