Description of Duties

1. Review ILO Decent Work Country Programme and country specific projects and priorities and develop a communications strategy and plan that identifies key areas of work, communications products, and stories that support the increase of the country programme’s visibility; with clear objectives, target audience, messaging, communications products and channels for dissemination and outreach. The Iraq country communication strategy and plan should be in line with the ILO Global Communication Strategy and aligned with regional strategic communication objectives.

2. Draft press releases, event pages and project pages for the ILO website in close collaboration with the country teams, based on their needs and priorities.

3. Plan, develop and gather human-interest content such as feature stories, videos, photo-essays and other, that highlight the impact of the projects. This includes working with teams in the field to identify potential stories, interviewing women and men workers who are involved in ILO projects, drafting content and building an archive of material including photographs and footage, with relevant background information, consent forms etc.

4. Manage the ILO Iraq social media platforms by ensuring regular updates and developing assets and stories. Ensure the ILO Iraq country page on the ILO Regional website for Arab States is updated with various content produced.

5. Work closely with ILO teams to develop talking points, key messages, briefs, factsheets, and newsletters; and contribute to the development of other products/publications as needed.

6. Lead the development of content by working closely with designers, videographers, photographers, animators and others, to ensure products’ alignment with ILO guidelines and standards.

Description of Duties (continued)

7. Work closely with the communications department at the Regional Office for Arab States and with the Department of Communication (DCOMM) at ILO headquarters in Geneva to ensure collaboration on multi-media products and ensure country-specific products are promoted on regional platforms, and global platforms.

8. Work closely with the UN teams in Iraq to produce joint products, campaigns etc.

9. Build relations with the media, handle media requests, monitor media coverage of ILO Iraq activities.

10. Work closely with donor focal points to ensure alignment of content and visibility requirements and support communication requests as needed.

11. Participate in ILO training workshops to acquire skills necessary to manage relevant ILO information platforms as required.

12. Perform other duties as required.

Required qualifications

Education

First level university degree in media, communications, journalism, or a relevant field. An advanced degree in the forementioned fields would be a strong advantage.

Experience

At least one year of professional experience at the same level working in media, communications or journalism.

Technical requirements

One or more of the following skills would be an advantage: shooting and editing video footage; photography; website content management; graphic design; social media analytics.

Languages

Excellent written and spoken English and Arabic – with ability to draft high quality content in English, translate from Arabic to English (press releases, video subtitles etc). Knowledge of Kurdish is a plus.

Competencies

In addition to the ILO core competencies (Integrity and transparency, Sensitivity to diversity, Orientation to learning and knowledge sharing, Client orientation, Communication, Orientation to change, Takes responsibility for performance, Quality orientation, Collaboration), this position requires:

• Ability to write quickly, accurately, and clearly under tight deadlines.
• Ability to translate complex technical language (such as report findings) into reader friendly language.
• Knowledge of Iraq’s labour market. Knowledge of key areas of work and priorities that the ILO focuses on/and ability to keep abreast of developments/information.
• Ability to identify interesting stories and develop them in compelling ways.
• Ability to work closely and collaboratively within a team – including ILO technical teams and communications experts etc.
• Ability to drive communications efforts/lead on communication, pitch ideas, suggest improvements etc.

Competencies (continued)

• Ability to keep up with social media trends, gather and analyse social media data, and develop engaging and innovative messaging and visual social media content and assets.
• Ability to produce interesting content in-house/individually through innovative approaches.
• Ability to work well with women and men benefiting from ILO projects, to ensure that any of their questions, concerns and needs in the story-telling process are met.
• Ability to work closely with and maintain good relations with ILO stakeholders and partners.