Democracy Delivers | Strategic Communications Advisor

Location: Washington, D.C.

Remote Eligible

Must be eligible to obtain Facilities Access Clearance

Background: The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) serves to elevate and integrate democracy, human rights, and governance within the Agency's overall development portfolio.

Strategic Communication is essential for good governance, particularly for countries experiencing a democratic opening and facing threats. Citizens and governments need to be able to honestly and constructively communicate with each other. New governments often struggle to quickly put in place strategic communications architecture, effective messaging campaigns, infrastructure to counter mis/dis/mal-information, and sufficient capacity across branches of government and at central and local levels for two-way communication with their citizenry.

The Strategic Communications Advisor will lead the DRG Center's efforts to identify, manage, learn, and adapt approaches for building strategic communication capability among USAID's partner countries in the Democracy Delivers Initiative and more broadly. You can learn more about The Center here: https://www.usaid.gov/democracy

Responsibilities will include:
• Supporting teams at Post to identify gaps and challenges facing their partner governments and opportunities to provide support.
• Leveraging the network of Agency communications staff to provide support and to amplify progress on Democracy Delivers.
• Serving as an Activity Manager for any dedicated funding for strategic communications.
• Providing support directly to partner governments as needed.
• Coordinating a learning agenda in collaboration with the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and the DRG Bureau.
• Creating and facilitating partnerships with the private sector, foundations, and other donors to attract additional resources and support for these efforts.
• Manage existing relationships and ideate new creative opportunities and campaigns to advance strategic communications support to democracy delivers countries.
• Advise on using polling to inform governments and USAID.
• Coordinate and collaborate with the Civil Society and Media team and other actors working in the media/communications/information resilience space at USAID and the interagency.
• Draft messaging and communications materials around Democracy Delivers Initiatives including press releases, fact sheets, suggested social media copy and more in coordination with USAID's Public Affairs team.

Required Qualifications:

Master's Degree from an accredited college or university in a relevant field and at least eight years of relevant work experience working in a communications capacity, preferable including work for a government institution in the U.S. of overseas.

OR

Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university in a relevant field and at least ten years of experience working in a communication capacity, preferable for a government institution in the U.S. or overseas.

Ability to obtain a Facilities Access Clearance.

Preferred Skills and Experiences:

• An inclusive facilitator and networker with the ability to leverage existing private sector relationships or ability to create and manage new opportunities with external partners on behalf of this initiative.
• Familiarity with USAID or U.S. Department of State-funded foreign assistance programs.
• Experience at a communications or public relations firm or in a client-facing role preferred.
• Effective problem-solver, project manager, and multi-tasker.
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced and dynamic environment with some uncertainty.
• Strong organizational, communication, and relationship management skills; highly detailed oriented.
• Demonstrated skills in Google Workspace including Drive, Docs, and Sheets, as well as Microsoft Office Suite, including Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.