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JOB OPENING, COMMUNICATIONS FOCAL POINT OFFICER, GAVI CSO CONSITUENCY

Saturday, 12th of March 2011 Print

https://jobnet.ifrc.org/public/hrd-cl-vac-view.asp?jobinfo_uid_c=2316&vaclng=en

COMMUNICATIONS FOCAL POINT OFFICER, GAVI CSO CONSTITUENCY


Vacancy No: 2011-10-gva 
 
Date: 10 March 2011

Application Deadline: 31 March 2011 
(21 day(s) until closing deadline) 

Currently accepting applications

Place of assignment:  Geneva

Organization unit: Community Health and Social Services

Duration of contract: 1 year


Purpose of position:

Background :
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organisation with 186 member National Societies. Present all over the world - not just physically in towns, villages and neighborhoods, but also in the minds and hearts of people - we represent an important "public good".
With the arrival in the Secretariat of a new senior management team in April 2009 it became necessary to review and adjust the Secretariat structure in Geneva. This review was driven by anticipating what the Federation's evolving Strategy 2020 would mean for the Secretariat as well as the Secretary General's Moving Forward agenda. This modified job description reflects the outcome of this review and the desired adjustments and focus for the Head of the Health and Social Services Department.
The GAVI Alliance is a unique public-private global health partnership committed to saving children's lives and protecting people's health by increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

Purpose of the position :
Civil society organizations - defined as non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, professional associations, and technical and academic institutions - are critical members of the GAVI Alliance.

Civil society (CS) is strengthening its voice as a GAVI constituency through the development of a more active body. The purpose is to promote consistent inputs from civil society into GAVI governance bodies, processes, and policy development. The work to enhance functioning of the CS constituency with the GAVI Alliance has been in development since 2007 and culminated in a decision in March 2010 to create a new structure that includes a Communications Focal Point (CFP) to coordinate constituency activities and support the newly created steering committee (June 2010) that includes Board committee representatives. 
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will host the Communications Focal Point for an initial period of 1 year. The IFRC presently serves as the Chair of the GAVI CSO Steering Committee. Descriptions of how the GAVI CSO Constituency functions can be found in the CSO Charter (adopted in November 2010). The Communications Focal Point will work closely with the Chair of the CSO Steering Committee (presently the IFRC), and other key members of the Steering Committee.
This position is funded by the GAVI Alliance.

Description of Duties:

a) Facilitating communications among Steering Committee members and between Steering Committee and Forum members, and Steering Committee and Board representatives GAVI Alliance Committee members, and task team/work group members. This will include synthesizing/filtering information to prevent information overload of Steering Committee and Forum members;
b) Developing and managing communications tools for the GAVI civil society constituency (ex. google listserv, website, routine teleconferences, etc);
c) Serving as a non-voting member ex officio of the Steering Committee;
d) As appropriate, attending GAVI Board meetings as an observer and reporting on them to CS Forum;
e) Participating in contacting civil society organizations to seek input on specific issues and topics of relevance to the GAVI Alliance mandate and work of the CS constituency;
f) Communicating about GAVI Alliance activities and decisions back to the CS community, governments and the public in various fora;
g) Facilitating debates/discussion within the wider constituency on critical issues, using approaches such as MyGAVI and other social networking technologies, meetings, conferences, etc.;
h) Ensuring communication of constituency views to appropriate Steering Committee members and parts of the GAVI Alliance (Secretariat, Board, etc.);
i) Assisting in organizing meetings/teleconferences, etc., of Steering Committee and Forum;
j) Assuring timely completion of CS constituency member tasks;
k) Developing and maintaining a database of CS resources (available technical assistance on various areas such as logistics, health financing, health policy, social mobilization, vaccine management, etc.; grants; training and partnership opportunities, etc.)
l) Managing, analyzing and updating database of GAVI Alliance constituencies (Southern Coalitions & Networks, Civil Society Forum membership, CSO Constituency website);
m) Supporting the CSO Board representative, and Alternate, as needed; and
n) Undertake other pertinent assignments that the SC through the Chair might ask to be performed.

Duties applicable to all staff:

  • Actively work towards the achievement of the Secretariat's goals.
  • Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross Red Crescent principles.
  • Perform any other work related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.

Required Qualifications

Education:

University degree in health, communications or journalism.

Experience:

At least 5 years of working experience in health background.
Health background, with immunization experience.

Skills:

Constituency building
Expertise on internal and associative communications 
Familiarity with civil society organisations and how they work
Able to work independently, pro-active and self-starter
Able to manage multiple tasks concurrently 
Skills in web-based communications tools

Languages:

Fluent in English
Fluent in French would be an asset

Competencies:

Communication
Accountability
Professionalism
Intergrity
Diversity
Collaboration 


WRITTEN EXERCISES AND INTERVIEW

Applicants may be requested to complete written exercises and/or be interviewed


This is a limited-term post funded by the programme budget and is classified at Officer level. The length of the assignment is one year.

 

 

 

Kate Elder

Senior Health Officer

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

**************************************************

Chemin des Crêts, 17 | 1211 Petit Saconnex | Geneva | Switzerland

Tel. +41 (0)22 730 4323 | Mob. +41 (0)79357 1609

Email kate.elder@ifrc.org

Skype zealandkiwi

40757090