Policy and Communications Advisor

The Policy and Communications Advisor supports the Senior Director and Education Leadership Team in implementing IRC's strategy for influencing external policies and practices to enhance the impact of IRC's education programming. The role involves policy advocacy, communications liaison, and coordination support within the Education Technical Unit.

Responsibilities

• Support implementation of the agreed strategic direction for external policies and practices to achieve impact in early childhood development and education in conflict and crisis contexts.
• Identify strategic opportunities, tactics and audiences to influence policies and practices and raise IRC's profile.
• Appraise opportunities for policy advocacy and engagement regularly to optimize resource use.
• Help Country Offices understand, deliver and advocate for IRC’s education strategy.
• Support internal profile raising around IRC’s education portfolio including preparing presentations and updates.
• Work closely with the Policy and Advocacy Department to integrate education/ECD into global humanitarian reform objectives and CEO talking points.
• Coordinate and support strategic opportunities including arranging and attending meetings, drafting talking points, writing think pieces, inputting into global consultations, horizon scanning, choreographing policy events, and maintaining policy documents.
• Serve as the Education Technical Unit’s liaison with External Relations and Communications teams on media and digital content.
• Support fact-checking and review of communications materials for technical accuracy.
• Maintain and update the Education Unit’s library of briefs and communications products.
• Support review of donor-facing and marketing materials for accuracy and tone.
• Coordinate relevant meetings and fora for the Senior Director and Education Leadership Team; flag opportunities and requests for senior leadership’s time.
• Coordinate and participate in opportunities alongside senior leadership and ensure follow-up.

Requirements

• A minimum of 6-8 years of relevant experience, with field and programmatic experience in a donor, NGO or comparable international agency required.
• Experience and familiarity with donors, peer agencies and national contexts required, preferably in education, humanitarian and transitional, post-crisis contexts.
• Experience and expertise raising funds from bilateral, multilateral, and private donors.
• Experience producing communications materials (press-facing content, digital/social content, donor materials) for diverse audiences, in addition to policy/advocacy products.
• Self-directed, able to independently set priorities and solve problems within established procedures and guidance from the Senior Director; comfortable working for a supervisor who is remotely located.
• Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills; demonstrated ability to successfully work in a fast-paced environment and develop positive relationships with locally and remote based staff.
• Highly effective strategic planning, policy development and execution.
• Private and statutory business development/ fundraising.
• Excellent writing skills, with the ability to translate technical and programmatic content into clear, audience-appropriate language across formats and channels.
• Experience contributing to or managing social media content in a professional context (preferred).
• First degree in relevant field.
• Excellent spoken and written English essential.
• Proficiency in additional IRC relevant languages (Arabic, French, Spanish, Kiswahili, etc.) strongly preferred.

Skills

• Donor Relations
• Fundraising
• Policy Advocacy
• Strategic Planning
• Communications Material Production
• Digital and Social Media Content
• Writing Skills
• Policy Development
• Programmatic Content Translation
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Business Development
• Education Sector Knowledge
• Humanitarian Experience
• Post-Crisis Program Experience
• Interpersonal Communication
• Remote Work Coordination

Languages

English