Lebanon: Community Engagement and Accountability Officer, Rooted in Trust

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Rooted in Trust project works to combat COVID-19 rumors and misinformation in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Brazil, Mali, DRC, Sudan and South Sudan. We work to create impact at the local level and inform approaches to rumor management at the global level. The project is supported by a Global Technical Advisory team made up of media, humanitarian, data science, and information management experts.

In Phase I of the project, we collected more than 19 thousand rumors in 14 language sand supported more than 30 local trusted information providers. In this critical phase of the pandemic, we will build on these efforts to listen and respond to the information challenges faced by vulnerable groups in humanitarian contexts, encouraging open dialogue between citizens and scientists and stronger and more collaborative partnerships between information providers (such as local media) and humanitarian and health sources.

DAY-TO-DAY TASKS will include:

• Develop, maintain, and establish excellent working relationships with a wide range of humanitarian responders (Civil Society, UN agencies, NGO partners, etc.), making them aware of the project and its objectives and find potential collaboration;
• In coordination with the Project Team, ensure that feedback gained from the project activities is made available to humanitarian organizations (i.e., brief presentations at coordination meetings and other relevant forums), and government officials, as required;
• Share with the rest of the project team the latest humanitarian updates to enable them to turn these into useful, actionable, accurate, and engaging content that communities can relate to/understand;
• Contribute to the production of products that present analysis of rumors and misinformation and sociological research activities to understand the behavioral drivers behind rumors;
• Actively participate in relevant humanitarian coordination forums to identify critical gaps in the information and engagement response to the pandemic;
• Organize events to bring together media and humanitarian actors to advocate for journalists' space in humanitarian and health responses;
• Contribute to the discussions and developments of new guidelines, resources, rules and regulations as issued by governments and UN agencies to ensure the community's perspectives are taken into account, local media is included and supported, and the overall health and humanitarian response is accountable to the affected populations;
• Become aware of agreed-upon protocols regarding the health response, and stay up to date with the latest Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) surveys concerning the health crisis;
• Identify funding and partnership opportunities;
• Support gender mainstreaming of all aspects of the project;
• Ensure all content produced within the project follows core humanitarian principles, often summarized but not limited to, "Do No Harm";
• Support the project lead with project management as and when needed;
• Understanding of and demonstrated commitment to upholding Internews' Core Values.

QUALIFICATIONS WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Degree in sociology, international relations or a related field
• Experience in Community Engagement, Communication with Communities (CwC) and Accountability to affected Populations (AAP) projects, with a strong focus on ensuring feedback from the communities is taken into account within the humanitarian system
• Extensive experience working in complex relief operations in challenging environments, preferably in humanitarian and/or health crisis contexts
• A thorough understanding of the work of humanitarian and development agencies, including working within the UN cluster system
• Proven interpersonal and networking skills to liaise authoritatively with figures from the aid and donor communities and host governments
• Experience working with communities to gather their concerns and issues, turning these into engaging content
• A self-starter and proactive problem solver who enjoys communication and collaboration in a multi-stakeholder environment
• Fluent in written and spoken English and Arabic
• Must be self-reliant, resourceful, a good problem-solver, good humored, and flexible
• Awareness of, and familiarity with, the issues and dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon and/or other health crises in humanitarian contexts a strong asset, but not required. 

LOGISTICS

This is a remote, work from home position that involves liaising with the local country team as well as global technical advisors located outside of the country. The ideal candidate is based in Lebanon; however, remote candidates based elsewhere will also be considered. You must have work authorization in your location that does not require sponsorship from Internews. Wherever possible, we work to try to find solutions for international hiring that work for both the company and the candidate. This means that some of the particulars around the offer for a role will be dependent on several factors, and that the benefits and salary structure that apply to a position will ultimately be based upon the candidate's location and where the role is hired.

The selected candidate will ideally start in March 2022. This is a term position with an anticipated term of 9 months (through November 2022), which may be extended into 2023.

OUR COMMITMENT TO FOSTERING A CULTURE OF BELONGING

We are an organization of dynamic, mission-driven individuals who are passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are an EEO employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences.