Communications and Outreach Specialist

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Description

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• To contribute to a more productive, sustainable, diversified, climate-resilient, market-oriented and inclusive agriculture and agri-food production 
• sector in Sri Lanka
• Consumers are more aware, informed and demanding of safe food through communication campaigns that induce social behaviour change towards healthy food consumption habits, which in turn affect producers to market healthier food.
• The National Communications & Outreach Specialist will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) Sri Lanka, Project Management Specialist and Communications Analyst. He/she will interact closely with the national consultants, international consultants, the lead technical officer and relevant FAO Technical Officers and will be supported by the Project Management Unit (PMU).

• Serve as a member of the project team and work in partnership with the relevant national stakeholders to induce social behaviour change in consumers towards improved food safety and create a demand for food safety.
• Keep track of media reports on food safety (including digital media) and align with survey findings to identify effects on social behaviour, and provide inputs for the public outreach strategy. 
• Work in close coordination with project coordinator, OCC and other relevant FAO focal points to procure services of service providers to draft a public outreach strategy, a communications campaign and create relevant content for digital and legacy media 
• Work in close coordination with a service provider to draft the public outreach strategy focused on changing consumer behaviour towards food safety. using media trends, the SAR and research findings in consultation.
• Work in close coordination with a service provider to develop a communications strategy based on the baseline study findings and the public outreach strategy and obtain consensus of the he Communications Expert Committee.
• Work in close coordination with a service provider to develop and pilot test food safety messages using various tools and communication material designed to induce social behaviour change in food safety (field test and evaluate effectiveness) and create awareness in targeted subsets of the population and validate through expert committee inputs.
• Oversee the overall development and implementation of the national level, consumer driven SBCC campaign on food safety by a Service Provider, in close coordination with the communications expert committee.
• Identify and measure the impact of messaging penetration and effectiveness of the SBCC campaign through an endline survey
• Identify gaps in content and develop targeted food safety education material designed for school children of 8-12 years old through a Service Provider and work with the Ministry of Education to introduce it as part of the school e-learning curriculum.
• Facilitate consultative sessions with educators to disseminate the developed curriculum material and obtain feedback on effectiveness of the content and its implementation.
• Conduct collaborative workshops with Civil Society Organizations (CSO), Consumer Associations (CA), and Trade Associations (TA) to build advocacy capacity towards the dissemination of food safety messaging.
• Identify opportunities for establishing a sub-group dedicated to food safety education and sustained action.
• Develop TORs for service providers hired for delivering identified outputs.
• Oversee, monitor progress, operationally and financially close contracts/agreements and evaluate the service providers hired for delivering identified outputs.
• Provide overall project communications support on visibility and maintaining branding guidelines.
• Work closely and support the UNIDO communications and visibility officer to develop common project campaign materials on food safety and quality.
• Familiarize self with FAO’s corporate communication policy and operational guidelines to ensure mandatory coherence of all communication and information outputs in consultation with the National Communications Analyst at FAOLK.
• Liaison with the Office of Communication (OCC) will be maintained, either directly or through an agreed focal point/coordinator, to ensure compliance with OCC standards, appropriate review and clearance processes. 
• Study all relevant FAO guidelines on communications and then demonstrate a strong understanding of FAO Style in drafting documentation, without the need for continuous correction or oversight.

• Advanced university degree/ Master’s Degree in communications, media relations, journalism, international development, or a related discipline with three years of experience in the communications and media field.
• Or Bachelor’s Degree with over 5 years of experience in the communications and media field.
• Working knowledge of the English Language (reading, writing, listening, speaking) and working knowledge of Sinhala and/or Tamil.
• National of Sri Lanka.

• Experience in international development would be an added advantage.
• Good understanding of agriculture/food related development issues and similar activities in Sri Lanka. 
• Demonstrated experience in working with government structures at national level and wider stakeholders and being well versed with national communication processes an added advantage.  
• Knowledge of UN administration and related procedures is an advantage.
• Proficiency in the use of office software packages and in handling web-based management systems. 
• Excellence in research and writing skills, with experience in drafting communication strategies and contents that communicate key messages in a simplified and easy-to-understand manner.
• Demonstrated experience in developing contents that clearly communicates development ideas for media, web, print production, and audio-visual productions.
• Skills in developing interactive, informative and engaging digital content would be ad added advantage.
• Substantive knowledge and practical experience in planning, designing, and implementing communications campaigns and initiatives preferably on social behaviour change.

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