Communications Officer

Communications Officer

Farm Africa

Marketing & Communications

Job summary
The Communications Officer plays a key role in devising and implementing the communications strategy of the Kenya country office

Job descriptions & requirements
• Undertake a comprehensive stakeholder mapping to identify target audiences, messages, and communication formats in Kenya.
• Develop and implement a communications/marketing action plan and media strategy that profiles the impact of Farm Africa’s work in Kenya.
• Build and maintain a Farm Africa external contacts database.
• Prepare and produce marketing materials in liaison with the project coordinators and management staff, including creating key messages for each project and country wide.
• Work with project coordinators to develop public relations and communications activities related to specific project initiatives.
• Ensure consistent application of Farm Africa branding and communications guidelines across all Farm Africa Kenya communications.
• Lead new approaches to creating and distributing multimedia content, drafting press releases, responding to media enquiries, and building dialogue with journalists to promote Farm Africa’s work.
• Assist in the documentation and publicity of key Farm Africa events such as project field days, workshops, launches, interviews and agricultural shows.
• Advise on public materials to be translated into Kiswahili and oversee effective translation and publication.
• Liaise with government, partners, and especially the private sector at county and national level to ensure appropriate audience outreach and to market Farm Africa widely.
• Design and create innovative promotional materials including reports, factsheets, graphics, PowerPoint presentations, note cards, flyers, etc.
• Coordinate communication activities with other members of the global communications team based in London and Addis Ababa.
• Work with UK communications to manage the Kenya sections of Farm Africa website.
• Work with project coordinators to develop, implement and maintain online content for the website, such as blogposts and news stories, and content for social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Support effective internal communications by ensuring appropriate materials are available for the wider programmes teams.
• Assist with donor and consultant reports, including copy editing, formatting, designing covers and graphics, preparing short summary briefs, etc.
• Create and deliver content – stories, photos, video, quotes, and other information that helps the organization build and nurture relationships with donors and the general public, globally.
• Design, write and edit publications such as newsletters, annual report, brochures, policy planning reports, etc.
• Ensure that all content deliverables comply with branding guidelines, data protection, safeguarding standards, donors’ visibility requirements and other controls in the organization.
• Contribute to the global External Relations team by identifying, collecting and updating case studies and stories from the field.
• Generate compelling marketing collateral to support Farm Africa fundraising initiatives in country.
• Collect high resolution images that demonstrate Farm Africa’s work and successes and ensure they are accessible across the organisation by uploading them to the organisation’s photo library.
• Assist with promotional field visits by the External Relations team, supporters and others, covering advance planning with project staff and beneficiaries and as appropriate, accompanying the field visit.
• Help in selecting and rolling out existing or new internal communications tools (in partnership with Monitoring Evaluation & Learning and IT), and train senior leaders and staff in effective communications techniques and usage of tools. Support internal response to crisis situations which affect and the organization’s reputation.
• Develop and deliver training to staff on presentation skills, photography, promotional writing, strategic messaging etc.
• Degree level qualification in relevant area eg communications, journalism, public relations, graphic design or related field.
• Knowledge and a good command of English and Kiswahili languages, design and editing tools eg in Design, Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.
• Experience in photography and capturing images for promotional purposes
• Three years’ related experience in communications, media or marketing job
• Prior experience with an NGO or private sector company, ideally with linkages to the agriculture sector
• Excellent written and spoken English, with strong oral presentation, writing, editing and facilitation skills.
• Ability to communicate complex information and messages clearly through written content and visual materials across various media, including reports, presentations, workshops and videos.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to develop creative and innovative solutions.
• Strong interviewing skills for gathering case studies, success stories and other relevant information.