Main purpose of job:

On 25 November 2015, the UK’s Chancellor announced a new cross-Whitehall Prosperity Fund (PF) worth £1.2bn with the aims of supporting inclusive economic growth in recipient countries and mutual prosperity between the UK and partner countries. Since its launch, the PF has developed 27 different programmes some of which are bilateral and cover countries like Colombia, Mexico and Brazil while others are thematic and focus on sectors like trade, health, infrastructure and anti-corruption. This latter group of programmes is global and operates in multiple countries.

The Colombia PF Programme, worth £25.5mn over 5 years (2018 to 2022), contributes poverty reduction and gender equality through economic development in the country’s post conflict and conflict-affected regions. It also seeks to create commercial opportunities (aka secondary benefits) for international businesses including companies from the UK. The Programme works in three sectors: institutional strengthening, infrastructure and agriculture. In addition to the bilateral PF Programme, two global or thematic PF Programmes operate in Colombia (Infrastructure and Anti-Corruption). These programmes are bringing additional resources and secondary benefit opportunities.

The British Embassy in Bogota is seeking to hire an experienced Communications Manager who will create, deliver and disseminate a full range of communications materials on behalf of the Colombia PF Programme. The jobholder will work closely alongside the other 9 members of the PF Team as well as the Programme’s 5 implementing partners (IPs) to inform and influence a wide range of public and private stakeholders, including government ministers, in both Colombia and the UK. The jobholder will report directly to the Colombia Prosperity Fund Director. S/he will manage a budget of £100,000 and one Communications Intern.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve

Communications

• Update the PF communications strategy, plans and materials to influence stakeholders positively (UK and Colombian stakeholders in public and private sector).
• Collect, formulate and disseminate PF impact successes and lessons learned, as outlined in PF Colombia Communications Strategy (impact stories; press releases; photograph library management; social media posts; tweets; case studies; Facebook and gov.uk webpage updates), ensuring at least three PF news stories per quarter reach UK government ministers.
• Design, coordinate planning and produce relevant products for communications events (brochures and speeches), such as early market engagement and project launches.
• Coordinate and edit UK-Colombia Commercial Update for private sector (monthly).
• Coordinate and edit quarterly digital newsletter for Government Stakeholders (twice yearly).
• Coordinate development of PF promotional videos.
• Proactively integrate gender and inclusion, and climate and environment priorities into all communications materials.
• Manage Communications Intern to ensure s/he: i) maintains updated Programme Communications Plan; ii) updates PF Colombia photograph library; iii) keeps the media informed; iv) produces regular, creative content for social media, including tweets and short videos; and iv) reviews impact of these posts, as well as outreach through traditional media, on monthly basis.
• Actively contribute to PF Learning ‘Communications’ community. (Share Colombia Programme Communications Strategy, 6-monthly Communications Plans and lessons learned case studies.)

Analysis and reporting

• Analyse and report on PF project and policy developments to support evidence-based decision-making.
• Prepare high quality Prosperity Fund documents (including monthly/quarterly reports; inputs to the Global Prosperity Fund Annual Report; Annual Review; Terms of Reference; briefings; and official correspondence.

Gender and Inclusion

In your role as Communications Manager, you will ensure Gender Equality Act compliance and support the Prosperity Fund’s ambitions on women’s economic opportunities, inclusive growth and poverty reduction through your team.  

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

Staff: one communications intern

Resources: Colombia PF Programme Communications budget of £100,000

• Graduate with a relevant university degree and work experience in communications, business, international development or international relations;
• Familiarity with, and regular use of, social media and other communications tools;
• Excellent spoken and written English (native speaker or a minimum TOEFL score of 120 or a minimum academic IELTS score of 7.5 or an equivalent score in another type of assessment);
• Good spoken and written Spanish; 
• Ability to grasp and distil issues quickly, to deliver at pace and to work collaboratively in a team;
• Microsoft Office literate