Communications Specialist at ACDI/VOCA

Overview of Resilience Learning Activity: The Resilience Learning Activity (RLA) USAID/East Africa flagship learning award was fully executed effective October 1, 2019. It will support regional and country-level institutions to conduct and act upon resilience learning for key knowledge gaps in the Horn of Africa, contributing to the region’s Journey to Self-Reliance.

By building the capacity of institutions to improve analytical capacity, increase the evidence base for resilience programming, and strengthen CLA systems and networks, RLA will contribute to the HoRN’s objective to strengthen regional and cross-border collaboration and improve evidence-based learning.

Project: Resilience Learning Activity

Department: Communications

Reports To: Chief of Party

Grade: 6

Job Summary: The Communications Specialist will take a dynamic approach to developing and executing the Resilience Learning Activity communications strategy. S/he will build relationships across the RLA project portfolio with staff and take a proactive approach to identifying stories and messaging that communicates RLA learning and results to various stakeholders, especially USAID.

S/he will lead both internal and external communications efforts, S/he will contribute to content-development of project outreach materials, including learning, success stories, Facebook/LinkedIn postings, Tweets, presentations, photography, videography, events management, and media relations.

S/he will liaise between project partners, beneficiaries, key project staff, and local service providers to build a strong bridge for the exchange of information and incorporate the project’s learning, results and findings into the overall communications and outreach activities of the project.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Review the existing communication strategy and update it regularly, as applicable
• Develop the annual communications work plan based on project’s work plan;
• Execute the activities in the communications work plan using overarching communication strategy for RLA;
• Attend monthly USAID communications meeting and actively participate in the RLA Communications Working Group and execute on action items that come out of these meetings;
• Proactively work with field staff across RLA using the project updates from the field and other reporting to identify learning and achievements;
• Craft messages (case studies, one pagers, webinar, tweets, LinkedIn posts etc.) to disseminate learning and results to different stakeholders (USAID, implementing partners, the Government of Kenya and others);
• Coordinate with program staff to gather information for writing programmatic communications including manuals, graphics, articles, success and impact stories that offer analytical storytelling;
• Share appropriate content with ACDI/VOCA’s HQ to be distributed on the weekly internal newsletter “AV Global”, on ACDI/VOCA’s public website and social media;
• Edit project reporting deliverables such as quarterly and annual reports to ensure we are communicating our progress, learning, and results in alignment with USAID’s Journey to Self-Reliance;
• Lead and coordinate with field staff the organization of events. This includes drafting communications collateral (manuals, press releases, key messages, success stories, talking points, graphics etc.);
• Build the capacity of and provide communications support to RLA team;
• Maintain a comprehensive database of communications consultants who can offer niche communications services;
• Manage RLA’s photo library and conduct photo editing as appropriate.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication or its equivalent
• Experience: A minimum of 5 years’ experience in communication, especially using digital media and excellent writing skills;
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills;
• Experience drafting and executing a comprehensive communication plan in support of a project strategy, incorporating a variety of media and tactics;
• Experience writing and managing content for a variety of media including digital and social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.), video scripts and story-boarding, case studies, and factsheets/briefings;
• Ability to work proactively with teams to anticipate and identify learning and results occurring in the field and craft messaging around those;
• Ability to work independently as well as build relationships across a variety of internal and external stakeholders;
• Ability to represent the project in external meetings including with the donor;
• Ability to research, analyze, evaluate and synthesize information quickly;
• Ability and willingness to travel in RLA’s implementation counties (Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, Wajir), including to remote locations;
• Knowledge of graphic design and photo/video editing software.