Western Balkans Project Coordinator - Open Information Partnership (OIP)
Zinc Network, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Job Description
Introducing Zinc Network
Zinc Network is a global international development company headquartered in London and with offices in Washington, D.C., Tbilisi, and Kyiv on a mission to achieve meaningful, measurable change through communications, technology, and behavioural science. We are a B-Corp certified, ethical business with 80+ team members from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds.
We seek a Project Coordinator with expertise or experience in the Western Balkans to continue the successful delivery of the Open Information Partnership, one of our flagship programmes delivered on behalf of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
What is the Open Information Partnership?
The Open Information Partnership (OIP) supports journalists, think tanks, and civil society organisations to research and respond to information integrity threats in their countries, including disinformation campaigns, via grants and technical assistance. The programme assists more than 60 organisations across over 20 countries with a wide range of support that lead to tangible impact across the region.
Outline of the job
The Western Balkans Project Coordinator is responsible for the coordination of all activities, outputs, and stakeholder engagement with our network partners in the region, including NGO partners, funders, and others. They will also play a more functional role, covering grant administration, monthly reporting, and assessments of the effectiveness of our programming. Alongside this, the Project Coordinator is responsible for monitoring and assessing project activities in the region and will keep track of ongoing events, the information environment, and disinformation campaigns in the Western Balkans to help shape the strategic development of OIP.
What you’ll be doing
- Provide management and coordination to OIP partners in the Western Balkans, and technical direction for group activities, ensuring alignment with the programme’s mission, objectives, and Theory of Change.
- Work with project management to identify and onboard new partners for the OIP in the Western Balkan region.
- Staying up to date on the political context and disinformation landscape in your region, leveraging deep knowledge of the region itself and the international context it sits within.
- Being the key point of contact for OIP partners in the region, advising on their projects, assessing training needs, connecting them with expertise from across the network, and managing the reporting process.
- Monitor the capacity of the network groups and assess where assistance is needed to achieve greater and more impactful results. This includes identifying opportunities for in-house or external capabilities to be provided in support of the groups and assisting with delivery where necessary.
- Delivering monthly network reports detailing national and regional developments, narrative trends, and disinformation campaigns in the region, along with all outputs produced by OIP groups that month.
- Facilitating collaborations, workshops, and meetings between OIP groups to strengthen the network.
- Providing oversight of projects, including reviewing grant reports and publications, supporting partners in project design, implementation, and learning.
- Contributing to monitoring, evaluation, and learning by developing a deep understanding of the groups in your region, their trajectory, and the projects that they deliver.
- Embody the values of Zinc Network.
Requirements
What we need from you
- To be based in the Western Balkans, ideally in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, or Serbia, with ability to travel in the region as needed.
- Minimum of three years of technical experience in one or more of the following areas: research, investigations, campaigning, and/or capacity development.
- Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the Western Balkans required; knowledge of the media landscape and the broader political context in the region is preferred.
- Fluency or a high working proficiency in English is required; working proficiency in at least one Balkan language is preferred.
- Knowledge and understanding of information integrity, disinformation campaigns/political warfare/active measures, and counter-disinformation initiatives is required.
- Experience supporting complex international development programmes or efforts of a similar scope, particularly serving as a UK FCDO project support, is preferred.
- Demonstrated experience and knowledge of capacity development and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
- Demonstrated experience in coordinating and cooperating with a wide range of stakeholders, including government officials, pr