Communications Associate, BRAC UPGI

Communications Associate, BRAC UPGI

About BRAC

BRAC is an award-winning international non-governmental development organisation, with the vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential. BRAC is a leader in developing and implementing cost-effective, evidence-based programmes to assist poor and disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, including in conflict-prone and post-disaster settings. It is an organisation of and for the people of the Global South, pioneering new development and social enterprise approaches to equip communities to achieve prosperity. As well as being the world’s biggest NGO by number of staff and people directly reached, BRAC has regularly been ranked the number one NGO in the world by the Geneva-based NGO Advisor, an independent organisation committed to highlighting innovation, impact and governance in the non-profit sector. BRAC retained the top spot in 2020 among the top 500 NGOs for the fifth consecutive year.

BRAC was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. It started its first programme outside of Bangladesh in Afghanistan in 2002, and has since reached millions of people in 11 countries in Asia and Africa. BRAC has a holistic approach to development that uses a wide array of programmes and social enterprises, including in microfinance, education, health, agriculture, gender and human rights. BRAC believes that every person has inherent potential, and when an enabling environment is created and that potential is unleashed, even the poorest can become agents of positive change in their own lives, for their families and their communities.

About the Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

The Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (“UPGI”) is a global unit of BRAC that was founded in 2016 to build off of the success of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Bangladesh. BRAC UPGI aims to position the Graduation approach as a key driver to eradicating extreme poverty worldwide. It does this by:

• Advocating for uptake of the Graduation approach by policymakers, national governments, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental organisations; and
• Effective adaptation and implementation of the Graduation approach in countries around the world, supported through technical assistance and capacity strengthening for external stakeholders.

In 2002, BRAC pioneered the Ultra-Poor Graduation (“Graduation”) approach in Bangladesh – a holistic intervention to help people lift themselves from extreme poverty – after recognizing that existing poverty alleviation programs were not reaching the poorest people. Through the provision of livelihood assets, cash transfers, and continued mentoring and training, the Graduation approach addresses participants’ multidimensional needs within the local context and ‘graduates’ people from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods.

Graduation is an evidence-based, scalable intervention proven to break the poverty trap for the long term. So far, BRAC’s flagship Graduation program has impacted over 2 million Bangladeshi households—totaling over 9 million people. To help eradicate extreme poverty, BRAC UPGI is working to scale globally by integrating Graduation into existing government programs and help 21 million more people lift themselves from extreme poverty by 2026.

But BRAC UPGI cannot do it alone. This is beyond the means and capacity of a single organisation- no matter how ambitious or innovative. Sustainability and scale demands change at the systems level with active government engagement. BRAC UPGI is committed to creating effective solutions that leverage the available resources and existing programming to achieve the long-term benefits demonstrated by Graduation.

The organisation is partnering with governments, as well as multilateral institutions, NGOs, and civil society, in countries where BRAC UPGI thinks it can have maximum impact and drive greater uptake for Graduation.

About the Position

BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) seeks a highly organized and self-motivated Associate who will support a growing Communications team that works to enhance visibility and demand for a proven, holistic poverty alleviation approach along with changes to policies and programs to better serve those furthest behind. This role will support administrative work and logistics, helping to improve systems, streamline processes, and track ongoing comms efforts to maximize the team’s overall impact and influence greater awareness and support of an evidence-based poverty alleviation intervention.

The ideal candidate has experience overseeing logistics, supporting project management and organizing and tracking key activities to help inform areas of improvement to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. The Associate will report directly to the Head for Communications and will work as an integral part of an agile, global Communications team. This new position is a global role (and can be based anywhere), with preferences for one of BRAC International’s hubs in Washington DC, New York, London, the Hague, Nairobi, or Dhaka.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Associate of Communications at BRAC UPGI will be responsible for supporting administration, project management for team activities and product, content development, and tracking opportunities and engagement. Responsibilities will include the following:

Administration:

• Assist in scheduling of comms meetings, events, travel, and overseeing and maintaining the Communications project management system in Airtable.
• Administer and coordinate with other comms team members to help ensure project deadlines and deliverables are met based on Communication’s Calendar.
• Help manage agendas, minutes, and action items of calls, meetings, events – ensuring they are appropriately shared and executed.
• Coordinate with team members to track contacts and relationships in cultivation, shifting priorities, and new opportunities in Salesforce.
• Assist with organisation of internal events including messaging workshops.
• Assist with organisation, preparation, logistics of high-level external events including webinars and physical events (i.e. developing invite lists, tracking registration, taking notes).
• Support maintenance of key databases.
• Help maintain and organize comms audit to track published content.
• Help update and manage collateral and knowledge product inventories.
• Reorganize and manage the comms folder within the drive.
• Support updating and tailoring efforts of existing templates, frameworks, guidelines for country teams along with uptake.
• Help enhance existing comms databases, processes, and systems to improve overall team efficiency and standardize key activities and practices.
• Help enhance coordination between Comms team and other teams within UPGI and with other BRAC entities.

Research and Monitoring:

• Help maintain record of Comms efforts and activities with key stakeholders through Salesforce and Muckrack.
• Help monitor key issues within the Graduation space and broader development ecosystem via media and social media activity to inform UPGI messaging and involvement in addressing key issues relevant to our work, as well as opportunities to collaborate with influencers/potential partners and propose engagement.
• Help develop and update lists of key stakeholders, audiences, media outlets for specific issues, activities, and countries.
• Help monitor key stakeholders within the Graduation space and broader development ecosystem via media and social media activity to inform opportunities to collaborate, UPGI messaging and involvement in discussions relevant to our work.
• Listen in on events relevant to UPGI’s work and capture highlights, key takeaways, contributors to conversation who might be potential ally or partner for UPGI to share internally to inform engagement and propose social media content based on event highlights.

Content Creation

• Help update presentations, reports, case studies, briefs, word documents, along with guidelines on webinars, design, writing style, blog writing, etc.
• Help draft and provide copy edit support for new comms content, collateral, and social media copy and move approved content into designed templates for review.
• Support other team members with preparation, development, design, and copy editing of materials, presentations, reports, briefs, one pagers.

Safeguarding

• Read, understand, practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Qualifications

The Associate of Communications at BRAC UPGI should have a strong commitment toward international development and the eradication of extreme poverty; with strengths in organisation and administrative work, writing, and some experience in advocacy, communications, and/or public outreach.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in communications, journalism, policy, international development, or other related field.
• 1-2 years of work experience in a communications-related position.
• Strong writing skills along with an ability to break down complex arguments and present them in a clear and succinct manner.
• Basic understanding of Salesforce and project management systems like Airtable.
• Experience or knowledge of public policy, economics, international development, communications, multilateral institutions, and/or global governance an advantage.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Exceptional organisational skills, process orientation, with a keen eye for detail.
• Highly self-motivated, responsive, and strong ability to work independently and in a fast-paced environment.
• Proactive collaborator, with ability to effectively manage competing work streams and deadlines.
• Exceptional ability to communicate to partners and clients via written products and presentations.
• Diplomatic, with strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of cultural sensitivity.