Strategic Communications Consultant
Strategic Communications Consultant
Employer Active
Job Alert
You will be updated with latest job alerts via email
Share
Job Alert
You will be updated with latest job alerts via email
Not Disclosed
Salary Not Disclosed
1 Vacancy
Job Description
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
9 June 2025-23:59-GMT02:00 South Africa Standard Time (Johannesburg)WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race colour national origin ethnic or social background genetic information gender gender identity and/or expression sexual orientation religion or belief HIV status or disability.
ABOUT WFP
The World Food Programme is the worlds largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict disasters and the impact of climate change.
At WFP people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse committed skilled and high performing teams selected on merit operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment living WFPs values (Integrity Collaboration Commitment Humanity and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
To learn more about WFP visit our website: follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok.
WHY JOIN WFP
WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
WFP offers a highly inclusive diverse and multicultural working environment.
WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training accreditation coaching mentorship and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country regional and global offices around the world and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).
Job title: Strategic Communications Consultant
Duty Station: Johannesburg South Africa
Duration: 140 days until 31/12/2025
Contract type: When Actually Employed
Consultancy Reporting to: Head of Communications
Background
The African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a Specialised Agency of the African Union (AU) which offers an African solution to two of the continents most pressing challenges: climate change and disease outbreaks. It is mandated to work with AU member states to help plan prepare and respond to climate-induced disasters and disease outbreaks. The ARC mechanism which is a continental early response mechanism and index-based weather risk insurance pool is designed to improve the continents preparedness to respond to these threats by building the capacities of countries to effectively manage these risks towards the protection of lives and livelihoods of their most vulnerable populations. The ARC Groups value proposition brings together four critical elements of preparedness for member states: capacity building early warning risk pooling risk transfer brings with the aim to manage weather and disease risks by transferring the burden away from African governments to international addition to empowering member states with the skills they need to respond effectively it also directly links insurance payouts to pre-defined contingency plans for disasters exceeding an agreed threshold giving member states access to funds to facilitate early the process the goal is to incentivise governments to plan for and implement best-practice response mechanisms and ARCs mission is to serve African governments and their communities in reducing the financial impact of natural catastrophes. Pan-African solidarity in the creation of insurance pools like ARC is financially efficient as it provides immediate liquidity through the provision of insurance through the ARC Ltd the insurance affiliate of the Group. Since being founded in 2012 ARCs reach and impact has grown significantly covering more people with a diversified and innovative product offering that protects against droughts tropical cyclones and outbreaks and epidemic significantly contributing to improving food security and driving for sustainable development.
Responsibilities
The Strategic Communications Consultant will work with the Groups communications function to advance ARCs communications and advocacy efforts and enhance the Groups communications function. To accomplish this the role will also support the development and implementation of the Groups Communication Strategy ensuring that the needs of stakeholders are fully understood towards finding suitable world-class solutions. It will also ensure that ARC stories are told and shared by collating and consolidating these in a monthly newsletter. As part of supporting Group communications the role will be critical in the development of communication elements such as PR pieces OP-Eds etc. Over the years ARC has garnered extensive expertise and knowledge in the dynamic space of climate change and with a goal is to provide world class service to member states and other stakeholders progressively become a strong and credible voice in the Disaster Risk Management and Financing (DRMF) space in Africa and globally and showcasing ARC as an authority in Africas resilience building journey. To this end the primary role of the Strategic Communications Consultant will be to anchor the ARC leaderships efforts by ensuring that the organisation keeps abreast of developments in DRMF and can stay on top of new thinking in an era of a growing climate crisis and increasing incidents of disease outbreaks. Using innovative research tools and knowledge share platforms with stakeholders the function will elevate ARCs understanding of this dynamic space and showcase the Groups unique expertise and leadership in shaping Africas response to better serve our member states. It will play a strong advisory role on the strategic positioning of the ARC Group by working closely with ARC leadership to strengthen thought leadership knowledge share and strategic the process it will make recommendations for message and information development selection of communication methods and scheduling of messages. The role will ensure that ARC remains a leading voice on the African continent and globally by developing targeted messages to strategically position ARC in the DRMF environment with the goal to influence policy and support informed decision-making on the continent.
Additionally to support the Policy and Technical Services Department the Strategic Communication Consultant will be influential in the development of the ARC Group Strategy and other supporting strategies such as the Fundraising strategy to guide the organisations work and meet the needs of ARC member states with world-class solutions ensuring that all strategies are integrated progressive and reflect new thinking. It will ensure that the reporting to key stakeholders (the AU donor partners and the Board and its committees) showcases the evolution of the organisation its value in decreasing the vulnerability of African communities to disaster risks and its impact in building Africas resilience ensuring timely accurate and quality reporting. The Consultant will support fundraising efforts and the development of funding proposal concepts notes etc. The role will also ensure that the organisations reporting is accurate professional and timely and that all documents developed within the organisation maintain excellent standards. The role will also support ARC Agencys fundraising efforts by co-developing proposals with Senior Staff and ensuring high standards in all documentation to ensure ARC is positioned as a partner of choice to the donor community.
