Associate Director, Advocacy and Communications at FSD Africa

About the role: Targeted, tactical and influential advocacy is a key tool for FSD Africa. It helps to drive the impact of their programmes, enabling policy and practice changes that help to fundamentally change the shape of Africa’s financial markets for the benefit of all. It also positions FSD Africa as a trusted counterpart, giving them the license to operate in the spaces where change happens, as a thought-leader but also a world-class delivery partner.

The new Assistant Director will upgrade FSD Africa’s existing communications platform to reflect this ambition. He or she will have the mandate to not only hire new staff into a team structure that he or she decides, but also upgrade key infrastructures, processes and strategies that underpin and measure success. The Assistant Director will manage a suitable budget to enable success.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy & Programming

• Develop and implement creative, feasible and measurable strategies to influence decision-makers and support the efforts of FSD Africa’s programmes to drive systemic change
• Work closely with other departments to ensure the aims and work of the Advocacy and Communications team align well with FSD Africa’s main delivery teams
• Develop an understanding of the political & media environment surrounding FSD Africa and the FSD Network and commission research as required to gather relevant information on potential audiences and opportunities
• Support the Director of Strategy & Advocacy in clarifying the influencing agenda; liaising with the executive team and other key stakeholders (e.g. DFID) to understand the mindset changes and other influencing challenges that are required for FSD Africa’s success
• Evaluate the effectiveness of previous communication strategies (FSD Africa & FSD Network wide) in driving systemic change and action the recommendations
  Implementation
• Co-ordinate the roll-out of the strategy and continuously monitor its effectiveness and impact; analysing learning and making adjustments as required:
• Hire and coordinate the team of colleagues, staff and consultants to take responsibility for delivering various aspects of the communications plan; provide support and training as required
• Monitor implementation against the milestones of the communication plan and MRM framework performance indicators
• In balance with the previous goal, ensure responsiveness to changing environment / political landscape / emerging events – leading adjustment of the communication plan if required
• Support the development and implementation of significant campaigns to achieve organisational goals and impact
• Oversee the development and implementation of innovative strategies for the use of social media to maximise the brand recognition and reach of the organisation

Public Relations

• Lead FSD Africa’s PR function, including the press office and portfolio of events; personally represent FSD Africa and ensuring that their values, insights and positions are communicated
• Co-ordinate the conceptualisation and implementation of impactful events and conferences; ensuring that an MRM framework is in place to ensure value for money and impact
• Proactively develop a network of external relationships including with Development Partners and key national, regional and sector press
• Participate in high-level meetings on behalf of FSD Africa ensuring their values, insights and positions are reflected
• Manage and nurture relationships at all levels (especially with DFID and other Development Partners)
• Work with senior managers to identify potential reputational risks and proactively develop appropriate protocol/messages

Knowledge Management

• Work closely with the FSD Africa CEO; Director of Strategy and Advocacy; Head of Content, and Director of Results to ensure knowledge is managed and communicated effectively
• Carry out audience analysis to understand who will potentially benefit from the knowledge that is generated by FSD Africa and what requirements they might have in terms of content and presentation
• Work with the Executive team (especially the Director of Results) to understand how knowledge is currently managed and communicated both internally and externally
• Oversee the development of a knowledge management system/platform that will effectively collect, curate and disseminate to the identified audiences
• Liaise with the Director of Results to appropriately allocate responsibilities between the two departments and ensure that sufficient resources (people, systems, infrastructure) are in place for quality delivery

Departmental Leadership

• Provide leadership to the department; ensuring that resources are managed effectively, and that staff and consultants are well motivated
• Develop and manage the budget for Communications activities; ensuring that departmental finances are managed in line with FSD Africa’s policies and that good value for money is achieved
• Ensure that the pillar is resourced with the expertise necessary to deliver on strategy & project implementation; through a combination of recruitment and management of staff and procurement of consultants
• Ensure that each pillar team member is provided with clarity concerning goals and expectations of their personal role in achieving results, standards and behaviour
• Plan and organise the work of the pillar team to accomplish project strategic & project goals and targets in the most cost-effective and impactful manner possible
• Ensure the delivery of an engaging leadership style that motivates team members and results in high performance

Does this sound like you?

• You have at least 10 years of experience, some in Senior leadership within like-minded international organisations
• You have evidence of policy/behaviour change as a direct impact of advocacy campaigns managed by the candidate
• You demonstrate a network of external relationships including key national, regional and sector press; be willing to deal with external requests out of hours
• You are excellent at public speaking and thought leadership abilities
• You have evidence of having delivered key campaign objectives to time and budget; including reporting on key performance indicators
• You’re able to develop and/or edit content; ensuring that written, visual or audio content is developed to high-quality standards
• You’re able to use social media strategically; come up with ideas for expanding the organisation’s reach and impact
• You demonstrate the ability to coordinate the work of colleagues across the organisation and manage external suppliers and providers
• You have experience in formulating, developing and implementing new strategies with a 3-10 year scope
• You have experience of developing communication strategies; including brand enhancement at a regional level
• You have experience with managing and reporting on complex donor-funded projects, managing risk and ensuring value for money; ability to manage project portfolio in the GBP 500,000-1mil per year range.

Nice to have:

• You have experience of working in a multicultural environment
• You have previous experience of working in DFID-funded projects
• Languages: French, local African languages

Persons of all gender, race, sex, orientation, age, and identity are encouraged to apply.