Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Senior Officer, East Africa at Palladium International

Primary responsibilities

Key responsibilities and tasks may include, but are not limited to:

Communications responsibilities (approximately 50%, based on programme requirements)

• Work closely with the CSE Lead and Regional Man.ager to design and deliver a CSE strategy and workplan for East Africa that aligns with the global CSE strategy;
• Oversee and coordinate knowledge management and outreach activities for the programme in the East Africa region, to raise awareness of the programme across a range of stakeholders and audiences and promote participation and engagement in the programme by private sector actors, national governments, and international and local civil society organisations;
• Manage the implementation of communications and outreach activities in the East Africa region, including activities to support the identification of projects, activities to review and strengthen the communications activities of partners and grantees, and activities to capture and share learning from the programme in the form of ‘knowledge products’;
• Manage the development of strong and engaging communications and ‘knowledge products’ including presentations, films, blogs, articles, project summaries, press releases, and reports to help convey compelling stories and programme results from East Africa, ensuring the correct use of the programme’s brand assets;
• Work closely with the central project team in the UK and the regional team to align regional communications and outreach activities to programme priorities and ensure consistent messaging;
• Plan and deliver online and in-person local and regional events, including programme launch activities, pipeline building events, and webinars and roundtables to share programme learnings with programme stakeholders;
• Coordinatingly closely with the CSE Lead, create social media and digital content for LinkedIn, the website, newsletter, and other digital channels which represent core communications channels for the programme;
• Create, plan and measure effective email communications campaigns and improve the quality of existing contact data in line with GDPR requirements;
• Working closely with the Regional Manager and East Africa team, lead on a mapping exercise of regional stakeholders (e.g. incubators, global commodity platforms, investors, finance networks, corporate and DFIs), and support on designing engagement objectives for different groups;
• Working closely with the Regional Manager and Director, help to maintain relationships with existing and new external stakeholders, support their ongoing engagement with the programme and keep the programme’s contact database up to date;
• Keep the Knowledge Hub for East Africa up to date with new communications outputs and materials, coordinatingly closely with the CSE Lead;
• Support the Regional Manager with the creation of programme reports including the Annual Reports, ensuring correct use of the programme branded assets;
• Support on the delivery of activities and outputs to support the programme’s Learning Agenda;
• Support the Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Lead in carrying out the annual consultation process (including surveys);
• Support the delivery of communications activities for other climate on nature initiatives for the East Africa region, where there is a need and capacity to do so;
• Support the delivery and response to reputational risk activities;
• Participate in relevant management meetings in relation to communication, knowledge management and/or grants management;
• Support and mentor the Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Associate, Central Africa and/or any junior staff in the regions as requested; and,
• Any other duties reasonably required by the Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Lead or East Africa Regional Manager.

Project Officer responsibilities (approximately 50%, based on programme requirements)

• Act as the relationship manager for projects and partnerships in sustainable forestry and land use that are being considered for funding or are already receiving support from the programme;
• Work with project leads at partner/grantee organisations, as well as internal and external experts, to strengthen concept notes, project proposals and other documentation for review by management teams and FCDO;
• Oversee the implementation of projects by grantees and subcontractors, in close collaboration with the Grants,
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and Communications teams;
• Ensure effective management of projects under implementation and ensure timely reporting and monitoring to achieve project outcomes and impacts;
• Responsible for ensuring projects under implementation achieve programme milestone targets as planned;
• Lead and actively participate in team problem solving sessions and provide data insight and trends;
• Accelerate the development of projects for grants approval/ Technical Assistance approval in the region;
• Conduct regular monitoring visits to project sites for successful implementation of activities;
• Actively participate in relevant stakeholder meetings to build knowledge and engage with key stakeholders in the region;
• Identify opportunities to improve on own competency by undergoing trainings to build ability to contribute to program delivery;
• Any other tasks requested by your Manager.
• The role may include national and international travel.

Experience and Attributes

Essential

• Significant experience in communications and outreach and stakeholder engagement, with experience coordinating or supervising others;
• Demonstrated familiarity with donor-funded programs, particularly in development or sustainable land-use and forestry sectors;
• An excellent communicator who is able to build strong working relationships both internally and externally;
• Demonstrated ability to unpack and communicate complex concepts simply with a range of stakeholders in multi-cultural settings;
• Good knowledge of digital channels and tailoring content to their requirements;
• Strong in use of MS Office Applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel);
• Proficient in written and spoken English Language;
• Able to work within a fast-paced team and contribute to the delivery of high-quality communications products;
• Excellent organizational and multitasking skills – ability to manage multiple projects comfortably;
• Strong leadership and mentoring capabilities;
•  Commitment to promoting sustainability, equity, and inclusion in Communications and Stakeholder Engagement.

Desirable

• Experience working on sustainable forestry, climate change, sustainable land use sector projects;
• Video production and editing skills;
• Graphic design skills and familiarity with document management, content management and web-based design (e.g. InDesign);
• Proficient in written and spoken Swahili language and/or other local languages in the region.