Media and Communications Officer

Position Overview

Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin in the southeast of Madagascar, this role provides support with the media and communications tasks required to run the NGO. The successful candidate will work with both National and International staff to assist on a wide variety of tasks, from managing our range of social media platforms, creating digital media for marketing and social media purposes and day-to-day administration tasks. The role is predominantly office based with some ad-hoc travel to our rural projects. The diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for an early career communications and media professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development work.

About the organisation

SEED Madagascar is a British Charity working in partnership with communities in the south east of Madagascar. We integrate high quality community health, sustainable livelihoods, education infrastructure and conservation programmes to support long term, sustainable change and add to international best practice through research and publication across all of our programmatic areas.

Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar *Timeframe:*18 months extendable *Contract:*Local salary, up to £1000 contribution for a return flight and up to £600 contribution towards insurance

Duties and responsibilities

• Coordinate social media, website and newsletter content with staff across all departments in line with SEED’s strategy
• Develop and edit content, ensuring different platforms are used to best advantage SEED’s positioning
• Provide timely, day to day monitoring and replying to questions and debates across platforms
• Train and mentor staff to produce interesting content showcasing SEED’s work across all communication platforms
• Development and provide review of SEED’s Communications and Visual Media Policy and procedures including compliance with data protection and consent guidelines
• Work with Project Officers to storyboard and develop content as well as engaging and creative social media and awareness-raising campaigns
• Shoot and edit visual content that documents project activities at a national and international level
• Support the review and evaluation of communications and marketing strategies
• Monitor and evaluate performance across social media platforms against marketing KPIs
• Lead travel to field sites to generate content to be used on social media and other outlets
• Build capacity within the wider team, improving communication between teams internally and with external partners
• Promote and publicise the organisation through blogs and articles on external platforms
• Create partnerships and build networks across all communication mediums
• Work with the IT Officer to maintain and advance the organisation’s website
• Ensure distinctive and consistent brand identity across all external outputs
• Ensure all of SEEDs policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing and anticorruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times
• Complete other ad-hoc tasks as required by the Operations Manager, or Director of Programmes and Operations to further the aims and work of the organisation.

Person specification

• Demonstrate a working knowledge of high-quality photo and video production
• Willingness to develop visual content editing skills with software including photoshop
• Be able to communicate the organisation’s ethos and mission to national and international audiences through photography, videography and writing
• Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
• Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
• Previous experience of managing social media content, marketing or promotion
• knowledge of PPC and strategy development being desirable but not essential
• Demonstrate an interest in conservation and community development
• Always demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for the organisation
• Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations
• Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures and work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers.
• Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect.
• Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO.
• Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEEDs policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately.
• Have a flexible and patient attitude.
• Have excellent problem-solving skills.
• Be able to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Be capable and comfortable adapting to life in a less developed country with sometimes basic living conditions
• Be fluent in English to a high standard. Basic working knowledge of French is desirable though not essential

Practicalities

The successful candidate will need to be equipped with their own laptop computer (non-tablet).

How to apply

Interested applicants should send a CV and covering letter in English outlining how their skills and experience match the requirements in the job description criteria to SEED Director of Programmes and Operations, Lisa Bass, at [email protected]

Applications deadline: 31st October 2022. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis throughout this period. Long-listed applicants will have an initial informal online chat with Madagascar-based staff. Short-listed applicants will then be offered a formal interview with the London team.

SEED Madagascar actively encourages equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and aims to create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimisation, and unlawful discrimination, where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued.