Deployable Communications Specialist

Job Description

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

Disasters and conflicts threaten children’s rights and damage the societies they live in. Last year alone, Plan International responded to 81 disasters globally to champion and uphold the rights of children, particularly girls, before, during and after emergencies.

To sustain its engagement with children affected by crises, our Humanitarian team is currently recruiting committed humanitarian experts to deploy 9 months of the year to various emergency contexts. This role is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the growth of our Core Surge team and to support children and their communities around the world in building resilience to increasing disaster risks.

The Opportunity

The Deployable Communications Specialist is expected to work as an integral part of the country office. They are deployed to lead all communications for the response and support Plan International to communicate effectively with key stakeholders including the media, supporters and donors. The post holder will develop public messaging and create high-quality comms materials for use in Plan International’s global channels and across our network of National Organisations.

The Requirements

• Substantial experience working in journalism, media relations or PR at an international level.
• Excellent verbal and writing skills in English with the ability to quickly translate complex information into strong messages and compelling content.
• Track record of writing news articles, features, picture stories, op-eds and press releases and developing vlogs and visual content.
• Multimedia skills, including photography and filming.
• Proven success at pitching stories to the media and working with journalists.
• Strong understanding of international humanitarian and development issues and rights-based work.
• Practical experience working in complex emergency settings.
• Practical experience with and ability to organise media visits, set up interviews and brief spokespeople.
• Track record of handling complex, sensitive, and fast-moving situations and working in high-pressure environments with tight deadlines.
• Good understanding of social media and digital channels.
• Keeps up to date with key humanitarian and international development issues and trends and can spot new opportunities as they arise.
• Strong organisational skills to deal with a complex work environment.
• Work enthusiastically as part of a team and forms effective and constructive working relationships across the whole organisation and wider network within the sector.
• Good understanding of humanitarian values, principles, the Humanitarian Charter and Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
• Committed to actively upholding Plan International’s vision, values and behaviours and policies, including the Say Yes! To Keeping Children Safe Policy.

Please follow this link for a full role profile; Deployable Communications Specialist JD (Feb 2023).docx

Location: This role will be deployed 75% of the time to Plan International’s country programmes and home-based when not deployed. This can be flexible where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live.
Type of Role: Permanent or maximum fixed term contract available as per employing office’s standard terms and conditions. 

Reports to: Head of Global Media

Closing Date: Sunday 5th March

*Applicable locations include: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.