‘ outstanding work to help people around the world survive through a crisis, build better lives, and transform their communities for good. The team strives to raise Mercy Corps’ public profile and supports the agency’s fundraising and advocacy efforts. The team primarily engages with international media and U.S./European national and regional media but also works with community groups and influencers in key markets.

The Position

As an integral member of the global communications team, the Regional Communications Advisor will focus on raising the profile and influence of Mercy Corps in Africa through earned media, messaging, and storytelling for defined issues and topics to our global target markets and within the regions we work.

The Communications Advisor will work closely with the regional team leader and country leaders in the development and implementation of the regional communications strategy, ensuring it is adaptive to changing external environments.

The Advisor will stay abreast of the media landscape in Mercy Corps regions and support the team to anticipate and respond to news cycle moments and land media coverage in Mercy Corps’ global and regional target markets. The Advisor is expected to demonstrate initiative and be a self-starter who will generate ideas and drive content forward, providing compelling case studies, images and videos, spotting strong news lines, and writing engaging headlines, messaging and news content.

Essential Responsibilities

MEDIA RELATIONS & COMMUNICATIONS

• Build relationships with regional and international journalists, including non-traditional media influencers, who can help tell the Mercy Corps story.
• Serve as a strategic advisor and partner to country teams and liaison to the regional and global communications function and other critical stakeholders within the organization.
• Act as a resource for country-level communicators on communications best practices, materials, key lines, strategy, and media advice.
• Contribute to the development and execution of the regional communications strategy in alignment with the global strategy, providing insights on West African/ Sahel priorities.
• Develop all elements of media outreach plans. Write, edit and distribute newsworthy press releases, pitches, opinion pieces, talking points and other media relations and communications materials.
• Generate story ideas; liaise with program staff and others to keep up to date on potential stories that you can pitch to the media.
• Deploy to program locations when needed to research stories, conduct media outreach, and gather stories and visual assets.
• Stay abreast of the media landscape in Mercy Corp’s programmatic regions across Africa.
• Serve as deputy to Africa regional communications and media manager, stepping up to support Africa communications and media functions as needed when manager is out of office or on travel.

COMMUNICATIONS ANALYSIS & OPERATIONS

• Conduct media coverage analyses and report on trends in mainstream and social media.
• Monitor the news cycle daily and update the team on relevant topics, drafting responses to emergency news cycle moments as appropriate. Produce media and peer coverage scans as needed.
• Support with risk mitigation media strategy on reputational risk issues, in collaboration with the Regional Media Manager and the leadership team.
• Research and create targeted media lists to support media outreach.
• Act as a resource for country-level communicators on communications best practices, materials, key lines, strategy, and media advice.
• Develop materials and provide trainings to build the capacity of communications function in the region within program and country teams.
• Provide media training to country-level and regional spokespeople.
• Support team-wide reporting and analytics with the accurate and on-time recording of interviews and other journalist interactions in Muck Rack’s Public Relations management platform.
• Provide regular refreshes/updates to relevant reporter lists on Muck Rack covering regional or thematic beat and annual updates to regional priority media lists.

Supervisory Responsibility

None.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Regional Media and Communications Manager

Works Directly With: Regional leadership team, Country Leadership team, global communications team, global digital marketing, brand marketing and fundraising teams; other departments across the agency, including programs, research and technical support unit.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, and other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in designing, monitoring, and evaluating our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• BA/S or equivalent in journalism, marketing, public relations, or international relations required; MA/S in related fields preferred.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and French is required.
• University degree in a relevant subject or equivalent field experience.
• At least five years of professional experience in media relations in an international development agency and experience in dealing in the international media environment OR as a journalist in a credible news organization.
• Established track record of generating positive media coverage; relationships with media in or reporting for regional or international news markets.
• Superior English and French written and verbal communications skills are a must; ability to “translate” technical language into compelling stories needed.
• Ability to work independently and take initiative.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• Demonstrates excellent judgment and decision making in complex, fast-paced environments. Experience in international development or knowledge of development issues preferred.
• Knowledge of photography and video editing software is an added advantage.
• Willingness to learn, grow and collaborate with others, strong team player.

Success Factors

This role calls for an extremely organized, savvy communications expert who is an excellent storyteller and writer with a nose for news. She/he needs to have experience operating in fluid and complex humanitarian emergencies, a solid understanding of the humanitarian sector, experience working with frontline programs, and a sense of spotting compelling media stories and creative ways of telling stories under challenging circumstances.

S/he needs to prioritize, multi-task and organize many urgent tasks, often under tight deadlines. S/he should be a self-starter who demonstrates creativity and flexibility, as well as a proven ability to learn quickly and be accountable for results.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position will be based in West Africa, ideally in Dakar or Lagos/Abuja, but could be flexible to other locations where Mercy Corps is present.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Staff are expected to conduct themselves professionally and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination based on race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Applicants are advised that Mercy Corps does not require any payment or expense during the recruitment process.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we meet through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding preventing sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the U.N. Secretary-General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.