Communication Manager Jobs (East and Southern Africa) at Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests   and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

Why

To protect nature and improve lives it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How

Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.

Position summary:

The Communication Manager East and Southern Africa is responsible for developing and implementing a communication strategy for the East and Southern Africa region, with a particular focus on Kenya. The post holder is the first point of contact for the global Marketing & Communications team and works with the East and Southern Africa team to meet regional communication needs. The incumbent will advise and support local staff in the design and implementation of programs and communication initiatives, aligning with global communication strategy as well as institutional and donor requirements.

This position does not supervise any staff member.

Responsibilities:

• The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate:

Management, strategy and content generation

• Working in collaboration with the global Marketing and Communications team and other departments, in support of our global, regional and sub-regional strategic plans, the incumbent will lead the development and implementation of East and Southern Africa regional communications strategy with a particular focus on tea and coffee sectors in Kenya;
• Support communication needs of Country Directors and Project managers, take lead in development of   key messages, storytelling assets, branded items and other communication materials;
• Work with the global Marketing and communications team to ensure the work of the Rainforest Alliance in East and Southern Africa is well represented in all global communications (external and internal), gathering storytelling collateral, and advising on priorities;
• Monitoring media coverage in the region, being the first point of contact for local journalists and proactively cultivating and maintaining relationships with key regional media outlets;
• Work with reputation and media teams to monitor and manage reputational risks in the region;
• Actively contribute to and participate in internal management processes to evaluate and improve our communications approach, enhance internal knowledge transfer, and coach local staff to build capacity to communicate effectively;
• Represent the Rainforest Alliance as needed in meetings with collaborating businesses, organizations and other stakeholders when meetings relate to the communications and marketing strategies; and
• Participate and develop project proposals related to communications.

Qualifications:

• MSc or BS Degree in Communication, Marketing, Journalism or a similar field;
• Minimum of 7 years’ work experience in communications, including media relations and reputation management;
• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills;
• Written and verbal proficiency in English, French/Kiswahili is an added advantage;
• Knowledge of Agricultural/NGO sectors, sustainability and human rights issues is strongly preferred;
• Strong organizational skills to manage multiple priorities in a time sensitive manner;
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to interact culturally, linguistically, and diplomatically with diverse internal and external individuals;
• Initiative, self-motivated, resourceful, detail-oriented, dependable; and
• Available and willing to travel at least 20% of the time nationally and internationally.

Job level: 3A

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

Deadline:  April 26th 2023

Notes:

Only candidates authorized to work in Kenya will be considered for the position.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org

APPLICATION