Community Engagement Specialist, Humanitarian and Resilience Investing

Please Note: This role requires the ability to work on site 3 days per week per company policy.
This role is funded through 14 June 2027.

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organisation for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Why we are recruiting

As part of the Centre for Regional and Geopolitical Affairs, the Forum’s International Organisations team manages strategic relations with a broad group of multilateral institutions, engaging their leadership and experts on to the Forum’s platforms to disseminate their message and accelerate impact, and help build effective multistakeholder coalitions in support of their mandates. The Forum’s Humanitarian Agenda seeks to support the transformation of the international humanitarian system, as the scale, duration and complexity of crises urgently require more sustainable humanitarian and development responses.

Within this remit, the team spearheads the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) Initiative , launched in 2019 as an approach to unlock impact investing in frontier markets with the goal to measurably benefit and increase the resilience of at-risk and crisis-hit communities. Since inception, it has brought together over 100 partners across sectors to scale market-driven solutions by mobilizing commercial and catalytic capital, and strengthen the ecosystem for impact investment in frontier markets.

The Community Specialist will be part of a team leading pioneering work that is rapidly gaining traction and importance, particularly in the current global development and aid context.

Reporting lines and interactions

The position will report to the Project Lead of the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative and support across portfolios in collaboration with other team members.

Internally, this person will work closely with colleagues that manage relations with specialized International Organisations and other HRI partners, as well as from Global Programming and Communication Groups to ensure smooth and successful collaborations.

Externally, the successful candidate will engage with global leaders across the humanitarian, development, investment, development finance, and philanthropic communities.

Breakdown of main responsibilities

This successful candidate will oversee the initiative’s overall programming and community engagement efforts and collaborate with team members across workstreams. Key areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Community management: Work with colleagues in the identification, onboarding and ongoing engagement of initiative partners, including management of membership nomination and agreement process, development and monitoring of engagement plans and all related data collection. 

• Events: Support the initiative’s delivery of, and participation in, virtual and in-person events, including event planning and logistics, participant registration, event communications development and dissemination, budget coordination and budget reconciliation.

• Communication: Implement and manage communication efforts for the initiative, including management of the initiative’s key communication documents, streamlining communication efforts across communication workstreams and communities, digital presence, and other promotion and visibility opportunities in coordination with the Forum’s Global Communication Group.

• Impact measurement: Support the collection, analysis and reporting of impact metrics related to the initiative’s activities and outcomes, including progress towards its global Call to Action.

• Operations: Help manage the day-to-day operations, project planning, and broader team activities of the initiative in close consultation with the Project Lead.

The successful candidate will be assessed on

• Strength and diversity of an expanded HRI community, and the quality and variety of interactions with community members.

• Communication excellence in interacting with internal and external stakeholders, including quality of written communication products.

• Contribution to the planning and operational efficiency of the team, including level of support in making the best use of digital tools and effectiveness in following Forum processes.

• Autonomy and capacity to lead the delivery of excellent events and event processes.

Preferred Requirements and Experience

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g. communications, business, international relations, development economics).

• 5 to 7 years’ relevant professional work experience, such as in the field of event management, project management, communication or community management.

• Experience coordinating complex projects and working with a high level of independence, including hands-on experience in world-class event design and delivery. Comfort engaging with executive leaders.

• Excellent writing and communications skills in English, including the ability to effectively communicate complex messages for a broad audience and create visually compelling presentations and outreach materials with a proven attention to detail. Knowledge of French or Spanish would be an asset but is not required.

• Strong familiarity with MS Office Suite, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), Zoom, and project management tools and a familiarity with Salesforce are a plus.

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Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!