Communications Associate

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development. UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

UNOPS Sri Lanka is part of the Sri Lanka Multi Country Office in the Asia Region. The Office provides technical, operational and administrative support to multiple countries in the Asia Region, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and Nepal to enable these country offices to deliver their project more efficiently and effectively. As part of this support, the UNOPS Office in Sri Lanka also provides programmatic support in the areas of project management, communications, reporting and partnership development.

In Sri Lanka, UNOPS operates within the overall framework of the UN Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) and is working with UN Agencies to better support the Government of Sri Lanka within the focus areas of the UNSDF. UNOPS Sri Lanka currently manages infrastructure projects in health, solid waste management and supports public institutions governance.
    

The Communications Associate works under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager and will be responsible to ensure timely and quality reporting, strong communications and visibility of the Vriddhi Programme. He/She will be ensuring that Reporting and Communications activities are delivered as per established UNOPS policies, processes, guidelines and standards and its donors. He/She will work in consultation with the Programme Manager, the project teams located both in field offices and in Colombo,
and colleagues working in Protection, Project Management, Financial Management Advisory Services,Grants Management, ICT services, GIS. The Communication Associate will have working relationships with members of the civil society in Sri Lanka, local authorities, communities and other related stakeholders. He/SHe will have a high sense of integrity, confidentiality and the ability to engage sensibly with local stakeholders, including local authorities, local partners and communities in a language they understand. This position is based in Colombo with frequent travel to field and project locations as required.

1.Support for Project Stakeholder Management
● Maintain a database of programme partners, civil society actors, local and national
authorities, journalists/press contacts and other relevant stakeholders in Sri Lanka.
● Support stakeholder management with relevant stakeholders of the Vriddhi programme supporting the existing and future partnership development, including but not limited to government agencies, civil society organizations, UN agencies, INGOs, research institutes, media and other relevant stakeholders with daily liaison, correspondence,
scheduling of meetings related tasks.

2. Communication of programme activities
● Provide support driving the communication function of the programme.
● Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager and in collaboration with the team, formulate and execute a communication plan.
● Support the delivery of programme communication activities including events, trainings, media briefings, etc.
● Support design, development and dissemination of communication outputs, for e.g factsheets, infographics, presentations, promotion materials etc, inline with established guidelines, in liaison with the Programme Manager, project team and other relevant stakeholders to share information about the project and results achieved thereby
effectively communicating the objectives, achievements and impact of the programme.
● Support with content management - written and visual content - for distribution to the press or other relevant channels, including articles, speeches, videos, brochures, newsletters and reports.
● Organise press conferences and press briefings and media facilitation for activities such as donor visits, field visits etc. as required.
● Follow local media for relevant content with focus on peacebuilding, humanitarian and development related content.
● Support the development and facilitation of communication training for the programme partners, civil society actors and other relevant stakeholders with focus on using programme related information in external communication materials.
● Gather for further assessment the communication materials of partners that relate to Vriddhi programme, to ensure that programme information (for e.g, use of name, logo, font, colour theme, placement, etc.) in partner communication materials are as per established standards and guidelines and are relevant to context.
● Support the development of ideas for new and innovative ways of communicating with the local and international stakeholders.
● Advice on cultural sensitivities in communication
● Suggest impact stories and topics, and develop write ups for success stories and other related content from the work of project partners in Sri Lanka for publication in local media and other channels.
● Prepare and suggest visual and written content for the programme website, press and other relevant channels based on instructions from the Programme Manager and in coordination with team members, CSO partners and other stakeholders with due consideration to established communication and branding guidelines, applicable laws,
rules and regulations.

3. Reporting
● Support the development and preparation of high quality timely reports for the project(s).
This would involve closely working with various stakeholders such as project manager, team members, sectional heads, partners, other un organisations etc. to collect and organize input, report writing, updating, editing, data illustration, proofreading, layout and formatting of reports such as:
○ quarterly monitoring reports, implementation progress reports, annual reports
and final reports to donors
○ quarterly project progress reports to the project board
○ periodic (quarterly and annual) project reports to different internal and external stakeholders including to the Civil Society, Government and UN agencies
● Support the development of high quality, persuasive and comprehensive concept notes and funding proposals for various donors/funding opportunities. This would involve content writing, editing, layout ,formatting and proofreading documents to ensure clarity, consistency, and alignment with donor expectations and timelines.
● Manage multiple reporting/proposal deadlines and priorities simultaneously, coordinating inputs from various team members to meet submission requirements.
● Maintain internal/external reporting schedules, ensuring realistic deadlines for internal revisions
● Support the preparation of briefs, talking points, key messaging for discussions with partners in key coordination meetings to discuss data, trends analysis and any identified gaps and/or needs observed.

4. Other duties and responsibilities
● Support the participation and/or representation of the programme at events, conferences, technical meetings, media briefings etc. as required,
● Assist with interpretation at trainings/discussions/meetings and translation of documents in the Sinhala, Tamil and English languages
● Join programme monitoring visits and donor field visits when required.