Knowledge Management and Communications Officer, Business For Peace

Background

Initiative Africa (IA) has been working with national and international partners across Ethiopia on various development, peace and civic projects. In line with the priorities of the government, IA has increasingly been trying to use capacity development approaches that foster resilience in government and society – resilience to crises in livelihood, good governance, gender and peace.

In this regard IA has secured a grant from Sida (Swedish Embassy) to support peacebuilding and good governance initiatives in varies sites. The overall goal of the project is to persuade business to participate in peacebuilding and good governance in Ethiopia. The project is structured around three immediate objectives:

1. To mobilize the business community to engage in peacebuilding and conflict resolution actions and activities.
2. Through corporate social responsibility to maintain support for effective peace building and inclusive coordination amongst Government, private sector, media actors and civil society.
3. To respond to concrete challenges and opportunities to build a peaceful and just Ethiopia through civic education, training, internship and apprenticeship activities.

These key objectives provide the parameters within which IA may use the funding from this project to build on priority initiatives for peacebuilding and good governance. The project is to be implemented over 24 months, using the project delivery and management structures of IA.

Key professional requirements:

• Write and publish written materials related to the project
• Able to research, write, edit, proofread and file news stories, features and articles related to business and Peace in Ethiopia and Africa in general.
• Manage and run a weekly news latter for partners and other audience
• Conduct necessary interviews to generate interesting and up-to-date content.
• Create communication content on behalf of the projects
• Gather stories and progress to include in communication materials
• Design and approve all branding and communications materials for workshop, reports, conferences etc
• Collaborate with management to develop and implement an effective communications strategy based on target audience.
• Write, edit, and distribute content, including publications, press releases, website content, annual reports, speeches, and other marketing material that communicates the organization’s activities, products and/or services.
• Respond to media inquiries, arrange interviews related to the project promotion.
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with journalists, and maintain a media database.
• Seek opportunities to enhance the reputation of the brand, and coordinate publicity events as required.
• Maintain records of media coverage and collate analytics and metrics.
• Proficiency in design and publishing software is a plus

Contract Period 364 days

Type of Contract Full /Flexible time

Languages Required Amharic, English and any other local language is a plus

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, English or relevant field
• Minimum of 3-5 years’ working experience as a journalist or reporter.
• Capable of maintaining an ethical and objective standard in reporting.
• Ability to meet deadlines and accurately fact-check information.
• Excellent observation and judgment skills.
• Superb communication and networking skills, along with an aptitude to effectively extract information

. Experience:

• Proven experience in working on journalism, communications and knowledge management.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, good knowledge and experience in handling of web-based management systems;
• Experience in working in the area of community development projects with focus on business, peace and security, public administration is a plus.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Informed and transparent decision making.