Communications Specialist - World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

The MDG Centre East and Southern Africa, in Nairobi provides technical and policy support to governments and other partners in East and Southern Africa. The MDG Centre plays a unique role in linking global and national commitments with the rich, multi-sectoral field experience being generated by the MVP and other related community-level initiatives that contribute towards achieving the MDGs. Benefiting from the growing trends in Africa towards decentralized planning and implementation and towards improved governance, The MDG Centre focuses on creative ways and means to achieve impact at scale. This requires: (1) identification of best practice across the key sectors, (2) critical analysis of results from the MVP and related activities with a view to wider understanding and application, (3) design and adaptation of implementation mechanisms at district and other “meso” levels, (4) accurate costing of resource requirements, and (5) political and public sensitization to practical opportunities for achieving the MDGs.

The Centre will recruit a young professional – a Regional Communications Specialist– to undertake a range of activities in support of the above objectives. A Regional Communications Specialist will report to the Director of The MDG Centre East and Southern Africa, Nairobi.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Media relations:
• Organize field visits for international, regional and locally-based journalists, in coordination with field teams.
• Establish a strong relation with the international press corps based in Nairobi, notably through the Foreign Correspondents Association, and update its core members on the MVP's work in the region.
• Establish a strong relation with national and regional media, with the help of field teams.
• Field media requests for interviews, village visits, and data, and link journalists to appropriate colleagues and information sources.
• Identify outreach and media opportunities and write related press releases and media advisories. Disseminate to broad and up-to-date mailing lists.
• Share MVP, EI and MP press releases with regional media.
• Generate and coordinate media interest around Jeffrey Sachs, especially when he’s visiting the region.
• Track media coverage of the MVP. Upload it online and share it with field, regional and NY teams.
2. Regional public relations:
• Handle visit requests from donors, partners, students, researchers, etc, and field them at the regional level in coordination with team leaders.
• Support The MDG Centre’s Director with high-level visits. Task includes giving presentations about the MVP and MDGC, going on field visits, taking part in meetings and following up on action points.
• Act as a PR liaison with regional and pan African organizations such as the African Union (AU) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
• Produce The MDG Centre’s annual report, its flagship publication which targets a wide audience and is distributed to field teams, stakeholders, partners and visitors.
• Supervise the production of videos on the latest initiatives and interventions, such as the Drylands movie and Five Seasons.
• Supervise the local communications officers in Uganda, Tanzania and soon Malawi.
3. Media Content / Webmaster:
• Keep the website www.mdgcentre.org up-to-date, by updating it on a regular basis with the latest data from the villages, human interest stories, videos and photos, news coverage, and staff bios.
• Undertake field trips and bring back human interest stories, text, photo, and if possible video, to be used online and in publications.
• Solicit stories from field teams, edit and upload them online.
• Send monthly website updates to field and regional teams.
4. Internal communications:
• Act as a catalyst for information and knowledge sharing within the 20+ strong regional team, by circulating reports, news stories, press releases and other valuable data to the team.
• Gather information from the sites and share it with regional and NY-based teams, with a special focus on audiovisual material that is used in all outreach projects (videos, posters, and social media).
• Advise and coach both regional staff and team leaders on how to address the media and conduct interviews.
• Help colleagues in organizing and advertising national and regional conferences and workshops.
5. Other communications duties as assigned by EI/MVP Director of Communications in New York and the Director of the MDG Centre in Nairobi

Qualifications and Experience

• Post-graduate qualification (MSc/MA) in communication studies or related fields.
• Minimum 5 years relevant experience in an international organisation
• Demonstrated success in working in cross-sectoral and multi-cultural teams.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written in English.
• Pan-African experience strongly recommended
• Ability to travel on short notice

Terms of offer

ICRAF/Millennium Promise/Earth Institute is an equal opportunity employer offering a competitive salary and benefits package, and a collegial working environment. The contract is for an initial period of two (2) years, renewable subject to six (6) months probation period, assessment of performance, and availability of resources. Applicants are invited to send a cover letter illustrating their suitability for the above position against the listed qualifications/competencies/skills and a detailed curriculum vitae, with names and addresses of three referees (including telephone and fax numbers and email address). Applications should indicate “Application for a Regional Communications Specialist - MDG” on their application letters OR email submissions. All correspondence should be addressed to the Human Resources Unit, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya OR via email: icrafhru@cgiar.org. Applications will be considered until 10 June, 2011.
Only short-listed applicants meeting the above requirements will be contacted.
We invite you to learn more about us at:
www.worldagroforestry.org
www.millenniumpromise.org
www.unmillenniumproject.org
www.mdgcentre.org