Communications Officer CAMFED

JOB OPPORTUNITY IN CAMFED ZAMBIA

About CAMFED:

CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) is an award-winning organization tackling poverty and inequality by supporting girls in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe to go to school, thrive, and become leaders and change makers in their communities. Our unique, grassroots-led model has been honored with the 2020 Yidan Prize for Education Development (the world’s largest education prize), the 2021 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize (the world’s largest annual humanitarian award) and was selected by The Audacious Project (housed at TED) in 2023 as one of the biggest, boldest solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. CAMFED has achieved unprecedented results in improving education outcomes among some of the world’s most disadvantaged young people, and supporting young women to create the future they imagine — for themselves, for their communities, and for Africa.

CAMFED has a reputation for being innovative, resourceful, and smart, and has attracted extensive support from a high-profile network that spans government, celebrity, and business.

Location: Lusaka, Zambia (Hybrid)

About You:

Are you a dynamic, skilled and well-rounded Communications professional, passionate about gender equality and social justice? Are you looking for a role you can shape in close collaboration with peers across the continent and globally? Are you a keen story-teller, who knows how to create and package compelling content for diverse audiences, platforms and channels, while always staying true to the core values of the organization you represent? If you are agile yet detail-oriented, and as comfortable lifting up the voices of young people as you are supporting colleagues’ advocacy efforts with governments and strategic partners, then this may be the position for you.

About our Communications Function:

CAMFED not only revolutionizes how girls’ education is delivered, but also differentiates itself in its communications, which are designed to reflect our unique model and ethos across platforms and partnerships — with accountability to the girl and safeguarding at the core — and a non-exploitative, ‘decolonizing’ emphasis on African women’s expertise and leadership.

We highlight this model by lifting up the voices and underscoring the activism of the girls we serve, and the young women leaders they become, across platforms and constituencies.

Our communications team is a warm and friendly, deeply committed global team, working collaboratively across our consortium. Our content is co-created with and informed by the girls and young women we serve. CAMFED International acts as a convening force and ensures all external communications reach the highest standards of safeguarding, while centering the voices and expertise of the girls we serve and the young women who lead our movement, as well as highlighting our partnerships from community to global level as we work together to transforms education systems to better serve the needs of all children.

About This Role:

The Communications Officer will lead the communication function at CAMFED Zambia, collaborating with the Regional Head of Communications and the global communications, digital marketing, and development teams, elevating the voices and expertise of our clients and CAMFED Association leaders, and supporting CAMFED’s strategic plan objectives. You will develop trusting working relationships with our clients (girls and young women), colleagues, community stakeholders, the media and strategic partners to ensure effective and consistent messaging and visibility for our model.

You will need to appreciate the deep and nuanced context in which we operate, ensuring that communications safeguard and promote the best interest of our clients and graduates in the CAMFED Association, and protect CAMFED’s values, principles and reputation.

You will ensure adherence to CAMFED’s ethos, brand, messaging, and safeguarding principles, and define, create, edit and contribute to materials for local and national use. You will support colleagues at advocacy events and help to develop others’ communications capacity. As the team develops, you will line manage communications colleagues, contributing to their personal growth and professional development.

Main areas of focus:

Managing national communications and advocacy in support of CAMFED’s strategy – focusing on girls’ education, women’s leadership, and education systems transformation through strategic partnerships; Developing and implementing the advocacy and communications strategy for CAMFED Zambia; Working closely with the National Director and program, evaluation and learning colleagues to develop and package compelling content for key audiences, including clients and CAMFED Association members, district partners, government partners, the media, strategic and donor partners. Supporting CAMFED spokespeople at district and national events and meetings; Ensuring consistency in messaging, content and brand representation.

Key Responsibilities:

Communications Planning:

• Develop and implement a comprehensive communication plan aligned with CAMFED’s regional and global strategies, goals and objectives.
• Provide leadership and guidance to colleagues supporting the communications function to ensure consistency in messaging and brand representation.

Global Collaboration:

• Liaise closely with regional and global communications teams to align national communication efforts with regional and global initiatives.
• Participate in global communication planning sessions and contribute national insights.

Partner and stakeholder engagement:

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including local media, local community representatives, communications contacts in government ministries, civil society, corporate and other philanthropic partner and advocacy organisation.
• Support CAMFED Zambia’s representatives in their advocacy and as spokespersons at national and regional events.
• Respond to queries from and engage with the Zambian public.

