TEMPORARY COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT

The International Potato Center (CIP) is seeking to recruit a Temporary Communications Assistant for the Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project. The Assistant will work under the supervision of the Capacity Development & Communications specialist to assist in the development and coordination of advocacy and behavior change communication materials and messages for the project.

The Center: CIP is a not-for-profit international agricultural research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato, and Andean roots and tubers. Its vision is of roots and tubers improving the lives of the poor. CIP is dedicated to achieving food security, improved well-being, and gender equity for poor people in root and tuber farming and food systems of the developing world. CIP works with partners to contribute high quality science, technology, and capacity strengthening for sustainable science-based solutions. CIP is headquartered in Lima, Peru, with staff and activities in over 30 locations across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. CIP is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a network of 15 Research Centers and 16 Research Programs mostly located in the developing world and supported by more than 50 donor members.

The project:

Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project is a three-year project that purposes to reduce hidden hunger by catalyzing sustainable investment for the utilization of biofortified crops (vitamin A cassava, vitamin A maize, vitamin A sweetpotato and iron rich beans) at scale. The project is implemented in Nigeria and Tanzania, to demonstrate how multiple biofortified crops can be scaled up together at country level. The project is led by CIP and is implemented by a consortium partnership of six core partners - the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), HarvestPlus and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Content creation and dissemination
  • Support the development of BNFB’s advocacy and promotional materials including success stories, banners, factsheets; flyers; BNFB/policy briefs, posters and other promotional materials;
  • Assist in developing meta data, uploading and updating BNFB communication and training materials on to various platforms including the sweetpotato knowledge portal; CIP website and various platforms;
  • Assist in editing BNFB’s audio and video interviews for publication on the various portals including BNFB webspace;
  • Assist in writing blog messages and behavior change communication messages.
• Social media
  • By following selected key stakeholder sites and social media accounts, select relevant content and draft twitter and Facebook posts for review, bearing in mind good social media practices such as mentions and hashtags.
  • Help to publicize new BNFB content on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal; Twitter, LinkedIn; Facebook, Pinterest and other agreed upon social media sites.
  • Schedule social media posts by use of Buffer and other social media scheduling tools.
• Creation of media galleries
  • Assist in selecting and publishing BNFB photographs on Flickr and other BNFB uses.
  • Help to craft captions and credit information for BNFB’s photographic collection before posting.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the Capacity Development and Communications specialist

Selection criteria:

• Bachelor’s degree in communication, Journalism, Media Studies; Information Science, Public Relations, Marketing or a related area;
• High level of computer literacy, accuracy and attention to detail;
• Knowledge of WordPress, MS Office, Photoshop and Illustrator;
• Experience in writing an article in a newsroom setting an asset;
• Excellent organizational, presentation and communication skills (including an excellent command in English both oral and written);
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills and the ability to effectively communicate with a wide range of individuals through email and in person;
• Highly effective at use of social media, networking and at securing information and expertise;
• Highly proactive and consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Conditions: This is a temporary position open to Kenyan citizens only.

HOW TO APPLY:

Applicants should apply online through our CIP’s Job Opportunities website (http://cipotato.org/open-vacancies/), including a cover letter, a full C.V with the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable of the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience. Screening of applications will begin on 16 September, 2016 and will continue until the post is filled. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

Learn more about CIP by accessing our web site at http://www.cipotato.org.

CIP is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.