Call for Interest - Junior Communications Consultant , Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN) - COM

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation. 

The External Relations and Governance Department (ERG), comprising the Communications Division (COM), the Global Engagement Partnership and Resource Mobilization Division (GPR) and the Office of the Secretary (SEC), leads IFAD’s engagement with Member States and other stakeholders, including through public and political advocacy, global policy engagement and effective institutional governance. 

COM has a team of expert staff in media relations, video production, writing, publishing, web and other digital media, graphic design, visual identity, photography, brand management, internal communication and events management to meet its communication priorities. This includes handling crises and highly sensitive issues, advising IFAD units on the most appropriate internal and external communication approaches and evaluating the work of communication consultants and suppliers.

Within COM, the Field Communication and Capacity Development Team directly supports regional divisions, regional offices and IFAD Country Offices (ICOs) to meet their internal and external communication objectives and to contribute to IFAD's broader strategic communication efforts. The team develops a strategic vision for COM's partnership with IFAD operations and recommends and creates new opportunities for collaboration between COM and regional divisions, regional offices, ICOS and selected projects. It plays a key role in the implementation of COM's communication capacity development approach, particularly by helping shore up the ability of regional divisions, ICOS and selected IFAD supported projects to communicate IFAD's messages more effectively. In order to do so, among other things, it executes training and coaching programmes targeting field offices. Providing the overarching management of COM's on-going working relationship with regional divisions, regional offices and ICOs, the team engages these partners in IFAD communication campaigns, including internal communication and social media campaigns, creates media opportunities and responds to media queries related to IFAD operations, and helps amplify the voices or rural people themselves. 

The Junior Communications Consultant  for the Near East, North Africa and Europe (NEN), works under the direct supervision of NEN Communications Analyst.

Under the close supervision of the Communications Analyst in Cairo Multi-Country Office (MCO), the Junior Communication Consultant will: 

•  Contribute to ensure that relevant, regional content is up to date on the website and inform the Webteam if changes are required;

•  Support in writing regional content for communications materials such as publications, press releases, web stories and blogs in both Arabic and English;

•  Support in updating the IFAD Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) social media channel regularly;

•  Provide communication support for any high-level missions to the hub countries with high understanding of the cultural and contextual specificities of each country; 

•  Provide support in building and developing a relevant network of photographers, videographers and media (national and international) for the hub;

•  Support in production and dissemination of photos and videos collected from the region when needed;

•  Support in developing the regional Goodwill Ambassador (GWA) and youth advocate strategy;

•  Support the coordination between COM team in the Headquarter (HQ) and the regional division to guarantee the implantation of IFAD logo and branding guidelines;

•  Provide support in the preparation of talking points and background material to be used for media interviews, conferences and other public events related to the  Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN) region;

•  Support in communications and visibility activities related to IFAD's project with the Egyptian government Nexus for Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) in coordination with COM and Cairo Multi-Country Office (MCO) staff;

•  Support the communications initiatives related to IFAD projects in Egypt; including attending UN Communications Group (UNCG) meetings and involving IFAD's work in the Egypt UN Country Team (UNCT) plans for communications in coordination with IFAD's Egypt country team;

• Develop a social media strategy which increases IFAD social media presence in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region

• Increase number of followers and interactions for social media handle @IFAD_MENA

• Regional and country level media mapping

• Contribute at least 4 articles to ifad.org

• Support at least 2 visibility missions

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

       Required:

• Excellent writing skills (English)

• Experience in communications, including designing and implementing communications strategies, campaigns and products

       Desirable:

• Experience in the field of internal/external communications

• Experience managing social media platforms and editing content for an external audience

• Experience in building relevant networks (internal/external) and dissemination of content

• Experience in inter-departmental coordination (or similar), in a multi-cultural/international setting

EDUCATION : Bachelor's Degree in Journalism, International Relations, Public Relations, Communications or another relevant field.

LANGUAGE : Required English and Arabic (4 – Excellent) 

Consultants are not considered staff of IFAD. This consultancy assignment does not carry any expectation of employment, extension or conversion to another type of contract with the Fund.