Communications Specialist - Winrock International

Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources.

Winrock is implementing the four-year, Making Advances to Eliminate Child Labor in More Areas with Sustainable Integrated Efforts (MATE MASIE) project.

The project is funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) and will strengthen capacity, connections, and accountability across child labor enforcement and monitoring within cocoa cooperatives in Ghana and will build the capacity of cooperatives to support vulnerable member households directly and by linking their members with other service providers.

Summary of Assignment: 

The Communications Specialist will lead the design and implementation of the project communications strategy to disseminate information to targeted audiences through a variety of channels and promote sensitization and awareness-raising on child labor, along with providing technical assistance to four cocoa cooperative grantees to do so and supporting the four cooperatives to develop and implement annual communications plans; coordinate outreach events; and manage the project’s social media platforms.

This is a local/national position and is not eligible for international allowances

Detailed Description of Duties:

• Lead the MATE MASIE project team to conduct a gap analysis to inform the development of the project communications strategy, which will disseminate information to targeted audiences through a variety of channels and promote sensitization and awareness-raising on child labor

• Support the four cocoa cooperative grantees to carry out an assessment to identify target audiences, understand their needs, what support they are currently receiving, and where gaps exist.
• Support cooperatives to develop and implement annual communications plans. The plans will include strategies for cooperatives’ contributions to government communication campaigns on child labor; sharing of Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) data with enforcement authorities; awareness-raising among cooperative members and local community members on child labor, the benefits of CLMRS, and available child labor remediation services; and information-sharing with cooperatives and other organizations on addressing child labor
• Based on the cooperatives’ annual communications plans, work with the cooperatives to develop messages and materials appropriate to their needs and provide technical assistance to use the messages for child labor awareness-raising and education.
• Work with cooperatives’ management to set up communications systems to reach the target audience.
• Train the cooperatives on various communications models and with follow-up technical support where needed.
• Conduct site visits and supports the cooperatives in the implementation of their annual communication plans and project team with the information.  
• In liaison with M&E Officer, project team, and key project stakeholders, support effective monitoring of the progress of cooperatives’ annual communication plans and adopt appropriate tools and methodology to collect and analyze required data.
• Develop field-based communication implementation guidelines for communicating the learnings and best practices on the project.
• Lead in preparing communications updates and materials and submit to the Project Director for approval and submission to Winrock home office and USDOL
• Build relationships with media service providers, government, private sector actors, and NGOs for support.
• Participate in stakeholder meetings on child labor at the district level to share relevant experiences and information for cross-learning and to provide technical advice to the project participants and stakeholders.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of three years of professional experience in communications work relevant to this project
• Proven experience developing and implementing communications strategies through a variety of means, such as traditional, digital, and social media, and/or storytelling.
• Ability to develop communications strategies using behavioral and social-change communication, including audience segmentation and social mobilization.
• Experience working on challenges in the cocoa industry is preferred.
• Knowledge of adolescent girls’ and women’s economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming, and labor issues is preferred.
• Fluency in English required