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Position – Communication Officer – Content and Story

Last Date of Application: 30 August 2013

The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme is an initiative of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) aimed at reducing the gap in wellbeing status between socially excluded groups in India and the rest of the population.

We work with civil society organisations to help groups claim their rights and entitlements, by promoting inclusive policies, programmes and institutions at local, district and state levels.

This seven-year programme (2009-2016) aims to support civil society organisations (CSOs) in promoting inclusive local, district and state policies, programmes and institutions. It focuses on areas of livelihood, education, health and nutrition in gender and rights perspectives. PACS programme is being implemented in 90 districts across 7 states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

PACS is looking for a Communication Officer – Content and Story to be based in its national office Delhi.

The position will report to Head of Advocacy and Communication. It is right now for a period of one year and will be renewed based on performance and programme needs.

The incumbent should be a postgraduate with experience of writing, reporting and packaging content for development communication. Should be familiar with rights and entitlement framework. Social media messaging and web content management experience would a definite advantage with above skills being present.

The person would research and propose stories, plan media and film visits related to PACS programme and the theme it works with.

Main Job Responsibilities –:

• Researching, writing, editing stories and case studies, including images, based on priorities of external communications. This will include sourcing and processing content from state offices and partners, identifying strong stories, and interviewing staff, partners, community members.

• Responsible for managing content on website and social media on a daily basis, and as per the strategic communication plan.
• Responsible for planning and preparing story packages for dissemination and media pitches, in line with ongoing campaign.

• Contributing to media strategies, materials, events and relations for major media push, particularly related to public campaigning, emergencies and fundraising. Seeking media outlets for stories gathered, in coordination with media manager.

• Creating an archive system for text, visual and video materials.

The ideal candidate should:
• Graduate/Post Graduate with proven experience in journalistic writing and editing, film/video production and producing web content
• Have five years of experience in media and civil society organisations or mixed communications roles that include media relations, researching and writing for online and print publication and having strong communication and public relations skills
• Have relevant experience in development, civil society activism or campaigning.
• Have experience of managing media relations in India or South Asia
• Excellent written and spoken English and knowledge of Hindi.
• Willing to travel as required.

How to apply
Please send a note (maximum 200 words) mentioning your suitability for the said position with an updated CV with links to three to four samples of previous work to jobs@pacsindia.org

Please mention Communication Officer – Content and Story in the subject line. Please mention your present and expected salary in the CV.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We encourage applications from socially excluded communities, PWD and women.

ADR was set up in 1999 by faculty and alumni of the IIMs and IITs. Its mission is to improve elections, democracy and governance in India. ADR has also built up the National Election Watch (NEW) network of over 1200 NGOs from every State.

It has well established working relationships with the Election Commission, media and NGOs across the country, and with several eminent persons. The work involves managing the office and staff, interfacing with the media, working with State network partners, Election Commission, donors, selected eminent citizens and political parties.

The Head would be supported not only by a bright young team of over 25 people, but also by the Founding Trustees. The immediate task is to manage the nationwide Lok Sabha Election Watch campaign which has already been launched. There would also be 5 State Assembly elections before that. The campaign will focus on raising voter awareness on important issues and on persuading political parties to field clean, honest, capable candidates. This is a high impact position. It is not a job, but a calling.

Some recent developments that brought political parties under RTI, disqualified convicted MPs and MLAs, barred jailed politicians from contesting, and so on were either directly or indirectly based on the work of ADR since 1999. Earlier impact making work included bringing out candidate background information on finances and criminal charges (see www.myneta.info) through a PIL in the Supreme Court, holding Election Watch campaigns in every state and national election since 2002, raising voter awareness, some suggestions which were accepted by the Election Commission, getting the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics to accept out recommendations on a Code of Ethics for the Lok Sabha MPs, persuading Chief Ministers of some States not to induct tainted MLAs into their Cabinet and so on.

The ideal candidate would prior experience of working in creative communications, and/or theatre, media etc. He or she would also be conversant with communication in different aspects including face to face, internet, social media, animation.

Alternately, they should be able to interact and interface with the media, particularly in English and Hindi.

He or she would be passionate about the issues facing the nation, be deeply interested in democracy and good governance, and have a practical approach that delivers results. ADR has a clear policy of being completely non-partisan with regard to political parties.

It also believes in a constructive approach to bring about reforms in elections, democracy, political parties and governance. The ideal candidate would be willing to work in this framework. The position is based in Delhi. Please send your resume and a covering letter to trilochans@iimb.ernet.in,jchhokar@gmail.com�and ajit.ranade@gmail.com.

Source: ADR