Executive Liaison Officer

The Executive Liaison Officer is a member of the Director General’s Office (DGO) and works closely with the Director General to support internal coordination across WorldFish, liaison with One CGIAR, and external engagements. The Executive Liaison Officer coordinates diverse streams of work that pass through the DGO and require substantive and timely inputs from the DG, often in consultation with senior managers and other staff from across the Institute. S/he advises the DG on internal communications and special initiatives led from the DGO, which may include special administrative, partnership, communication, policy engagement or research initiatives.

The Executive Liaison Officer also plays a key role in mobilizing and coordinating contributions from WorldFish subject matter experts to presentations, papers, or communications outputs by the DG, as well as coordination of engagement by the DGO in One CGIAR-related activities and processes. Overall, the candidate will sometimes be handling sensitive and confidential information and is expected to demonstrate the highest levels of integrity and discretion.

The successful candidate will:

Internal Coordination and Communication

• Advise the DG on internal communications and lead on drafting internal messaging in close coordination with relevant staff and departments
• Coordinate the preparation of All-Staff Meetings.
• Assist with preparing Senior Management Team meetings, and track and coordinate follow up to agreed actions. This will require liaison across the Senior Management Team members and others.
• Assist with planning and execution of biannual Board meetings, including preparing the agenda, coordinating materials and presentations from different departments, and preparing presentations for the DG.
• Assist with preparing papers, presentations and talking notes for internal and external engagements.

Strategic Initiatives

• Assist with research for papers and presentations. This will involve review of literature and liaison with relevant researchers.
• Assist with development of concept papers for initiatives and programs. This will involve coordination with relevant staff and liaison with the DG on content development, and managing inputs to meet deadlines.
• Advise on and support the preparation of special initiatives led by the DGO relating to administration, partnerships, communications and research, including liaison with staff and external partners.
• Represent the DG in internal coordination mechanisms for WorldFish engagement in international policy processes and platforms, relating for example to environment, climate and food, and support these processes through background research and, in collaboration with other communications and research staff, drafting of related papers, messaging and DG-led communications outputs.
• Support coordination of development of the new WorldFish and One CGIAR Strategy.

One CGIAR Liaison

• Track One CGIAR processes to ensure timely follow-up by the DG, including through liaison with staff engaged in One CGIAR activities and with the CGIAR System Office, the One CGIAR Integrated Structure, and other Centers as needed.
• Manage internal coordination of responses to One CGIAR requests for substantive inputs to the preparation of documents and strategies. This requires liaison and coordination with topical experts in WorldFish.

External Engagement

• Manage preparations for presentations by the DG at conferences and on panels, through liaison with subject matter experts on content, and then timely coordination with the DG and relevant staff to translate this into material for presentation, as slide sets and speaking points.
• Coordinate responses by the DGO to external invitations to events, speaking invitations, and requests for nominations to committees or courses, that require liaison across departments and teams.
• Support preparations and participation by the DG in global and regional policy conferences.
• Ensure that all external engagements are conducted with the highest level of professionalism, diplomacy, and tact, and that WorldFish’s reputation is maintained at all times.