Communications Officer at Pact World

Job Purpose

This Communications Officer role provides an excellent opportunity to work on both strategic and operational aspects of communications for cross-border peacebuilding programs. At the same time, the role will involve bolstering the capacity of other RASMI and SEEK partners with a view to enabling clearer, more coherent messaging across the two EUTF programs. This is a 1-year role with the possibility of extension.

Based in Nairobi and reporting to the Regional Communications Coordinator, the successful candidate will be challenged to think strategically, tactically to build and implement effective communications platforms for EUTF programs (RASMI and SEEK) being implemented by Pact Kenya.

Roles and responsibilities

• Designing and delivering a comprehensive but practical communication platforms for SEEK and RASMI. This will involve working with the Regional Communications Coordinator to develop and implement communications strategies, brand and visibility guidelines; key partnership liaison strategies, audience maps; targeted contact databases; key messages; digital and non-digital channels; programme and project workplans; editing and packaging reports, planning and execution tools; communication templates; monitoring and evaluation of communication activities; capacity building for RASMI and SEEK staff and partners; workshop planning and delivery, events planning and management, developing and implementing communications policies and procedures.
• Supporting the design and delivery of communications platforms for RASMI and SEEK partners. This will involve the provision of communications guidance and capacity building to interested partners. With the guidance from the Regional Communications Co-ordinator, the Communications Officer will help partners to apply this guidance to their contexts. This will require travel.
• Fostering a vibrant Working Group for communications. Pact Kenya intends set up a community of practice for communications which will entail working with SEEK and RASMI partners. With guidance from the Regional Communications Coordinator, the Communications Officer will galvanize the Working Group by injecting energy and ideas, and formalizing its ongoing modus operandi. The purpose is to share knowledge, strengthen the RASMI and SEEK communications community and provide a platform for communications training and mentoring.
• Developing and managing innovative tools and channels to capture and share RASMI and SEEK ideas and impact. This role will provide scope to strengthen existing and create new ways to measure and communicate the impact of RASMI and SEEK projects. Working closely with the Regional Communications Coordinator and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning (MERL) team, these new methods might include: case study and research projects, innovative event hosting, visual presentation and storytelling, video diaries, human interest stories, infographics, podcast and blogs.

Competencies

To deliver these objectives and the associated scope of work, Pact Kenya is searching for a candidate with the following skills and experience:

• Excellent knowledge and understanding of strategic communications. Pact Kenya and its partners operate in complex environments and deliver a diverse portfolio of projects. To deliver long-term outcomes (scale up, replication, sustainability etc.) and help Pact Kenya to develop a reputation for excellence (responsive, pioneering, professional etc.) the successful candidate will need to demonstrate a deep conceptual understanding of strategic communications. They will also need to demonstrate knowledge of how communications work can be applied to the field of conflict management and peacebuilding.
• Extensive experience of developing and operating communications platforms and activities. Pact Kenya is setting up a number of communication assets for both RASMI and SEEK. The successful candidate is expected to run an active twitter handle for RASMI and SEEK, develop and maintain contact databases for RASMI and SEEK, pre-qualify communications consultants, develop templates, send out press releases, create and send out newsletters using Mailchimp. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate a proven track record of delivery, which will allow them to build on this work and fully develop, implement and manage an effective Pact Kenya communications platform. Although not mandatory, Pact Kenya would strongly prefer to hire a candidate with knowledge of cross-border peacebuilding and conflict management.
• Excellent knowledge and experience of training and coaching others in strategic communications. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their potential to provide targeted support to RASMI and SEEK staff as well as partners to build in-house communications capacity and improve the coherence of communications activities across the two projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in communication, journalism or related fields from a reputable university.
• Minimum 3 years relevant experience.
• Excellent in analytical writing
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Audition.
• Familiarity with social media platforms
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Strategy formulation and execution skills
• Passionate and committed change agent