Director, Office of Communications (OCC) Vacancy-Job Ref: ECITFAO/0825/202313

Director, Office of Communications (OCC) Vacancy-Job Ref: ECITFAO/0825/202313
Rome (Italy)
JOB DESCRIPTION
Organizational Setting
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the Specialized Agency of the United Nations leading international efforts to defeat hunger. FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide to achieve food security for all and ensure that people have regular access to high-quality food.
Communication is at the heart of FAO’s mission to help building consensus for a world without hunger. The effectiveness and credibility of the Organization as a policy-making forum and unique multilingual centre of excellence, knowledge and technical expertise depends to a considerable degree on its ability to communicate its work to harness efforts to eradicate hunger.
The Office of Communications (OCC) is responsible for all external and internal communication activities of the Organization. It ensures coherence and consistency in FAO’s messaging and communications’ outputs, as well as enables cost-effectiveness in use of communication-related resources across the Organization.
The position is located in the Office of Communications (OCC) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.
Reporting Lines
The Director reports to the Director-General.
Summary of Duties and Functions
Under the policy guidance and the general supervision of the Director-General, the Director of the Office of Communications (OCC) will provide strategic vision and direction to all activities of the Office. In particular, the incumbent will:
Lead the Organization’s communication efforts, both internal and external, to support the five strategic objectives of the Organization;
Coordinate and supervise the communication activities of the Organization, both internal and
external (media relations, social media, audiovisual productions, outreach and promotion,corporate web presence, publishing, and library and knowledge services);
Exercise overall management responsibility, including planning, for the Division’s programme of work, ensuring quality control, progress monitoring and reporting as well as cost-effective use of financial and human resources, within the framework of the FAO Strategic Framework and the Medium Term Plan, as per results-based management principles;
Work collaboratively with Senior Managers and staff at all levels across the Organization, at Headquarters and in Decentralized Offices, to ensure efficiency and synergy and to create accurate and consistent communications;
Build strong professional relations in the area of communication with the other Rome-based UN Agencies to ensure coherent messaging and leverage synergies;
Maintain a motivated and effective work force by ensuring recruitment of highly qualified staff, by mentoring, coaching and supporting career development of staff, and by implementing effective approaches for performance management;
Represent the Organization at inter-agency and external high level meetings as required, as well as at FAO’s Governing Body sessions as needed;
Act as spokesperson of the Director-General.
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
Advanced university degree or equivalent post-graduate professional development in communications, journalism or related area;
Minimum fifteen years of relevant experience in communication or related fields;
Demonstrated professional skills and competence in the area of communication and public information, including a profound knowledge and understanding of the techniques and channels of international communication;
Relevant international experience in communications and outreach in the UN system or similarcontext;
Demonstrated political judgement in an international environment;
Proven negotiation skills, maturity, tact and diplomacy;
Demonstrated management and strategic leadership skills;
Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate- level B) of one of the other FAO languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish);
Ability to lead and work effectively with a diverse team of people of different national and cultural backgrounds in an international setting.
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