External Affairs Officer at World Bank

Description

• Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile?
• Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges.
• The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development.
• With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges.
• External and Corporate Relations Vice-Presidency (ECR): The mission of External and Corporate Relations (ECR) is to help deliver financial and political support for the World Bank Group, strengthen the Bank Group’s role as a global thought leader in development by enhancing and safeguarding its reputation, and supporting operational teams to achieve country outcomes.
• ECR manages corporate communications and global engagement with key stakeholders, including media, civil society, foundations, private sector, donor countries, and international organizations, as well as employee engagement.
• ECR also manages strategic communications for the World Bank’s Regions and Global Practices and leads the management of reputation risk.

Country Context:

• Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse federation of 36 autonomous states and the Federal Capital Territory. In 2020, Nigeria experienced its deepest recession in two decades, but growth resumed in 2021 as pandemic restrictions were eased, oil prices recovered, and the authorities implemented policies to counter the economic shock. Nigeria was highly vulnerable to the global economic disruption caused by COVID-19
• The World Bank Group enjoys a strong partnership with Nigeria through a strategy to support the government in its development’s objectives to end extreme poverty and increase shared prosperity. A new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) was approved in December 2020 to guide the World Bank Group’s support to Nigeria from 2021-2024. The Country Partnership Strategy period (FY2020-FY2024) is structured around four key engagement areas:
  • Investing in Human Capital and harnessing Nigeria’s demographic dividend
  • Promoting Jobs and Economic Transformation and Diversification
  • Reducing Fragility and building Resilience
  • Strengthening the Foundations of the Public sector.
• External Communications Africa West and Central (ECRAW) unit employs an extended team of professionals in World Bank Headquarters and across country offices, including Nigeria, to support the overarching goal of advancing inclusive growth in Western and Central Africa.
• ECRAW uses the full array of communications tools and methodologies to build awareness and understanding and to mobilize support for development goals. Work programs cover dissemination through traditional and online media, relationship building, analysis of political and project risks, and design of programs to manage those risks.
• A strategic renewal within ECRAW emphasizes closer alignment with operations in the region, and coordination with the World Bank’s External Affairs network, to ensure that ECRAW services are critical to regional and corporate priorities, and that they employ state-of-the art communications tools to disseminate information, build understanding, and connect the World Bank to a variety of actors involved in poverty reduction and development.
• Recognizing that Africa’s economic and social context is rapidly changing, and that communications technologies have revolutionized the ways that information travels, ECRAW is building a team of dynamic and innovative professionals prepared to use traditional and digital tools, including social media and multi-media production, to shape the debate on development priorities and trade-offs.

Roles and Responsibilities

• The External Affairs Officer contributes to planning, development, and implementation of effective communications and outreach strategies to support the WBG’s corporate, internal, and operational priorities, using the full range of modern communications tools including social media, digital publishing, and multi-media production. 
• It is critical that the External Affairs Officer be equipped to gauge risks associated with complex projects and to design and implement strategies to minimize those risks.
• The External Affairs Officer will report to the ECRAW Manager based in Washington D.C., but work on day to day under the supervision of the the Senior External Affairs Officer and the Country Management Unit based in Abuja.

His/her specific duties and accountabilities include:

• Strategies:
  • Responsible for relevant portions of planning, design, and implementation of strategies to promote effective communications with external and internal audiences on World Bank-financed operations, research products, and campaigns.
  • Helps determine the most effective content and communications interventions to address challenges.
• Outreach and Engagement:
  • Collaboratively plan and execute outreach and engagement activities around key priority areas.
  • This entails launch of flagship reports, outreach to external groups to ensure knowledge is well disseminated and visible across multiple channels that includes the World Bank website and social media channels.
• Products:
  • Produce a range of written products on the World Bank's operational goals, results, and knowledge.
  • Outputs range from traditional press releases and Op-Eds to web features, brochures, Q&As, briefing notes, and speeches.
  • Responsible for updating the World Bank's internal and external websites for the country.
• Youth engagement:
  • Facilitate collaboration and structured engagement with youth groups focused on World Bank priority areas to ensure youth voices are well reflected in initiatives supported by the World Bank.
  • Ensure that global and regional youth initiatives such as the blog4dev and youth chapters are well publicized and active at the country level.
• Events:
  • Support communications activities and events ranging from press conferences to large seminars and town hall meetings, involving external and/or internal audiences.
• Campaigns:
  • Collaborate with project teams to design and implement sectoral focused campaigns to raise awareness and drive conversations along the themes of such campaigns.
  • Should be able to identify non-conventional partners to collaborate with which includes the creative and sports industry and student groups.
• Media monitoring:
  • Lead on media monitoring to ensure regular update to the country team on news and events especially on areas of interest to the World Bank.
  • Contribute to periodic news analysis to reflect areas that are shaping public interest and opinions
• Project communication:
• Work closely with Communication focal points on World Bank supported operations to improve capacity for documenting and disseminating project results and outcomes.
• Digital Engagement:
  • Provide day to day oversight of World Bank Nigeria Social Media channels to ensure regular updates and increase in engagement.
  • Additionally, seek for creative ways to leverage on social media engagement to drive dialogue on country development agenda and develop periodic measurement reports to track improvement.
• Risk management:
  • Work closely with the Country Management Unit to ensure timely and adequate responses to enquiries and queries from stakeholders.
  • Ensure key facts on operations and analytical work of the World Bank are visible and easily accessible on external platforms.
  • Bring to the attention of the Country leadership issues in the public space that may affect the reputation or integrity of the World Bank.
• Staff engagement:
  • Develop creative ways to ensure adequate and effective communication internally across the World Bank country team.
  • Utilize multi-media tools to increase the visibility of staff across internal platforms.
  • Provide support to staff to produce content such as blogs to showcase their work areas and increase broader understanding of different program areas within the country team. 

