Communications Officer

Project Details:

Indonesia's Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia's human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia's 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy

development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program's approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia's development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels and use the well attested-success of INOVASI's local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

The Program is implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Terms of reference:

Purpose of the Position: Working closely with INOVASI's Strategic Communications Manager and GoI Relations and Media lead, the Communications Officer will help to execute INOVASI's Communications and Public Diplomacy strategy that helps the program and its partners, at national and subnational levels, to raise awareness and understanding of shared goals: improved learning and achievement of foundational skills for all Indonesian primary students.

A strong focus of the role will be on helping to identify, collect, develop and post engaging communication content including on social media, developing stories and articles, videos, briefing notes and talking points, coordinating with photographers, videographers, translators and editors, managing updates to the website, and collaborating with INOVASI teams in Jakarta and in the provinces to support their communications needs. The position will involve travel to INOVASI program locations in West Java, East Java, North Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku provinces.

The Communications Officer will be an innovative thinker with expertise in communicating effectively with a wide range of audiences and stakeholders by email, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings, and have strong writing skills and a passion for detail. She/he will be able to multi-task, anticipate challenges and adapt to changing contexts. She/he will also bring experience in collaborating with government and non-government partners to support and inform shared communications efforts.

Duties: Under the direction of the Strategic Communications Manager, and working with the GoI and Media Relations Lead and the Communications and Public Diplomacy Adviser, the Communications Officer will:

1. Support the communications team to effectively implement the Communications and Public Diplomacy strategy, the digital strategy and media strategy.

2. Support the development and implementation of engaging communication plans, a stakeholder and channel mapping process, and tight key messaging to capture the attention of target audiences.

3. Draft and edit, and assist in drafting and editing, a wide range of communications and advocacy materials including articles, press releases, human interest stories, videos, infographics, talking points, briefing notes, social media content amongst others. Proactively identify content opportunities across INOVASI's program and opportunities to plan and co-create content with stakeholders to support the sustainability of the program and support DFAT public diplomacy activities

4. Coordinate social media content production across INOVASI's platforms (Facebook and YouTube, others TBC) and identify strong social media posts for DFAT channels.

5. Provide support in managing INOVASI website content, quality assurance of documents and data, and any troubleshooting with the Strategic Communications Manager.

6. Support the development of advocacy campaigns by sharing insights of the digital landscape in Indonesia and helping to realise creative ideas which inform and educate the public on specific issues, identify solutions and influence societal attitudes, behaviours, and beliefs.

7. Working with the GoI Relations and Media Lead, support INOVASI's partners in government and non-government organisations to develop and/or implement communications that build awareness and public engagement and support for issues of joint importance.

8. Under direction of the Strategic Communications Manager, lead and manage production or implementation of Communications products or activities, including but not limited to, film production, podcast, book productions, occasional events, reports, etc. Maintain a content and events calendar.

9. Support key INOVASI national and subnational events, initiatives and campaigns, and support communications meetings with MoECRT, MoRA, DFAT and other key partners.

10. Effectively liaise with and manage external resources under guidance of the Strategic Communications Manager, including but not limited to monitoring the usage of workdays of, verify invoices and supporting documents of graphic designers, translators, copy editors, and resource persons for approval.

11. Support monitoring and evaluation initiatives as developed with the Performance and Learning team, to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of INOVASI communications products.

12. Organize data, information, and documents transfer to the Government of Indonesia (GOI) repository or website.

13. Other duties as may reasonably be required by the Strategic Communications Manager consistent with the incumbent's qualifications and experience.

Qualifications and Experience:

The Communications Officer will possess the following qualifications and experience:

1. Degree in the fields of Communication and Media, Public Relations, Social Science, Development Studies, or related subjects.

2. Significant, relevant work experience in the communications and media and/or education advocacy and promotions.

3. Experience in working with Indonesian government agencies, local governments and other stakeholders such as non-government organisations and universities.

4. Experience of managing social media platforms, digital channels and social media campaigns, and monitoring and evaluating their effectiveness.

5. Excellent communication skills in writing, editing, verbal communication, liaison, and interpersonally, with a detail for quality and consistency.

6. Experience briefing and working with graphic designers, editors, photographers and videographers in the production of key communications products, and sound knowledge of brand.

7. Strong interpersonal skills, a team player, flexible and responsible.

8. Ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple concurrent activities.

9. Knowledge of the Indonesian education system, including recent education reforms.

10. High-level skills in written and spoken English and Bahasa Indonesia are required.