Consultancy – Arab Region and Afghanistan Advocacy, Profiling, External Communications and Storytelling

Consultancy – Arab Region and Afghanistan Advocacy, Profiling, External Communications and Storytelling

Purpose and Objectives:

The overall purpose of the consultancy is to strengthen ActionAid’s advocacy, external profile and storytelling in the Arab Region and Afghanistan, amplifying the voices of women, young people and crisis-affected communities to regional and international audiences. Specific objectives are to:

• Develop and support the roll-out of an advocacy, profiling and external communications strategy covering both contexts, aligned with ActionAid’s global strategy and country/regional priorities as well as country strategic priorities;

• Advice and support raising ActionAid’s visibility and credibility with media, policymakers, donors, UN agencies, civil society networks and the public;

• Produce compelling, ethical, feminist, human-centered stories and communications products that profile ActionAid’s humanitarian and women’s rights work;

• Identify and capitalise on key advocacy moments and media opportunities (e.g. international days, high-level events, humanitarian appeals);

• Facilitate strengthening the capacity of ActionAid staff and partners in storytelling, media engagement and ethical content gathering.

Scope of Work and Key Tasks:

Working closely with ActionAid Arab Region, ActionAid Afghanistan and relevant Global Secretariat teams, the consultant will:

• Conduct a rapid review of existing advocacy and communications materials, channels and capacities in both contexts;

• Map key stakeholders, media outlets, journalists, creative allies, policy processes and advocacy opportunities relevant to ActionAid’s priorities;

• Develop key messages, narratives and a positioning framework tailored to distinct audiences (media, donors, policymakers, public), including risk-sensitive messaging for the Afghanistan context;

• Gather, write and edit human-centered stories, case studies, op-eds, blogs, press releases, briefing notes and social media content, working through country teams and local facilitators where direct access is not possible;

• Support media engagement, including building media relationships, drafting press materials, pitching stories and preparing spokespersons;

• Plan and support ActionAid’s engagement in key advocacy moments both nationally, regionally and globally during the consultancy period;

• Design and deliver practical capacity-building sessions for staff and partners on storytelling, ethical content gathering, media engagement and digital communications;

• Ensure all content gathering and publication complies with ActionAid’s feminist principles, informed-consent protocols, safeguarding policies and do-no-harm standards – including protecting the identity and security of contributors, which is critical in the Afghanistan context;

• Coordinate regularly with country, regional and Global Secretariat communications and advocacy focal points to ensure coherence with federation-wide messaging.

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