Content:

• Commission, develop, write, edit and package compelling content for various platforms, ensuring it resonates with diverse audiences across the country, and aligns with CAMFED’s values, communications policies and strategy.
• Work with program and district teams to further streamline content collection and curation.
• Coordinate and liaise with external agencies (e.g. public relations, events, photography & videography), ensuring communications policies and brand guidelines are adhered to.
• Collaborate with the global communications team to leverage content for international campaigns.
• Provide the global communications team with ‘live’ updates from relevant events and meetings by sharing photos, short videos and/or written snippets.
• Look after and coordinate the procurement of communications equipment.

Media & PR

• Cultivate and maintain relationships with local and national media outlets and maintain and update the media list.
• Develop and distribute media releases/pitches in collaboration with the Regional Head of Communications or PR agencies/specialists.
• Deal with media enquiries.
• Work with the global communications team to ensure a steady stream of CAMFED spokespeople, who have the support and media training they need to confidently represent CAMFED Zambia and the CAMFED Association
• Introduce journalists to CAMFED representatives at conferences and events.
• Support CAMFED Association members and other spokespeople to prepare for media interviews and coordinate media requests, including film projects.
• Support CAMFED’s social media ambassadors with guidance and support, in close collaboration with the global communications team.

Crisis Communication:

• If required, facilitate CAMFED Zambia’s crisis communications, working closely with the Regional Head of Communications and CAMFED Zambia’s leadership, upholding CAMFED’s values, principles, accountability, and safeguarding.
• Provide guidance to colleagues on handling communications during crisis.

Internal Communication:

• Facilitate effective internal communication among staff, ensuring everyone is well-informed about organizational activities and initiatives.
• Collaborate with program teams to gather information for communication materials.
• Support with documentation and minuting of high-level meetings (e.g. Board meetings)

Event Management:

• Support the planning and execution of events to promote CAMFED’s mission and engage with the community.
• Coordinate participation in regional conferences, workshops, and other relevant events.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Track and evaluate the impact of communication strategies, adjusting approaches as needed.
• Prepare regular reports on communication activities and outcomes for internal and external stakeholders.

Training and Development:

• Identify training and development for colleagues supporting the communications function, working closely with the regional and global communications leads to address these.
• Support or conduct workshops and training sessions to enhance the skills and knowledge of colleagues and CAMFED Association members.

Professional Experience and Qualifications:

Required

• A Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience in Communications, Public or International Relations, Journalism, or a related field
• Fluency in English, with excellent communications skills, and the ability and confidence to communicate at all levels.
• Excellent writing and editing skills, with a track record of authoring news items, blogs and/or stories and social media content.
• Excellent organizational, prioritizing, and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail
• A proactive, positive approach with the ability to self-manage and work with urgency to seize opportunities.
• Excellent collaboration and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across borders and cultures.
• A strong understanding of the cultural and socio-political landscapes in the region
• A track record of working with government Ministries or entities, especially those focusing on education, youth, women/girls (highly desirable), as well as with board members and/or civil society as well as corporate partners.
• Skills in packaging communications for different audiences
• Deep awareness of sensitivities when working with vulnerable families and communities, as well as with national governments
• Ability to identify and support CAMFED champions who can speak confidently on diverse platforms.
• A track record of working with media houses, supporting story pitches and looking at issues from fresh angles
• A commitment and passion for CAMFED’s values, mission and vision and excellent judgement when it comes to centering the voice, expertise and power of young people and their communities in our communications, with a keen eye on privacy and safeguarding

Technical skills:

• A track record of working on compelling storytelling projects.
• WordPress skills, or experience with other content management systems, with the ability to quickly pick up Web-based content management systems.
• High competence in Google workspace and/or other cloud-based applications for real-time collaboration
• A background or interest in digital marketing, film or photography

Desired

• Working knowledge of using systems and databases to support data analytics.
• Proven leadership skills, including managing and mentoring a team.
• Fluency in one or more local languages prevalent in our areas of operation
• A track record of using social media for issues-based advocacy or storytelling.
• Familiarity with video editing software
• Familiarity with photo editing software
• Familiarity with Salesforce or other customer relationship management tools
• A desire to be part of a fast-growing and dynamic movement dedicated to tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges including poverty, social injustice, gender inequality, and climate change.

Equality and Diversity at CAMFED:

CAMFED is committed to providing equality of opportunity and valuing diversity for all current and prospective staff, volunteers and Board members. We aim to ensure that this commitment, reinforced by our values, is embedded in our day-to-day working practices and our work together.