Communications Assistant
Reports to: Soil, Water, and Agronomy (SWA) Research Team Leader, and Communications Unit Senior Manager.
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Main purpose of position
Under the management and guidance of the SWA Team Leader and the Communications Unit Senior Manager, the post-holder will support a range of communications and marketing activities that aim to target and build key audiences, raising the profile of ICARDA’s work and supporting resource mobilization.
About ICARDA
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR. ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organization, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. For more information:
All CGIAR Centers are currently engaged into a reform process (“One CGIAR’”) that will help ICARDA and CGIAR achieve better impact through more strategically integrated research, unified governance, an integrated structure, and new research modalities across participating Research Centers. This transformation is supported by CGIAR donors who have committed to increased funding as a result of these reforms.
Main responsibilities
CONTENT COLLECTION
The primary duty of the Communications Assistant is to collect content that can be used for promotion of the SWA team and wider communications teams:
· Short blurbs and explanations of activities.
· Images (with captions) and short videos of activities.
· Image coverage at events.
· Draft social media posts complete with relevant tags and approval of any quotes.
· Draft texts for short website articles.
· Supply of any project, event, initiative, science, etc. source documents to support content creation.
WEBPAGE
· Manage the frequent updating of SWA Team webpage.
· Monitor the website to guard against errors and protect brand.
WRITTEN ARTICLES
· Liaise between SWA scientists and Communications staff to understand promotional needs for articles, papers, and news, and help provide the source content needed.
SOCIAL MEDIA
· Provide a stream of images and draft texts to communications staff for use in social media
· Identify relevant handles, hashtags and tags for social media posts;
· Respond to social media messages, and monitoring reactions on our social media platforms/Forwarding them to the relevant unit;
· Use listening tools to monitor the digital domain for online mentions of CWANA and share these internally and externally.
EVENTS
· Help SWA team and communications staff.
· coordinate events by supporting with basic tasks.
· Act as on-the-ground POC for events at location.
· Supply images and draft quotes.
· Support with the collection of information for pre/post promotion (articles etc.)
OTHER TASKS
· Assist in updating events calendar and keep internal and external stakeholders updated.
· Monitor media appearances and keep SWA/Communications Staff updated.
· Ensure SWA team are kept up to date on related communications outputs.
· Help share widely any news and social media.
· Help collect and analyse metrics across ICARDA digital activities.
Requirements
Essential qualifications and competencies
Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, International Relations, or relevant fields. At least 2 years’ experience in social media, event management and content creation in a marketing agency, an international organization or international , or similar multi-project work environment. Proficiency in social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Proven background in basic development of creative and compelling digital content. Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools (Microsoft outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.)
Excellent command of the English and Arabic languages, both written and spoken.
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Desirable qualifications and competencies
Proficiency in French language is highly desirable. Basic understanding of photography (cell phone or SLR) Portfolio of photography work will support the application. Knowledge of Hootsuite (or similar). Knowledge of Mailchimp (or similar) for newsletters. Knowledge of Facebook Live and similar on other channels. Knowledge of Alert software (news/google alerts/tags/mentions) Knowledge of Paid advertising – Manager/AdWords. Knowledge of Google analytics.
Benefits
Terms of appointment, salary, and benefits
The successful candidate will be offered a one-year consultancy contract on a full-time basis, renewable subject to continued need for the position, availability of fund and satisfactory performance. The first 6 months will be a probationary period.
The Incumbent will be provided with a monthly honorarium.
ICARDA is committed to increasing women representation in its workforce and strongly encourages applications from women.
Applications will be acknowledged, but only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.