Selection Criteria

• Master’s Degree with a minimum of 5 years of experience in a relevant discipline (communication, journalism, international affairs or other related fields)
• Understanding of the humanitarian, development and security context in Nigeria.
• Excellent written and spoken command English, and the ability to convey complex ideas in a creative, clear, direct, and lively style
• Proven knowledge of visual communications principles and fluency with design software.
• Strong understanding and experience with digital content and social media analytics.
• Strong writing skills; ability with minimum supervision to prepare and edit simple online communication products and develop drafts of moderately complex products in a clear, concise, and web-friendly style.
• Acute eye for detail.
• Understands project management concepts sufficiently to propose and develop drafts of online communications plans and strategies with minimal supervision; can apply standard project ·management tools, methodologies, and processes; is able to identify and mitigate project risks as well as manage project issues.
•   Experience working in an international organization and on development issues.
• In-depth knowledge of international trends and political/economic issues related to development
• Strong diplomatic, interpersonal, and teamwork skills; sensitivity to working in a multicultural environment.

The candidate will also be expected to have the following competencies:

• Communication Strategy and Execution in International Development:
  • Demonstrates a working proficiency to lead the planning, development, and execution of a communication strategy for moderately complex projects.
  • Leads research efforts to identify and map project stakeholders or intended audiences; leads media and audience outreach, identifying audience needs.
  • Independently implements communication strategies for moderately complex projects and can use feedback from evaluation tools to strengthen programs.
  • Helps others develop this competency.
  • A key skill in this area will be the adoption of digital strategies and marshalling of social marketing techniques to respond to the online communications environment that is increasingly embraced by Nigerian audiences. 
• Broad Business Thinking:
  • Capable of distilling an in-depth understanding of the long-term implications of decisions, both for Nigeria and for the World Bank.
  • Involves the key players in identifying operational needs, challenges and immediate solutions.
  • Ensures that decisions are supported by relevant stakeholders and can explain the business case for decisions.
• Client Understanding and Advising:
  • Looks at issues from the citizen’s perspective and advocates for citizens. Works with others across the VPU to define client needs and develop the best approaches to meet them.
  • Asks probing questions to understand unmet needs.
  • Focuses on achieving sustainable results for clients and proposes solutions to mitigate risks.
• Content Development and Editing:
  • Takes full responsibility for the development of content for dissemination.
  • Can ensure the development of communications products meeting WBG standards on structure, clarity, quality, and persuasiveness.
• Social Media, Information Channels, and Communication Tools:
  • Demonstrates working knowledge of current media channels and tools, including social media.
  • Modifies communication strategies and products to leverage innovative communication tools and channels.
• Relationship Management, Political Awareness and Diplomacy:
  • Builds strategic relationships with critical internal and external constituencies, fostering partnerships that strengthen support for development objectives and mitigate reputational risks.
  • Maintains and leverages high-level communication networks and contacts within key constituencies.
  • Provides guidance to other internal WBG groups on how to best manage critical relationships.
• Lead and Innovate:
  • Contributes new insights into development challenges and fashions solutions to complex problems.
  • Adapts as circumstances require.
• Collaborate Within Teams and Across Boundaries:
  • Appropriately involves others in decision-making and communicates with key stakeholders.
  • Approaches conflicts as common problems to be solved.
  • Actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches, displaying a sense of mutuality and respect. Integrates WBG perspective into work.

Required Language(s):

• English.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

• The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.