Media in Cooperation and Transition
Vacancy/Title: Public Relations Trainer & Mentor
Contract Duration: December 1st, 2024 – March 31st, 2025
Location: Baghdad, Iraq & Erbil, Kurdistan
Languages: Kurdish, Arabic, & English
About MiCT:
Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT) gGmbH is a German media development organisation that implements projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. MiCT’s activities focus on the interplay between conflict, media coverage and reconciliation.
For the past 12 years MiCT has been conducting investigative reporting training and has produced investigative reports in cooperation with local journalists in Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan & South Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, as well as several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For more information on MiCT please visit our website: https://mict-international.org/
Background:
This role requires a deep understanding of the Iraq’s political landscape and an ability to connect disparate issues into a cohesive Public Relations strategy. Strong public relations campaigns and effective branding can significantly enhance governance for ministries by fostering trust and transparency with the public they serve. A well-crafted PR strategy helps communicate a ministry’s goals, achievements, and challenges clearly, making government operations more accessible and understandable to citizens. Effective branding creates a consistent and recognizable identity, which can improve public perception and engagement. By showcasing responsiveness to public needs and highlighting positive initiatives, ministries can build credibility and encourage civic participation. To implement, this objective requires equipping several ministries with strong Public Relations skills in order to increase its transparency, trust, and communication with the Iraqi public and other government bodies.
We are seeking a dynamic and experienced a PR Consultant to join our team. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in PR, excellent communication skills, and a deep understanding of political branding. With the PR consultant(s), MiCT will provide technical support in creating strategic communications and outreach plans and organize capacity-building workshops and one month of mentoring sessions with respective clients of specific government entities in Iraq. This includes strengthening the capacity of the office personnel in communication and outreach best practices, including media relations, public speaking, and social media engagement to enhance their skills and confidence, by developing training materials and leading sharing sessions with the office personnel.
Scope of Work:
The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
a) Bespoke rebranding Strategy Development/Curriculum development
– Develop tools/guidelines for the implementation of the communication and outreach strategy based on previously prepared research.
– Develop/or improve a brand identity that aligns with goals
– Create a detailed rebranding implementation plan
b) Communication Strategy Implementation
– Develop key messages and communication materials
– Implement multi-channel communication strategies
– Manage media relations and public engagement initiatives
c) Workshops (on-site in Baghdad & Erbil)
- Three-day communications and outreach workshops for 30 participants in each institution. The workshops will be tailored based on the needs and expectations of the institutions while also taking the discourse analysis into consideration.
Day 1: The workshop will equip the participants on the technical knowledge about communications, advocacy and public outreach.
Day 2: The workshop will facilitate discussions around the existing challenges and opportunities on implementing a communications and outreach strategy.
Day 3: The workshop will provide an enabling space for the participants to further co-create a drafted strategy which will be submitted for approval and implementation by the institutions.
- Mentoring sessions for the participants of each institution, 10 per institution, for a total of 30 participants (over 1 month).
This will enable the organization to finalize the strategies and further build the capacity of the participants by following up on the learning objectives of the workshops. The organization will prepare a final report with key analysis and recommendations from PR Trainers.
Deliverables:
- Curriculum development/ Training material
- Comprehensive (re)branding strategy document
- Communication strategy and implementation plan
- Workshop implementation (2 in Arabic, 2 in Kurdish on-site; 4 in total)
- 1-1 Mentoring sessions to support in message development and content creation
- Final report with recommendations for sustaining improvements
Timeline:
The project is expected to last for 5 months (Nov 1 2024) with the following key milestones:
– Month 1: Initial assessment and strategy development
– Month 2: Implementation of rebranding and communication strategies (4 in total)
– Month 3-4: Staff training and mentoring
– Month 5: Final evaluation and reporting
Required Qualifications:
- Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in communication, arts, public relations, journalism, social marketing or a related field.
- Minimum 8 years of professional experience in strategic communications, particularly with projects implemented by national/ international NGOs and government entities.
- Proven track record of securing media coverage and managing successful PR campaigns.
- Practical skills and competencies in at least one of the following functional areas: graphic and layout design; animation/video production and editing; photography and image-processing.
- Ability to work with diverse teams to develop joint communication and messaging for different platforms by developing and introducing innovative and creative messages.
- Ability to work with various tools of Adobe Creative Cloud, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
- Good planning skills and ability to meet the established deadlines.
- Ability to build and maintain partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Languages: Excellent knowledge (written and spoken) of English, Kurdish, and/or Arabic. (Trainings will be done separately in AR and KR; separate applications welcome per language).
- Demonstrated experience in developing content for wider dissemination for online platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and X.
*If not based in Iraq, the consultant must be willing to travel to Baghdad and Erbil for in-person workshop implementation in Arabic and/or Kurdish*
How to apply
Submission Guidelines:
Please send your Cover Letter and CV in English, in 1 PDF, with the title of the position in the subject line (PR Consultant) for immediate consideration to [email protected].
CV and cover letter should be labelled with your last name and document type, e.g. “PR trainer and mentor”. The cover letter must outline specifically how you meet the Required Qualifications with references from similar projects or samples of your work (e.g., press releases, articles, media coverage). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
We welcome applications from both Arabic and Kurdish speakers to apply separately.
Invitation to interview will be evaluated based on:
1. Proposed methodology and approach in cover letter
3. Relevant experience and qualifications in cover letter
4. Quality of sample work or case studies
5. Budget and cost-effectiveness