As the home for USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) programs, the Center for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG Center) focuses on advocating for democratic governance, driving important research, and supporting over 90 field missions worldwide to develop and implement programs. USAID’s DRG sector includes support for good governance, rule of law, elections and political processes, civil society and media, human rights, and other DRG fields. 

USAID currently manages over $1.7 billion a year on a broad range of democracy programs covering justice, human rights, citizen security, civil society, media, local government, legislatures, constitutional reform, political parties, elections, anti-corruption, and anti-trafficking in persons. These efforts are critical to improve government effectiveness, accountability, transparency and legitimacy, and to ensure citizens are empowered to play a role in public affairs and the decisions that affect their daily lives. They also underpin the sustainability of the Agency’s socio-economic development sectors. The DRG Center leads the Agency in supporting overall efforts to advance democracy, human rights, and governance.

The DRG Center's annual budget is over $146 million, with a staff of over 90, comprised of U.S. Direct Hires (USDHs), contractors, and Fellows.  The DRG Center currently has ten technical teams:  Cadre Care & Development (CC&D), Civil Society and Media (CSM),  Countering Authoritarianism Team (CAT), Democratic Elections and Political Processes (DEPP), Evidence & Learning (E&L), External Engagement & Integration (EE&I), Governance (GOV), Justice, Rights, and Security (JRS), Policy, Coordination, and Integration (PCI), and Program Team. The DRG Center's goal is to promote peace, prosperity and freedom around the globe through self-reliant, citizen-responsive governance that respects human dignity and the rule of law. The DRG Center achieves this through high quality support to USAID Missions, generating and disseminating knowledge on best practices, and providing leadership on DRG to the wider USG and the international development community.

DRG’s CSM Team provides technical leadership and support on civil society and media, including youth and labor issues. The CSM Team generates comparative knowledge on effective approaches for strengthening civil society and independent media; pilots state-of-the-art approaches to civil society and media support; strengthens the Agency’s DRG staff through training and technical support; conducts assessments, strategy and program designs, and evaluations; and designs and manages a targeted portfolio of global programs. The CSM Team promotes innovations in civil society, media, labor, and youth, as a means for addressing development challenges, and represents USAID in international processes, networks, and working groups.

Worldwide, the media sector is undergoing a transformation as the result of digitalization, the internet and wireless revolutions, changing legal-regulatory environments, and spread of social media.  A subject matter expert with knowledge of cutting-edge independent media development and freedom of expression, including professionalization and independence of the media, internet freedom, internet governance and disinformation/information integrity will support the work of USAID field Missions and Washington Operating Units, other USG entities, and the broader DRG community. This position will advance the DRG Center’s efforts to address the gap in knowledge and capacities around Information and Communications Technologies, including social media, and in digital security issues.

This position is located in the DRG Center. As a direct report to the CSM Team Lead or his/her designate, the incumbent provides support to the CSM Team, other DRG Center teams, USAID Missions and the Agency to advance thinking and approaches regarding independent media as they relate to civil society, media, and democratic systems. The incumbent supports the implementation of CSM, DRG and Agency priorities.

Duties and responsibilities of the position:

The Senior Media Advisor will be a subject matter expert on independent media development and freedom of expression, including professionalization and independence of the media, internet freedom, internet governance and disinformation/information integrity. The Specialist must also be an expert in understanding Information and Communications Technologies, including social media, disinformation, and in digital security issues. The Specialist will also understand the media sector’s transformation as the result of digitalization, the internet and wireless revolutions, changing legal-regulatory environments, disinformation and spread of social media. The Senior Media Advisor is expected to carry out a diverse set of work assignments related to USAID's approaches with little technical oversight, including leading or making significant contributions to research, programming, training, monitoring, evaluating and learning (MEL), and policy, and will perform her/his duties under administrative direction from the CSM Team Leader or his/her designate. The Senior Media Advisor will provide technical leadership and guidance to USAID field missions and Washington on how to adapt media programming to this changing environment. The position is based in Washington, DC and will include travel to and work in developing countries in all regions.  The Senior Media Advisor’s position includes the following responsibilities:

Program Planning, Policy Development, and Management

• Provide cutting edge technical support to Missions and Washington operating units on key issues regarding independent media, including the assessments, design of new activities, monitoring, learning and evaluation.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on independent media to support policy development, as well as strategic planning and implementation.
• Advance USAID strategy to include supporting and advocating for inclusion of approaches informed by cutting-edge thinking on media to enhance our efforts and improve democratic development outcomes.
• Advise senior leaders in the DRG Center, Technical and Regional Bureaus and other USG leadership in the subject matter area.
• Liaise with DRG Center sub-sector Teams, Regional Bureaus, the U.S. Global Development Lab, the Global Engagement Center and other inter-agency partners as appropriate to inform and strengthen the DRG Center’s approaches regarding independent media as they relate to DRG issues.
• Serve as an Agreement Officer’s Representative, Contracting Officer’s Representative, and Activity Manager as needed.

Learning and Capacity-Building

• Supports incorporation of technical, contextual, and experiential approaches regarding independent media as they relate to DRG technical issues and programming with USAID Missions and across the DRG sector, the Agency and interagency.
• Advances the DRG Center’s independent media research agenda. This includes collating existing quantitative and qualitative data, identifying data gaps, and setting a strategy and implementation plan to fill them.
• Manages, tracks, and reports progress on the DRG Learning Agenda related to independent media and related issues;
• Develops and conducts trainings, e-learning, workshops, and facilitated learning conversations as appropriate, and integrates other capacity building opportunities in the implementation of DRG programming.