Job Announcement: Communications and Public Relations Manager
Number of positions: 1
Location of the position: LFSA Central Office in Monrovia with frequent travel throughout the six target counties.
Program Overview
The Liberia Foundational Skills Activity (LFSA) is a USAID-funded five-year project designed to increase the percentage of Liberian children accessing primary school and meeting the government of Liberia’s learning standards especially in foundational English literacy. LFSA will improve access to primary education and learning outcomes in foundational English literacy by increasing on-time enrollment, enhancing age-appropriate placement in classrooms, providing contextually appropriate teaching and learning materials, and improving instructional delivery and teacher wellbeing. LFSA will equip key education ecosystem actors with improved capacity, opportunity, and motivation to achieve results.
Led by Chemonics International in Liberia, LFSA is implemented by a consortium of Liberian and international partners, including the Diversified Educators Empowerment Project (DEEP), Kid’s Educational Engagement Project (KEEP), WE-CARE, Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Liberia, Foundation for Research, Education, and Empowerment (FREE) Liberia, Mathematica, and One World Network of Schools (OWNOS). The project will be implemented in six counties: Montserrado, Bong, Margibi, Grand Bassa, Nimba, and Lofa.
LFSA is expected to make a difference in Grades 1-6 children’s learning outcomes through interventions targeting four key Results (Rs):
1.R1: Age six children are enrolled on time,
2.R2: Children are placed in developmentally or age-appropriate classrooms, including accelerated learning classes,
3.R3: Sufficient and contextually appropriate reading, teaching, and learning materials are available and used by learners, and
4.R4: Teachers consistently apply evidence-based and developmentally appropriate teaching practices and learning materials in the classroom
Position Description
The Communications and Public Relations Manager (CPRM) will work under the oversight of the Chief of Party to effectively execute the development and delivery of the LFSA communications strategy. This will entail production of high-quality communications materials including creation of impactful content, providing expert technical assistance to the mass enrollment campaigns, managing social media channels, coordinating events and engaging with local media outlets on program matters.
Job Summary/Responsibilities
The CPRM’ tasks will include:
Communications Planning/ Communications Systems Management
•Periodically update the communications strategy and execute it in compliance with the approved LFSA branding and marking plan.
•Develop LFSA’s communications systems and tools including templates that program staff can use for ongoing compilation of communications data (e.g. anecdotal content and corresponding photos) as well as branded templates (i.e. letters for communicating with external stakeholders, PowerPoint presentations, etc) for program staff’ use in engagement with stakeholders.
•Manage, organize and update LFSA photo library, ensuring that a selection of high-quality photographs with appropriate content are available for LFSA’s reporting and public information needs.
•Solicit input from various LFSA offices, teams, and partners to help establish and maintain a database of content (including photos) needed for timely production of materials needed for external communication.
•Monitor and ensure a regular supply of current communications and outreach materials in all LFSA offices.
•Develop and manage a digital LFSA Newsletter system that enables the program to systematically communicate with stakeholders about program successes.
•Provide support to Senior Management in the execution of other unforeseen communications tasks which may include crisis communications activities.
Creation of Content and Production of Communications and Outreach Materials
•Write high-quality communications content such as social media posts and success stories to enhance visibility and messaging about the donor’s bilateral assistance to Liberia’s education sector.
•Manage the production and timely procurement of communications materials such as banners, flyers, brochures, t-shirts, caps, etc. in compliance with USAID approved branding and marking plan to guide LFSA communication practices.
•Take high quality photographs and use them to enhance the quality of success stories and social media posts about the event.
•Assist LFSA senior management team in writing and editing technical deliverable documents such as technical reports, quarterly reports, work plans and presentations.
•Manage the review of all external programmatic letters for stakeholders drafted by different technical leads before they are signed by the Chief of Party or designated Senior Manager.
•Write up press releases for use with the media as well as speeches and/ or talking points for use by Senior Management in external events.
