Communications Officer at African Population And Health Research Center (APHRC)

CARTA seeks to recruit a Program Communications Officer to drive the program’s communication initiatives. The ideal candidate should be a self-starter who thinks creatively and strategically, understands the program, writes well and can work across multiple communication platforms. He or she should be resourceful, open to continuous learning, upskilling, and adept at identifying ideas, trends and opportunities for improving program communication.

Duties/ Responsibilities

• Liaise with the CARTA program managers, coordinator and directors, and with the Policy Engagement and Communications Division at APHRC to develop the program’s Community and Public Engagement (CPE) strategy.
• Update and implement the CARTA communication strategy and related work plans  in line with the program’s CPE strategy to showcase  CARTA´s role in improving research leadership across Africa.
• Manage the internal and external communications of the CARTA consortium, keeping stakeholders updated on the events and progress of the program.
• Monitor CARTA communication activities and regularly produce reports for continuous improvement, including stakeholder engagement, social media, web, and digital media analytics.
• Ensure timely communication between the Secretariat, and fellows and partner institutions about available calls and opportunities, information required, available resources and opportunities, and other related duties.
• Liaise with the M&E officer to keep an updated database of indicators of success by fellows and institutions within the program and keep an updated database of CARTA communications indicators including but not limited to media hits, blogs, publications and multimedia products.
• Compile and edit updates for weekly, monthly and annual reports on the activities of the Secretariat, and the achievements of the program.
• Plan and coordinate CARTA events and communications for community and stakeholder engagement including CARTA conferences, networking events during governance meetings, updates for Vice-Chancellors (VC), among others.
• Maximize the use of the virtual Community of Practice (CoP), social media platforms and other digital means to keep CARTA fellows, partners and stakeholders engaged with the program.
• Design and coordinate production of CARTA branded materials.
• Rapporteur in main CARTA events, including conferences and workshops.
• Engage with traditional and new media to disseminate information on success stories from CARTA.
• Produce content for the CARTA website, including blogs, articles, audio visual and multi-media content.
• Produce monthly e-News, semi-annual CARTA newsletter, and other communication products as they are deemed necessary.
• Drive multimedia innovations to showcase the work of CARTA fellows and CARTA partner institutions.
• Contribute to fundraising campaigns.
• Conduct or organize trainings in communications and knowledge translation for doctoral fellows.
• Support the Research Capacity Strengthening Division’s communications up to 10% of the time.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Journalism, Marketing or related field. Master’s degree completed or well underway is highly desirable.
• At least four (4) years’ post-qualification work experience in communications, marketing, writing, and content creation, preferably at an international organization.
• Demonstrated experience in developing communications strategies and work plans tailored to the various stakeholders, and ensuring seamless, bi-directional stakeholder engagement.
• Experience in working with academics or researchers including supporting the development of knowledge translation products such as policy briefs, factsheets, and reports, among others.
• Robust writing, editing, and verbal communication skills, with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience in multimedia content creation (graphic design and audio-visual production) is desirable.
• Experience in using and monitoring social media channels, creating and editing digital media content and publishing it across a variety of media platforms.
• Experience creating content for and managing websites.
• Knowledge of using email distribution systems such asConstant ContactandMailchimp.
• Networking, interpersonal, analytical and organizational skills coupled with resourcefulness initiative, maturity of judgment as well as willingness to work as part of a team.
• Interest in research and related capacity strengthening, and exploring the role that communication must play in making these initiatives successful and facilitate long-term funding.
• Project management and science communication skills or experience are an added advantage.