Project Director, Africa Advocacy, WAN-IFRA Gender and Media Freedom Strategy

Location: Sub-Saharan Africa

 

Contract Duration: 9 months (milestone-based /approx. 20 hours per week equivalent)

 

Engagement type: External, contract position; competitive rates

 

Background

 

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is seeking a project director to oversee its Africa-focused advocacy activities as part of its Women in News Gender and Media Freedom Strategy, which will run for 4-years in Botswana, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The contract begins 1 September 2016 and will run through to 31 May, 2017. The programme is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

 

Women in News partners with media organisations to equip female media editors with the skills they need to advance within their companies, to both improve gender balance and also to contribute to society as a whole by providing a greater female contribution and perspective to news and information. It also works to change institutional bottlenecks to the progression of women media executives through industry-led advocacy.

 

Women in News combines WAN-IFRA’s global experience in running advocacy and development initiatives in support of media freedom with the first-hand knowledge of the impact gender-based programmes can have on media and society.

 

Women in News falls under WAN-IFRA’s Media Freedom division, which promotes media freedom,and the economic and editorial independence of media, as essential conditions of that freedom.

 

The WAN-IFRA Gender and Media Freedom Strategy has two focus areas: advocacy and capacity building.

 

Women in News Advocacy combines peer-to-peer education, awareness raising and publicity actions to achieve the following outcomes:

• Media organisations have greater sensitivity to gender issues, and work as an Industry to overcome cultural and institutional barriers to gender balance through peer-led roundtables, webinars and other industry-focused activities
• Media have access to new practical tools from the development of a Gender Diversity Best Practices Resource Centre which includes handbooks and guidelines on concrete measures to reduce gender bias in the news as well as organizational best practices, along with the latest reports and trends from the industry
• Women media leaders are recognized to inspire future leaders through the Women in News Leadership Awards that are held annually in both MENA and Africa
• Global media industry is sensitized to the benefits and necessity of gender balance; media development organisations are better informed and coordinated in their approach to genderthrough industry-wide lobbying and advocacy actions targeting WAN-IFRA’s membership base.
• Strengthened Institutions in intervention countries through close collaboration with two regional implementation partners help ensure programme sustainability and build local capacity.

This position jointly reports to WAN-IFRA Gender and Media Freedom Programme Lead.

 

The successful Candidate will have:

• 10+ years experience in the media industry – either in editorial or the business side of news media in the target region;
• A high level of strategic thinking and operational capacity;
• The proven ability to work independently, with a high-level of self-motivation and ability to set and meet goals;
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities under pressure and accomplish short- and long- term deadlines with a heavy workload;
• Specific experience running gender-focused capacity building and advocacy programmes in the region, ideally in the media industry;
• A history of being a strong team player

S/he will also possess:

• University degree in humanities or media/journalism;
• 8-10 years full-time paid experience, preferably in one of the following fields: media, freedom of expression, gender diversity, democracy and human rights,
• End-to-end experience developing and executing large scale lobbying initiatives, awareness raising campaigns and awards recognition programmes in an international context, with demonstrated results;
• Experience managing and developing relations with a senior level audience, ideally within a membership-based context;
• Experience overseeing multi-stakeholder research projects and the productions of supporting reports and handbooks;
• Existing strong professional networks, ideally with media and civil society actors, in the project intervention countries;
• Experience implementing membership-based surveys to capture quantitative and qualitative data, including the ability to synthesize and contextualize results for the purposes of reporting and monitoring impact;
• Budget management experience with direct accountability for reporting;
• Excellent English-language written and verbal communication skills;
• Superior presentation skills with an ability to engage and build meaningful connections with your audience;

Scope of Work

The Project Director, Africa Advocacy will have programmatic, operational and financial accountability for all Women in News Africa-focused advocacy activities in the 4 intervention countries. S/he will play a vital role in managing the implementation of the Gender and Media Freedom Strategy (Hereafter referred to as the Programme), overseeing a regional manager, managing relationships with regional implementation partners, and crucially, building and managing the Women in News Steering Committee, while representing the advocacy division of the Programme to all Africa stakeholders. The Project Director, Africa Advocacy has one regional manager (at 50% input) reporting into him/her. S/he will work closely with the Project Director, MENA Advocacy, Project Director, Capacity Building as well as Programme Lead to achieve the goals of the Programme.

 

The Project Director, Africa Advocacy will have direct accountability for meeting the identified inputs/outputs in support of overall intended Programme outcomes as outlined Year 2 of the project workplan and logframe in a timely matter and according to the quality expected by

WAN-IFRA and the donor.

 

These include:

• Creating, in cooperation with Programme Lead and MENA Advocacy Director, the 3-year WIN Advocacy Plan; and ensuring the successful execution of the plan within the identified timeframe;
• Establishing and maintaining relationships with the 4 Africa-based members of the Women in News Steering Committee, ensuring their deliverables are met in a timely manner that is in keeping with WAN-IFRA standards as well as their continued engagement in the initiative; Coordinating regional SC meetings and participation in annual in-person SC meeting to finalise Advocacy Plan
• Outreach and engagement with 20-30 Africa media partners in target countries of Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe to drive forward the 3-year Advocacy pla
• Ownership of 8 Roundtable events in all four intervention markets (end-to-end coordination, with support from regional manager) over a 12-month period. These Roundtables should support activities from Year 1 of the programme, focusing on the identified goal of establishing gender policies in each intervention market, in addition to other, goals which may be broader or more specific as identified by WIN media partners and the Steering Committee.
•  In Cooperation with MENA Advocacy Director and Programme Leader, guiding the ongoing development of roundtable educational tools as well as webinar content to support the above implementation plan;
• Develop curriculum for HR Director Webinar Series, working to establish content with direct input from Media Partners;
• Develop and execute additional activities as identified throughout programme
• In Cooperation with MENA Advocacy Director and Programme Lead ensure the research and production of 1-2 practical handbooks promoting gender mainstreaming (e.g. reducing gender bias in the news and a security-focused handbook on sexual harassment or other as identified as a team)
• Ensuring the successful implementation of the annual Africa-focused Women in News Leadership Awards including promoting the Awards to the public and media, managing the nomination process as well as selection process, monitoring coverage, then overseeing Awards ceremony(ies) which will be held in conjunction with Women in News or WAN-IFRA events
• Producing regular multimedia materials (i.e. blog posts, photos, social media…) documenting the life of the project for external audiences, as required for the WIN website;
• In Cooperation with the Programme Lead, contributing to the programme, logistics and strategic outcomes of the annual WIN sponsored forum in Durban in June 2017
• Implementing interim organizational assessments and other benchmarking tools according to project reporting requirements and timelines. Supporting Programme Lead in all other reporting as required
• Ensuring all advocacy related operational elements of the Programme comply with donor regulations, laws, and WAN-IFRA’s policies;
• Ensuring regular and timely reporting and review of project progress to Programme Lead in keeping with WAN-IFRA’s internal requirements as well as that of the donor;
• Collaborating closely with the Director of Capacity Building, MENA Advocacy  as well as WIN Programme Lead to achieve overall programme aims;
• Managing advocacy focused activities of Regional Manager, ensuring her successful contribution to the programme
• Working with Programme Lead to identify and assess potential Regional Impelmentation Partner (Sub-grantee)
• Other duties as assigned

Additional Assets:

 

Experience of capacity building for media; and/or

Experience with development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation; and/or
Experience working with senior level stakeholders on media freedom or gender issues.

 

Interested candidates should submit their CV along with references to wanifra.hr@gmail.comby 30 June 2016.

 

Please specify ‘Project Director, Africa Advocacy’ in the subject line of the email.