•Write and organize background briefings for the media.
Public/Media Relations and Event Management
•Review daily press for development topics of interest to LFSA as well as for any information published about LFSA and communicate it accordingly to Senior Management and other technical/program leads.
•Manage the set up and coordination of press engagements and field events related to LFSA activities.
•Help prepare and update a standard information package on the LFSA activities for briefing and distribution to the high-level program.
•Coordinate with different technical program leads to ensure appropriate media coverage of LFSA mass activities such as county/nation-wide training of education system actors.
•Coordinate with government/Ministry of Education stakeholders in the joint organization of specific events supported by LFSA such as International Literacy Day, etc.
•Manage the communication logistics of the future LFSA closeout event.
Technical assistance to the LFSA Enrollment Campaign
•Coordinate with LFSA Result 1 partners and support the development of audience-sensitive enrollment campaign messages aligned to the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) National Enrollment Drive.
•Provide support to partner organizations to conduct a rapid analysis of target audiences and their communication preferences.
•Support partner organizations to produce campaign messages tailored to target audiences and their communication preferences.
•Support the dissemination of enrollment campaign messages through different channels.
•Work with LFSA technical team (including MERL) and partner organizations to develop tools and support their use in conducting communication audits to rapidly assess the effectiveness of disseminated campaign messages and recommend improvements accordingly.
Management of Digital and Social Media
•Create and operate LFSA’s social media accounts in compliance with USAID social media procedures.
•Formulate high-quality written and visual content (in coordination with technical leads and Senior Management) to be pushed out on social media accounts and the LFSA and/or implementation partners’ websites.
•Monitor, listen and respond to social media users’ comments, tags, or direct mail.
•Liaise with HQ/PMU to ensure special content is posted on the Prime Implementer’s website.
•Ensure the LFSA information displayed on Chemonics’ website is fresh, informative, and appealing.
•Provide technical assistance to program staff on how to use Google drive for external sharing of heavy content files.
•Coordinate with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) team to generate quantitative data needed for specifical digital communication purposes.
Required Qualifications
•Education: A master’s degree in communications, public relations, journalism, business administration, or any closely related field.
•Prior Work Experience:
oAt least 4-5 years of relevant work experience in the field of organizational communications or public relations demonstrating increasing responsibilities managing program communications.
oAt least 2 years’ experience working with a USAID implementing partner or other donor-funded international development organizations.
oSolid experience with social media tracking tools, CMS systems, and digital content creation is highly desirable.
Job Knowledge:
oPractical knowledge of MS Office applications, working knowledge of HTML/web design and other media software packages (i.e. Photoshop, video editing software) is required.
oExperience managing and using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for organizational communications and outreach is required. The successful candidate must be capable of crafting information messages in various media formats (press releases, websites, video, etc.) targeting a variety of audiences.
oSolid experience with media relations and events planning.
•Skills and Abilities:
oExcellent written and oral English communication skills and interpersonal skills are required.
oSolid technical writing skills integrating qualitative and quantitative data in success story telling.
oStrong organizational skills, analytical abilities and initiative to prioritize and complete tasks and manage multiple projects with minimal supervision.
oAbility to establish and maintain collegial relations with press and media contacts, and to use sound judgment in presenting development programs to the press, media and external audiences.
oExcellent inter-personal skills to ensure effective team relations.
oStrong organizational skills to effectively plan a variety of different events directed at promoting publicity for donor funded projects.
oAbility to multi-task and understand the needs and interests of various domestic and international stakeholders is required.
oAdvanced skills in photography and use of photography in success story telling.
Application instructions:
Please submit your application (cover letter and CV articulating how you meet all requirements) via this link: liberiafsa@chemonics.com. Applications must be submitted by January 24, 2025. Kindly do not make any telephone inquiries.
Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors. Chemonics values the protection of your personal data. If you are in the European Union, please read our EU Recruiting Data Privacy Notice to learn how we process personal data.