Assignment Details
BBC Media Action is the independent international charity of the BBC which uses media to advance development worldwide. To achieve this, we partner with civil society, local media and others to produce creative programmes and content in multi-media formats which inform and engage audiences, and to strengthen the media sector through building professional capacity and infrastructure.
In India, BBC Media Action has been using media and communications to improve health, resilience and rights since 1999. We are currently implementing major projects across India to improve maternal and child health, improve gender norms among adolescents and address sanitation behaviours.
BBC Media Action India has worked extensively to highlight the role of social and behaviour change communication in shifting the needle from only building toilets to promoting their sustained usage by all members of the society, and to improved management of faecal sludge thereby limiting open discharge of untreated faecal waste. With funding support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have been working on to provide communications technical support to the Government of India in designing, delivering and evaluating effective and impactful sanitation communication on sanitation. We work closely with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at the national level and with Technical Support Units who work closely with state and city level stakeholders across four states (Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu). These states have urban sanitation supply side infrastructure established/ coming up.
Overview:
Reporting to the Head of WASH Programme, the State Communication Consultant– Maharashtra will work closely with the Maharashtra TSU – CEPT Universityand will be responsible for providing strategic communications advice on issues of Open DefecationFree Sustainability (ODFS) as well as Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) to the Government of Maharashtra. The role involves building and maintaining relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including city and state government partners, TSU partner, donors, and civil society partners.
The State Communications Consultant - Maharashtra will be the BBC Media Action representative at the Maharashtra TSU and will thus play a part in strategic and operational mediations between the organisation, the TSU and local/ state stakeholders.S/he will also be responsible for financial and narrative reporting internally and will liaise regularly with the Senior Project Manager and the Head of WASH on issues of finance and administration, research, creative, and digital. S/he will further seek city level influencers and partners that can add value to the project development in Maharashtra. The post is based in Mumbai, with regular travel to Ahmedabad and New Delhi.
Key Responsibilities:
The State Communications Consultant - Maharashtrawill primarily be responsible for representing BBC Media Action within the TSU and liaise with urban sanitation and communication partners to assist the State Government on social and behaviour change communication interventions with a vision for it to be implemented at scale across cities in Maharashtra.
The role requires a strategic thinker with strong project management and communications skills who has experience of both media and development sectors. In addition, the role requires an organised and structured person, a quick thinker with the ability to multi-task and problem-solve. The post holder needs experience working at levels where diplomacy and good interpersonal skills are essential.
Key responsibilities will include:
• Leading the development of a state level communication strategy on ODFS and FSM in Maharashtra, in consultation with the CEPT university, and the Government of Maharashtra.
• Leading and managing the development of process design templates, standard operating procedures, from strategy development, design through to evaluation.
• Leading on strategic inputs on social and behaviour change communication outputs on urban sanitation at the state level.
• Sourcing relevant information, statistics, anecdotal inputs, research as and when needed which could inform the development of strategic interventions and partnerships on ODF sustainability and FSM
• Supporting the Head of WASH Programme in managing relationships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the TSU, and other stakeholders at the state level
• Sharing strategic lessons, approaches and provide inputs to teams at BBC Media Action (including project, creative and research teams)
• Coordinating and working with multi-disciplinary teams within BBC Media Action, such as the research team, creative team, finance team, digital team, as well as managing vendors and partners where applicable to ensure smooth operation and timely completion of deliverables
• Preparing regular project narrative reports and coordinating at various levels
• Maintaining BBC Editorial Guidelines for all outputs and external communications produced for the project.
• Supporting the documentation and dissemination of learnings from the project
The post will be based in Mumbai with regular national travel.
Skills Required
1. Demonstrable experience of 8-10 years in social and behaviour change communication, ideally on sanitation or public health.
2. Demonstrated skills in project planning, budget development and management, project work plan development and management and organising time effectively within a range of often conflicting deadlines.
3. Ability to demonstrate a high degree of self-motivation, planning and organisation, and strategic thinking.
4. Experience of written reporting for a variety of audiences.
5. Proven ability to collaborate closely with multi-level stakeholders and partners, particularly the government.
6. Excellent interpersonal, negotiating and diplomatic skills, including experience working with colleagues whose first language is not English.
7. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Marathi, and the ability to negotiate tactfully and effectively.
8. Experience of working on urban sanitation issues in India
9. Proficiency in Marathi
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12 month(s)
3+ years 
On-Site