Accountabilities
The accountabilities and responsibilities of the Strategic Communications Consultant can be categorised under three sections:
Workstream to enhance the Groups communications function towards increasing brand visibility strengthening the Groups advocacy efforts and supporting the telling of ARC stories. Workstreams to provide expert strategic communications advise to the ARC leaderships office towards anchoring ARCs leadership in the DRMF space; Workstreams to provide strategic support to all the Policy and Technical Services Department and other Group functions to showcase ARCs work and contribute to the positioning of the organisation;
These are elaborated on as follows:
Workstreams to enhance the Groups communications function
- Support the implementation of ARC communications and advocacy strategy including the Institutional Communication and Communication for Development goals by working closely with Country Engagement teams and other units on the ground;
- With the Head of Comms facilitate ARCs social media plan by developing social media content and utilising platforms networks and partners to enhance coverage and support of ARCs activities;
- Work with the Communications function to collate ARC stories into the monthly ARC Newsletter;
- Support the development of ARCs contributions to publications and relevant fora
- Generate donor specific visibility content including text photos videos and audio for use across a range of integrated online platforms in order to support ARC donor-funded activities ensuring consistency with corporate messages;
- Support communications activities that enable informed decision making and ensures consistency of information presented to the media and other stakeholders;
- Ensure capacity building of ARC staff on all aspects of communication by providing advice and guidance to ensure that all activities meet desired standards of consistency quality and impact.
Workstreams to support the Group leadership
- Provide expert advice to the Group Director General and the leader as the leading face of the organisation to facilitate ARCs positioning and guide ARCs participation in continental and global events/platforms as opportunities for advocacy. The role will ensure adequate preparation for such events to optimise the platforms;
- Ensure that all documentation/ concept notes/ speeches/ facts for any event inspire confidence in ARC leadership when representing the organisation at the different fora further strengthening the positioning of the organisation;
- Undertake and manage extensive research aligned to the organisations work and to current themes in the DRMF landscape towards collating credible information that will enable informed decision making influence policy decisions and aid in the understanding of the dynamic climate space;
- Manage strategic communication from leadership through the development of researched thought leadership pieces and public relations content to position ARC as a leading provider of capacity building early warning systems risk analysis and risk transfer services to member states;
Workstreams to provide strategic support to the ARC Group Reporting and Advocacy
This role will support the Group particularly the Policy and Technical Services Department as follows:
- Work closely with all functions to design develop and implement an inclusive Group strategy that is aligned to the ARC mandate and responds to the needs of member states donor and technical partners and other stakeholders;
- Anchor ARCs fundraising efforts by leading the development of funding proposals/concept notes on identified leads in line with funder guidelines ensuring quality proposals timely submission of all documents and accurate responses to questions raised;
- Ensure timely reporting by the Group by consolidating key reports ensuring accuracy of information driving for professionalism in reports and adherence to set criteria;
- Lead the development of documentation to support the positioning of ARC and showcase the different expertise within the organisation;
- Provide strategic support to enhance the work done under the different ARC functions
- Contribute to effective organisational and timely preparation and distribution of information on ARC (products solutions workstreams etc.) ensuring stakeholders always have the most updated information;
- Work with Senior Management to produce the ARC Annual Biannual Donor Reports including content collection editing / writing design and dissemination of the progress made towards achieving ARCs vision and mission;
- Support ARC knowledge management initiatives and ARC client database management including the development of effective instruments and tools to ensure appropriate up-to-date information for internal and external use;
- Lead the production of reports briefs concept notes and correspondences from relevant units including copywriting copyediting and proofreading donor reports and strategy documents;
- Work with senior managers and technical experts within the organisation to develop research papers aligned to ARCs work - clearly outlining the objectives of the work and ensuring the credibility of these papers before publishing;
- Develop Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) in collaboration with senior managers to identify each countrys challenges and guide in-country initiatives thereby enabling customised solutions for member states.
Qualifications and Experience required
Education:
- Advanced University degree and relevant professional experience in communications or in a related field.
Experience:
- A minimum of 8 - 10 years in a professional communication role or related field;
- At least 8 - 10 years in a strategic role that contributes to an organisations overall vision and supports the Executive Teams communication goals.
Technical Skills & Knowledge:
- Strong writing skills in English is required;
- General ability to draft ideas and concepts clearly and concisely in written and oral form
- Proven ability to research analyse evaluate and synthesise information
- Strong planning and organisational skills
- Proven ability to effectively manage relationships with media representatives government officials and other partners
- Knowledge of relevant software internet navigation and various office applications
- Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organisation
Language:
- Fluency in oral and written English is required
- Fluency in oral and written French is an asset
WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK
WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.
Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation please contact:
NO FEE DISCLAIMER
The United Nations does not charge any application processing training interviewing testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee please disregard it. Furthermore please note that emblems logos names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.
REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate complete and includes your employment records academic qualifications language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
Once your profile is completed please apply and submit your application.
Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
Additional documents such as passport recommendation letters academic certificates etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
Please contact us at in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
Only shortlisted candidates will be notified
All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs job requirements merit and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse all forms of discrimination any kind of harassment sexual harassment and abuse of authority. Therefore all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) FAO Finance Committee WFP External Auditor WFP Audit Committee Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.
Required Experience:
Contract
Employment Type
Full Time
