The Communication, Advocacy and Strategy programme at the IJR drives all cross-cutting issues within the organisation, works closely with programmes and assists with planning, coordination and fundraising capacity.
Communicating the messages of Reconciliation and Justice
The programme takes on its own content and design projects to communicate messages of Reconciliation and Justice to assist in ensuring sustainability of the IJR. The programme seeks to engage in a relevant way that informs, advocates and sets the agenda for justice and reconciliation. The IJR team regularly participates in media, offering context, depth and unique insight into current affairs on the continent. The programme generates and coordinates the organisation’s media participation, and is also responsible for the organisation’s public profile, including website, social media management and branding. The programme also hosts several public events annually. These are intended to ignite renewed interest in and interrogation of key themes related to justice and reconciliation, often invoking untraditional and new audiences and stakeholders. Furthermore, as part of IJR’s new multi-year strategy the programme will for the first time this year focus on advocacy, in order for IJR to be part/ initiate processes that involve a series of actions conducted in order to transform power relationships.
Internally, regular sessions for creative and reflective collaboration are presented for all staff to participate in, including weekly reviews of current affairs media, and bi-monthly learning seminars.In 2014, the C&S programme added information and knowledge management to its portfolio. As part of this project, it is envisioned that the IJR will be able to centralise all organisational resources in an archive centre in near future as well as an improvement of IJR’s overall information and knowledge management system.
The strategy component of the programme is responsible for strategic planning, fundraising (including online fundraising), donor relations and the coordination of monitoring and evaluation. A key new component of the IJR organisation which differentiates the 2017 – 2020 strategy, is the establishment of a business development function, to identify and follow up opportunities for income generation for new IJR interventions and strengthening partnerships around existing interventions. At the same time, IJR will continue to engage donors and funders across the globe to source funding and ensure a diversified support for its work.