Regional Communications Coordinator, West Africa at International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Job Overview: 

The IRC has country programs in seven West Africa countries—Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Nigeria—and implements programs through the arc of crisis, emergency, humanitarian and development contexts. Internationally and within the West Africa region, the IRC wishes to use its influence and raise the voice of our clients to affect meaningful change alongside direct program delivery. The West Africa Regional Communications Manager will elevate the IRC’s work in West Africa with key stakeholders and target audiences to  raise the IRC’s profile, income, influence, and acceptance. The role will contribute to global, regional and sub-regional goals. They will deliver breakthrough communication results, strengthening the IRC’s positioning with international and regional media. The Regional Communications Manager will also support in finding and telling compelling stories that elevate the voices of IRC’s clients and support influence and income goals. The Regional Communications Manager will act as a spokesperson as needed. 

Major Responsibilities: 

• Convene, collaborate with, and lead a dynamic range of IRC teams across the West Africa Region in collaboration with the West Africa Advocacy and Communications leads, to develop and implement a communication strategy for West Africa that drives awareness of the crises in the region, especially related to the Sahel and IRC’s nutrition work, the climate crises and IRC’s impact and advocacy goals thereby enhancing the IRC's reputation, acceptance, supporting fundraising objectives, and influencing target policy makers.

Press and Media:

• Lead internal stakeholders, including communications team members, field teams, advocates, fundraisers, and technical experts to facilitate and support dynamic communications tactics, including innovative media outreach, top tier opeds, creative digital content and dynamic, audience-driven social media outputs.
• Support country-level communications strategies and activities that raise the profile of crises in West Africa and IRC programming on a national level.
• Deliver strategic proactive and reactive media relations, leveraging global insights and expertise in both international and humanitarian media to increase the IRC’s media share of voice and digital engagement.
• Deploy excellent writing skills to deliver pitches that land IRC-led features, high-level IRC messages for cross-organizational use, top tier landing op-eds, and talking points for spokespeople.
• Represent the IRC as a spokesperson to external and internal audiences, both via media interviews and contributing to digital content. Provide media training to field spokespeople as needed.
• Contribute to quarterly reports on media coverage and content results using industry standard metrics and bench-marking.

Content 

• Partner with in-house and external experts to produce compelling stories that are integrated with strategic external relations objectives and elevate client voices.
• Gather content in West Africa through multiple digital mediums - photo, video, audio etc. - using industry standard practices and equipment.
• Coordinate and lead crisis and emergency communications, including high profile field visits and reactive storytelling.

Country Office Support

• Conduct field visits to country offices to support the development of their communication strategy aligned with their Strategy 100 ambition, global communication materials, and support country offices in their needs or communication requirements.
• Provide communication training for field communication staff and media training to field spokespeople as needed.

Leading comms innovations

The IRC in West Africa aims to enhance the voice of its clients into its communication. The Communication Coordinator will build the relationship with the Client Responsiveness Specialist and their team and lead the initiative. This will entail to: 

• Support and collaborate with the regional and country programs MEALand GEDI teams to communicate on how clients’ perspectives and feedback inform IRC programmatic decisions including for project design and adaptation. This includes the development of written, audio and video materials targeting internal and external stakeholders for learning, fundraising and advocacy purposes.
• With the support of the regional and country programs MEAL teams, use and analyze existing client feedback data to elevate and reflect clients’ voices and perspectives into communication, policy and advocacy materials and messaging. This includes clients’ priorities and needs as well as their feedback on thematic such as access to services and safety for instance. 

Job Requirements: 

Work Experience:

• Considerable experience working as a communications professional with a humanitarian organization
• Experience living and working in West Africa and with extensive knowledge of the region
• Experience visiting crisis contexts and producing compelling stories and media work that show people with dignity and agency

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Media skills include writing press releases and talking points, landing media coverage and feature stories with top tier outlets, acting as a spokesperson with media and at events, and navigating complex situations and reputational risks 

Language Skills: English and French required. 

Preferred experience & skills:

• Able to work effectively, efficiently, diplomatically, and calmly in a high-pressure environment on issues that are often complex and politically sensitive.
• Deep knowledge and experience of working successfully with major global media, especially in the US, UK, and Europe.
• Experience in producing and editing, under tight-deadlines, accurate and dynamic communications materials, including press-releases, op-eds, talking points and digital content.