Communications Manager at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership and direction in the design, refinement, and execution of REAP's integrated communications strategy, ensuring alignment with ILRI and Mastercard Foundation priorities and reporting requirements.
• Lead the program's external positioning and influence strategy, repositioning the livestock feed sector as a modern, dignified, and economically rewarding space for young women and men through peer-led, influencer-driven, and edutainment content.
• Design and own REAP's programme-wide digital influencer and ambassador strategy, setting the vetting framework (audience, engagement, values, and authenticity criteria), brand-safety contract clauses, and exit mechanisms that country teams apply, and overseeing the scale-up of influencer and participant-creator activity across the programme's phased roadmap.
• Oversee and coordinate communications across the consortium institutions and multiple country teams, ensuring coherence, consistency, and strategic alignment of messaging and outputs.
• Drive strategic partnerships and stakeholder engagement, cultivating relationships with high-level partners, media, government counterparts, and platforms to expand REAP's regional and continental visibility and influence.
• Ensure timely and consistent internal communication and learning exchange across the consortium and country teams, working closely with MEL to capture and circulate evidence, learning, and most-significant-change stories that inform adaptive management.
• Lead the development of the evidence-based investment case for youth-led feed enterprises, working with MEL and technical teams to translate programme data into formats relevant to private sector partners, financial institutions, investors, and policymakers, including through the PAFFIN platform.
• Provide leadership, mentorship, and capacity strengthening to the PMU Communications Officer and country-level Communications Managers, fostering a high-performing, coordinated team and quality assurance across all communications products.
• Ensure brand integrity and strategic positioning, maintaining consistent messaging, narrative coherence, and adherence to approved branding across all internal and external outputs.
• Oversee communication risk management, ensuring protocols are in place and applied consistently across countries to mitigate risks related to backlash against women's visibility, influencer or ambassador misalignment, and tokenistic representation of people with disabilities.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, International Development, or a related field (a Bachelor's degree with significant additional relevant experience may be considered).
• At least 8 years of progressively responsible experience in strategic communications, preferably within international development, research-for-development, or donor-funded programmes.
• Demonstrated experience leading communications for multi-country or multi-partner consortium programmes.
• Experience designing or overseeing influencer, ambassador, or creator-partnership programmes at scale, including vetting frameworks, contracting, and brand-safety and performance management.
• Experience managing donor reporting and relations, ideally with foundations such as the Mastercard Foundation.
• Experience supervising and mentoring communications staff across multiple locations.
• Excellent strategic thinking, writing, and editing skills in English; working knowledge of French or other regional languages is an advantage.
• Strong digital and multimedia storytelling skills, including social media, video, and campaign management.
• Sound knowledge of the digital creator/influencer economy and youth-relevant social media ecosystems (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp), including brand-safety practices and performance measurement.
• Skilled in stakeholder engagement and relationship-building with donors, government, media, and private sector partners.
• Sound understanding of youth employment, gender, and inclusion issues in agriculture or livestock systems.
• Strong project management and cross-cultural team leadership skills.