Editorial & Content Expert Strengthening Resilience Project SR2

1. Background

Lebanon’s National Strategy for Preventing Violent Extremism was developed in 2017 through a participatory process that involved all ministries facilitated by the National PVE Coordinator. It was ratified by the Council of Ministers in March 2018. The strategy defines Violent Extremism as the spread of individual and social hatred that may lead to community violence, the rejection of diversity and non-acceptance of the other and the use of violence as a means of expression and influence, and a behaviour that threatens societal values necessary for social stability.

The National Strategy has identified 9 pillars for its strategic interventions:

Pillar 01: Dialogue & Conflict Prevention

Pillar 02: The Promotion of Good Governance

Pillar 03: Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Pillar 04: Urban Development & Engaging Local Communities

Pillar 05: Gender Equality and Empowering Women

Pillar 06: Education, Training and Skill development

Pillar 07: Economic Development and job creation

Pillar 08: Strategic Communications including through the Internet and Social Media

Pillar 09: Empowering Youth

The vision of the government is to mainstream the PVE concepts among key society stakeholders and the public. This comes from the conviction that preventing violent extremism is a mission that requires inclusive partnership between the government and the main actors in society in order to maximize the effectiveness of public policies and programs.

The overarching objective of the Lebanese National Strategy for PVE is to pre-emptively immunise the Lebanese society from causes of susceptibility to violent extremism.

The general objectives of the strategy are:

Regaining social trust: Every public policy and program is aimed at supporting trust-building among the various components of society on the one hand, and state institutions on the other.

Promoting Citizenship: Promoting identity, citizenship and the sense of national belonging among all members of the Lebanese society.

To contribute to the vision and to the desired change and to achieve the objective, the government has planned to conduct national consultations to establish a solid network of key actors to lay the foundations for the implementation of the strategy.

The suggested processes to achieve this is highlighted in the below table

Phase

Main components

outcomes

Phase one

Public consultations and PVE Network formation

Sectoral PVE workshops

Main ideas of action plan

National PVE conference

Establishment of National PVE Network

Phase two

National Youth Participation

Youth setting the Agenda

Feedback on youth aspirations and needs about governance reform and change in society

National Days of Ministerial and Sectoral Review

Ideas for institutional reform, sustainable dialogue between society and the state, and strategically communicate PVE message.

This aims at:

• Developing the action plan for the Preventing Violent Extremism
• Building a national network of influence from the key stakeholders and actors of society, i.e., civil society, academia, private sector, and government, who are interested in PVE.
• Creating a serious and structured dialogue mechanism between young people and key stakeholders in society
• Instituting a structured participatory governance mechanism in order to increase the level of trust between young people and the society.

The strategy seeks to develop a “culture of prevention” through an ambitious programme of work that engages a wide array of Lebanese Government and society in a national effort to regain social trust, promote citizenship and achieve social justice. 

The strategy was developed through an extensive process of dialogue and engagement involving all twenty-nine government ministries. The next phase of development means running a similar engagement and consultation exercise across Lebanese society as a whole.

This National Consultation Process will begin in January 2019 and run for approximately one year. It is a vital opportunity to communicate and promote the strategy’s purpose to both governmental and public stakeholders - providing them with a sense of equity and ownership and ensuring the strategy secures a license to operate.

The National Consultation Process will therefore be accompanied by a communications campaign with two objectives in mind:

The primary objective is to raise awareness of, and encourage engagement with, the national consultation exercise around Lebanon’s National Strategy for Preventing Violent Extremism.

The secondary objective is to help deliver the National Strategy’s wider objectives to regain social trust, promote citizenship and achieve social justice.

1. Objectives of the role

The Editorial & Content Expert will play a vital role in raising awareness of the Preventing Violent Extremism and the consultation process. They will work with the National PVE Coordinator, Civil Society Organisations and the media to identify, develop and disseminate stories that support the overall communications objectives across all owned and earned media channels.

Working as part of a Communications Team, the supplier will need to find creative ways to generate interest in, and conversations around, the nine pillars of the PVE strategy and the unprecedented consultation exercise established by the government.

It will be the job of the Editorial & Content Expert to maintain a regular drumbeat of stories and content around, and during, each workshop in order to generate public and stakeholder interest and help deliver the overall communications objectives. 

1. Tasks

• Identify potential news stories and content opportunities to feed owned and earned media channels
• Produce regular written content to populate owned and earned media channels, including digital assets and internal communications products - 1 communications resource per week (Article/reportage)
• Develop social media strategy, implement it and maintain it by disseminating relevant content frequently.
• Liaise with Civil Society Organisations and members of the partnership network (e.g. media, government ministries) and the network expert to develop story library for future use and to demonstrate effect of the consultation process
• Drive internal communication process with Civil Society Organisations and members of the Partnership Network via newsletters and adhoc updates
• Use the information collected by the M&E experts on how the sectoral workshops were portrayed by the Media (How was it perceived) to produce content
• Use the research analysis collected by our digital analytics researchers on how the Lebanese population perceived the workshop to produce content
• Combine feedback and research along with the unit’s activities into a newsletter for each sectoral workshop.
• identifying a list of topics (sub objectives of the sectoral workshop) to communicate to the media that could relate to specific target audiences

1. Deliverables

As a minimum:

• 1x Newsletter after each sectoral workshop that capitalizes on findings and feedback.
• 1x communication resource per week (Article/reportage) about the relevant conversation, disseminated across all media formats
• 2x stories related to the conversation are identified and pitched to earned and paid media weekly
• Regular social media updates

1. Timeline

News Letter

5 days after each workshop

Article/reportage

Every Tuesday

Research and pitch stories to media

At least twice per week

Social media strategy

Two weeks after deployment

Social media posts

Twice per week

1. Skills and competencies

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Fluent in Arabic and English
• Great knowledge of the most influential social groups
• Great experience in picking up social trends
• Great relations with the media
• Experience of implementing social media strategies
• Senior experience in journalism
• Copywriting knowledge is an added value
• Experience in working with government led approaches is an added value

1. Reporting arrangements

    

    

   This role will form part of the Communications Delivery Team under the auspices of the British Council SR2 Project Team. The person will report on daily basis to the communications manager and be part of weekly calls with communications lead expert.