Communications Officer at Mercy Corps

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 Communication Officer will support the development and implementation of a communication strategy for Mercy Corps Nigeria, including the regular development of timely, well-written and accurate fact-sheets, articles, success stories and other resources as needed.
• Working closely with the Communications Specialist, the Communications Officer will build and maintain strong working relationships with Mercy Corps Nigeria staff in our Abuja, Maiduguri and other field offices, and leverage those relationships to ensure that knowledge and understanding of the innovations, influence and impact of our diverse country portfolio is captured and effectively shared with internal and external audiences.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Country Communications Strategy Support:

• Support the Communication & Learning Specialist in the development of a communications strategy through efficient documentation and implementation of relevant activities in adherence to Mercy Corps global standards and specific donor requirements.
• Contribute to country team-building efforts and provide countrywide support for a cross-learning strategy.
• Work with the Communication & Learning Specialist to develop new communications initiatives (such as Lunch and Learn, etc.) and organize dissemination and learning activities to facilitate visibility of Mercy Corps Nigeria’s programming and impact on donors and other stakeholders.

Communication and Capacity Building:

• Support country office visibility and communication initiatives, ensuring that program communications activities meet donor communications and visibility guidelines.
• Support field locations to collect images, success stories, and other communications content to highlight Mercy Corps Nigeria program's successes, staff well-being, or any other topic as the need arises.
• Develop dissemination guidance and support teams to plan and conduct effective dissemination of project materials to different stakeholders.
• Support the Communications and Learning Specialist in maintaining a communications database of key contacts.
• Participate in communications-related working groups and maintain close relationships with other relevant networks with other international NGOs, local NGOs, and associations in Nigeria.
• Help identity team members’ capacity building needs and support with the implementation of targeted capacity building around communications and learning.
• Help in organizing lunch and learn sessions to facilitate cross-learning across Mercy Corps Nigeria offices.
• Provide administrative support to the facilitation of a Comms Working Group.
• Monitor workplace, meetings and other internal updates, and coordinate with program, sector and field office teams, to gather content for and draft a monthly Mercy Corps Nigeria newsletter.
• Maintain a Mercy Corps Nigeria digital communications resources library, for country-level access to fact sheets, success stories, lessons learned, communiqués, and any other relevant materials.
• Support in the development of content and share content on Mercy Corps’ Global internal and external communications platforms, including relevant Workplace pages, The Hub and The Globe.
• Support in the development and successful roll-out of Mercy Corps Nigeria’s website.
• Lead on planning and co-coordinating training, work-shops and other events, as the need arises.
• Facilitate sessions in communications capacity-building trainings for Mercy Corps Nigeria and partner staff.
• Actively participate in meetings and processes to promote effective communication practices across the entire country portfolio.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

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:

• N/A

Accountability:

• Reports Directly To: Communications Specialist
• Works Directly With: Programs Staff, PaQ Team, HQ & Regional Communications Staff, HR, Operations, Finance (all offices)

Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience

• Degree in Communication, International Development, Gender or any related field.
• A minimum of 2 years of Communication work experience in international development required
• Experience in written and audio-visual communication materials.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent computer skills, including experience with PowerPoint and Microsoft Word,
• Experience interfacing with media, corporations and key stakeholders is highly desired
• Fluency in written and verbal English is required.

Success Factors:

• The most successful Mercy Corps staff 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.
• Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

• Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together.
• Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges.
• We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
• We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

• Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact.
• We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all.
• We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, colour, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics:

• Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we encounter through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants, or others, are treated with respect and dignity.
• We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC.
• We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members.
• As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times.
• Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.