View Vacancy - CPK - Head of Communications, Monitoring & Reporting (MREL) – Prosperity Programme, C4(L)

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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
Economic and Prosperity

We are looking for a confident, ambitious self-starter to join the Prosperity Fund Portfolio Central Team to help lead on two elements of the £140 million China Prosperity Fund Portfolio, which will soon be moving into delivery.  The role will consist of two, related, elements:

  1. Lead on the development and delivery of a communication strategy for the portfolio (which is made up of seven multi-million pound programmes covering the areas of Rule of Law for Business, Infrastructure, Financial Services, Low Carbon & Energy, Skills, Health and Future Cities). 
  2. Lead on coordination of monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning (MREL) for the seven programmes, working collaboratively with the China Programme team, external suppliers and London teams. 

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate creativity, initiative and dynamism to maximise the impact of our communications across the China network.  They will need to be proactive, looking for new opportunities to promote the Prosperity Programme in China as well as respond quickly to requests from the UK teams based in London for freedom of information requests and reaction to media reports.  S/he will work closely with the Embassy and DIT Communications teams, with suppliers and partners to ensure branding and communications guidelines are being followed and the programme’s impact is appropriately magnified.

S/he will also need to be able to think strategically, be well organised, good at coordinating between multiple stakeholders and proactive in order to ensure the monitoring and reporting requirements of the programmes are met, and that we are collectively learning lessons and sharing them as we go along. 

Prosperity Programmes Comms :  50%

Proactively engage with the various Prosperity Programme and wider Embassy teams on their communications priorities, develop, deliver and evaluate communications strategies and activities to promote the UK as a partner of choice for China in prosperity programme related areas.  S/he will need to be creative in identifying opportunities to promote the UK’s prosperity programme work in China and in finding ways to maximise the impact of these messages. Engage with suppliers and partners to ensure that Prosperity programme branding and communications guidelines and requirements are being met, working closely with the relevant programme teams (who will be managing the contracts).  Engage with UK government departments as appropriate to ensure that communications are also aligned with Ministerial steers and other British Government priorities.   

Activities include (but not limited to) :

  • Media planning (analysing media options) and developing a campaign for key events of the year;
  • Developing materials including briefing and scripts;
  • Writing communication materials (press releases etc);
  • Event management (media briefings, external stakeholder workshops);
  • Message planning  (working with programme teams to create clear, impactful communications messages);
  • Lead on Freedom Of Information requests, providing briefing materials to  London and responding to information/reporting requests from London;
  • Evaluating success of communications activities and feeding into Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning activities as appropriate.

Prosperity Programmes MREL lead: 40%

With up to £140 million of funding split across seven complex programmes, it is crucial that we are measuring what impact is being achieved, evaluating where we are succeeding (and where we are not), learning lessons and adapting where needed.  Each programme team will have some MREL capacity, and external suppliers will be expected to play a key role too.  But we need someone that can provide an overarching view of MREL needs across the China portfolio, spot synergies and help us avoid duplication. 

S/he will develop and embed monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning (MREL) strategy into programme delivery. S/he will provide continuous support to programme teams to help challenge external suppliers and maximise value for money. 

Work alongside the seven China PF programme teams, central team, external suppliers and London departments, activities will  include (but not limited to):

  • Provide the link on all MREL activities between the above stakeholders. Be the ‘go-to’ person for the team and a conduit for MREL information
  • Ensure impact is captured accurately, effectively and consistently
  • Coordinate with London on reporting requirements and ensure that these are met or exceeded
  • Ensure alignment between each programme’s MREL strategies.  Develop MREL management plans
  • Coordinate training related to MREL
  • Provide support to annual programme review processes and programme adaptation

Visit co-ordination:  10%
Lead on media activities for regular visits by senior Ministers, VIPs, experts and visits by senior Embassy officials to regional cities, where there is a clear Prosperity programme element.  Develop ideas for media opportunities to deliver the visitors objectives, provide high quality briefing and advice and leverage high impact coverage.


Whilst the position is advertised as only being up to 31 March 2019, we fully expect that this will be extended to 31 March 2020.  All Prosperity Fund positions will be subject to an annual review (as party of the wider programme annual review cycle)

  • Degree level qualification or equivalent
  • Minimum of four years experience working in a communications/media role
  • Experience of working with a range of external stakeholders including within UK and China government organisations
  • Experience working on project management, ideally development related
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills to engage with China network teams
  • Highly proficient in English and Chinese, verbal and written
  • MREL (monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning) experience
  • Understanding of international, especially UK-China, relations
  • Understanding of Prosperity Programme, particularly in a China context
26 September 2018
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)
Fixed Term, Full-time
35
12 months
Asia Pacific
China
Beijing
British Embassy
1
CNY
27,396
5 November 2018
31 March 2020

We offer a competitive package, which includes basic salary, good leave entitlement, and insurance plan, etc. The gross starting salary (before all deductions) for this position is CNY 27,396/ month for Chinese Nationals and an abated monthly salary of CNY 35,742/ month for British Nationals and spouses/ partners (all nationalities) of diplomats who are ‘W’ (diplomatic) visa holders and meet passport criteria.

We also offer excellent development opportunities and a 22-day annual leave entitlement in pro rata.  For more details on our Total Rewards Package, please visit our website http://www.gov.uk/government/world/china.

Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Beijing is subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Chinese employment law.

All applications must be received before 11:55PM (China Standard Time) on 26 September 2018.

Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.

To those applicants not short-listed, we extend our appreciation for considering the British Government as a potential employer.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.