Communications & Learning Specialist at Mercy Corps

Reference Number: ABV/OPS/2019/0019
Location: Abuja
Position Status: Full-time

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation
• With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs
• As the crisis has persisted, Mercy Corps’ strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.

General Position Summary

• The Communications & Learning Specialist plays a critical role in both driving and demonstrating program performance across the country portfolio
• S/he designs new content and maintains, strategies, tools and processes for routinely gathering information, and presenting it to a wide variety of audiences, including the production of a monthly country-level Mercy Corps Nigeria newsletter
• S/he develops or guides strategic communications that not only showcase the ‘Impact’ of Mercy Corps Nigeria’s work but also demonstrate ‘Innovation’ and ‘Influence’ within all programming, reflecting and reinforcing the strategic and cross-cutting objectives for the country office
• S/he will develop and maintain best practices and provide support and guidance to program communication leads in their efforts to demonstrate program achievements and integrate stories and research findings into their reports and communications
• S/he works closely with HQ communications staff to support external engagement with international audiences
• The position reports to the Program Development and Quality Director, working in coordination with SMT, the country MEL team, and Program Managers, as well as HQ communications focal points and TSU, to contribute to Mercy Corps Nigeria team culture, cohesiveness, and program quality.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Country Strategy Support:

• Maintain and implement a communications strategy and plan for the country office, ensuring that it aligns with and supports the achievement of Mercy Corps Nigeria strategic objectives, Africa Regional Strategy, and the Mercy Corps Global Compass.
• Work closely with SMT, and coordinate with TSU focal points, to write and update the Mercy Corps Nigeria strategy and other key strategic resources (face-sheets, PowerPoints) as required.

Agency Communications:

• Provide support and guidance to Mercy Corps Nigeria’s program communications colleagues to ensure project and donor communications obligations are met.
• Act as the lead brand manager, maintaining standards across materials, events, and other media
• Ensure that Mercy Corps Nigeria’s work is accurately, regularly and compellingly represented on Mercy Corps Global internal and external communications platforms, including:
• Post to internal agency content platforms — Workplace pages, The Hub and The Globe as well as relevant donor media platforms
• Lead the development of a monthly country-level Mercy Corps Nigeria newsletter.
• Provide editorial oversight and/or design, create, and maintain a portfolio, program, sector, and cross-cutting theme factsheets, and targeting external stakeholders.
• Coordinate closely with HQ communications focal points to develop key messages, press releases, and statements for external audiences, in response to evolving events.
• Work with HQ communications focal points, program teams, security staff and SMT to facilitate visits from international journalists

Communication Training & Development:

• Participate in relevant communications-related working groups with local and international NGOs and associations in Nigeria.
• Convene and facilitate a quarterly country-level communications working group, which will gather timely and accurate information for capturing and sharing with our broad range of internal and external stakeholders and identify key communications objectives for the coming quarter.
• Build the capacity and performance of staff and partners in developing success stories and multimedia and visual resources, maximizing the use of internal communications platforms, and increasing program and impact visibility, and any other areas of communication that are linked to donor branding/marking requirements.
• Oversee the creation and maintenance of a digital communications resources library, for country-level access to fact sheets, success stories, lessons learned, communiqué’s, and any other relevant materials.
• Track country office visibility and communication initiatives: advice on the integration of communications plans into program work-plans; and support program teams to develop communications strategies and plans as per donor requirements.
• Support operations, finance, HR and MEL teams to improve their communications and information sharing with staff by supporting them in the production of updates, guidelines, briefings, and providing feedback on communications outputs.
• Build capacity of project teams to produce well-documented narratives and infographics that highlight program 3is, and include information on lessons-learned to inform programmatic adaption or course-correction of activities and future program design.
• Inform and supporting learning activities, including field visits, focus groups, workshops, round-tables, and other events.

Research & Proposal Support:

• Coordinate research activities, working with program and HQ teams to ensure timely and high-quality execution of projects.
• Support the dissemination of research findings, including the creation of summaries and fact-sheets, and internal and external dissemination.
• As needed, lead or support the development of concept notes and funding proposals, coordinating the process with relevant technical, finance and operational staff.
• Ensure that proposals and concept notes are developed in a timely manner and with realistic deadlines and that these are communicated and understood by country, region and HQ.

Country Team Development & Management:

• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Additional Expectations
Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Communications Assistant.

Accountability:

• Reports Directly to: Director of Program Quality and Learning
• Works Directly with: Senior Management Team (SMT), Grants Specialist, Reporting Officer, Program Managers and Teams, Mercy Corps regional and HQ teams and TSU members.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Social Science, Journalism, Communications, International Development or other relevant fields
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in coordinating and producing written and audiovisual content for donor engagement, public advocacy, media and community relations.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English required, including report development, writing and editing.
• Experience in staff development and training.
• Excellent computer skills, including experience with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher.
• Experience with Adobe’s design suite a plus.
• Demonstrated ability as a collaborator and facilitator.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.

Success Factors

• A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving
• S/he will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, and be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem-solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and to follow laws and security protocols
• The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

• The position is based in Abuja and will require travel to field offices in and around Mercy Corps Nigeria as and when required.