Communications Assistant

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) is a partnership between the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute, ETH Zurich, Sustainable Agriculture Foundation Africa and the Sight and Life Foundation and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). To improve nutrition and health, and to reduce poverty by increasing the demand and supply of nutritious, diverse, agroecologically produced foods in two city ecosystems, with a focus on women and young people. The project is implemented in 6 cities in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda. The project facilitates multi-sectoral action for nutrition, local public-private partnerships, and the introduction of social business models to strengthen the demand and supply of locally produced, nutrient-rich, agroecological foods.

Job summary

The purpose for the communication assistant is to provide support to the on matters related to project communications together with the project manager. They help to implement communication strategies and projects and are responsible for the drafting and editing of media releases and other communications material.

Key roles and responsibilities

▪ Present project information in an attractive and engaging format that can be shared with the public, media, NICE project consortium partners, project stakeholders, donors.
▪ Maintain a record of content produced in relation to project documentation.
▪ Work closely with the technical advisors, consortium leads and program team members to conduct to visit field sites to identify, collect, capture, and document project activities in the form of case studies, including the collection of photos.
▪ Over see and document activities by the groups that have received the small grants initiative and document the best practices and impact stories.
▪ Gather information to support advocacy initiatives such as related case studies and evidence from the field as requested.
▪ Support the NICE project team to compile and finalize regular reports for various audiences and identifying trends or highlights to include.
▪ Produce staff spotlights and other internal communications outputs as required.
▪ Provide visibility and briefing material packages for all high-level/external visits, including SDC donors, other delegations, as needed.
▪ Producing and managing multimedia and communications content.
▪ Provide multimedia and communications content for the NICE project.
▪ Identify photography opportunities as well as support the hiring of freelance photographers and videographers and orienting them with the principle of informed consent. Manage content collection shoots as needed.
▪ Ensure that all materials adhere to the donor branding and visibility requirements.
▪ Maintain a dynamic ‘story list’ to showcase NICE Program impact.
▪ Work with other NICE consortium partners on internal communications priorities such as newsletters and annual reports as requested.
▪ Produce or project manage deliver of graphic design – provide graphic design and formatting support to ad hoc donor and external/public- facing programme documents (e.g., reports, briefs, templates. Factsheets).

Social media management

▪ Create communications content, develop blog content, and create social media content and posts e.g., development of communications plan for the NICE project.

Website management

▪ Proactively manage the NICE Kenya programme web portal.
▪ Collect information and authentic content including media, social media, stories, and updates for the website. ▪ Lead on managing the NICE project website, updating, and editing and uploading key programme documents to the Knowledge Hub (newsletter; reports; briefs) as required.

Event coordination and planning

▪ Provide support to planning, coordination and delivery of NICE project events that the programme will have a presence at (virtual and in person at National and international levels).
▪ Where required, organize travel and logistics arrangements (including booking flights, venue hire, visa, and accommodation support).
▪ Support the admin and logistics for communication-focused visits, including donor visits.
Workshop and meeting coordination.
▪ Actively participate in relevant programme, team and partner meetings and where relevant coordinate meetings, agreeing agenda items with team members, taking minutes, following up on actions, and preparing any presentations or related documentation as required. Provide ad hoc administrative support to the organization and logistics of workshops/ webinars/ training – lead on hosting and provide support to coordination and delivery of workshops.
▪ Capturing comms impact for donor reporting.
▪ Provide support during quarterly and annual peer learning events and meetings, including case studies
documentations, highlighting ‘good news’ or ‘Impact stories. and responding to ad-hoc queries internal and external stakeholders.

Requirements

▪ A bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, public relations, or another related field from an accredited university.
▪ A minimum of 1-year professional experience in a similar role.
▪ Willingness and ability to travel to visit field-sites and document findings.
▪ Knowledge of/experience with graphic design and social media photography, videography.
▪ Fluent written and spoken English required.
▪ Excellent IT skills, including Advanced Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Excel, and SharePoint.
▪ Good analytical skills.
▪ Experience in a communications role and demonstrated experience of developing public/audience facing documents/ content.
▪ Experience of using social media for communications and advocacy.
▪ Proven ability to manage a heavy and fluctuating workload.
▪ Proven ability to manage conflicting demands of a large team.
▪ Proven ability to prioritize own workload.
▪ Proven experience in organization of events/workshops.

Reporting

The Communications assistant will report directly to project manager with some level of technical supervision on the role coming from the global project communications team.

Primary location

Nairobi with extensive field travel to the project sites in Busia and Bungoma counties.

If you meet the above requirements, kindly send your CV and cover letter to the email address below by 25th August 2024.
careers@saf-africa.odoo.com
SAF Africa is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.