Plan International was founded over 75 years ago with a mission to promote and protect the rights of children. The organisation was set up by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge in 1937, with the original aim to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War. Langdon-Davies conceived the idea of a personal relationship between a child and a sponsor – a model that puts the child at the centre, and remains the core of what we do. Today, Plan International is a global organisation that is active in over 70 countries to advance children’s rights and equality for girls. Who We Are We work with communities around the world to end the cycle of poverty for children. We work with communities around the world to end the cycle of poverty for children. Founded over 70 years ago, Plan is a nearly $800 million organization often ranked among the top 10 international development agencies by reputation, size and scope. We work side-by-side with communities in 50 developing countries to end the cycle of poverty for children, developing solutions to ensure long-term sustainability. Our level of community engagement, long-term outlook and constant focus on the needs and priorities of children is unique among international development organizations. Our solutions are designed up-front to be owned by communities for generations to come and range from clean water and health care programs, to education projects and child protection initiatives. Community by community, Plan works to promise futures that are worthy of all children’s potential. Our Vision Our vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Our Mission Plan strives to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of vulnerable children in developing countries by: Enabling children, their families and their communities to meet basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies; Fostering relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries; and Promoting the rights and interests of the world’s children.
- Job Type: Full Time
- Qualification: BA/BSc/HND
- Location: Lagos
- Job Field: Media / Advertising / Branding , NGO/Non-Profit
The Deployable Communications Specialist is expected to work as an integral part of the country office. They are deployed to lead all communications for the response and support Plan International to communicate effectively with key stakeholders including the media, supporters and donors. The post holder will develop public messaging and create high-quality comms materials for use in Plan International’s global channels and across our network of National Organisations.
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
- This position may line manage in-country national communications specialists when on deployment.
- No budget responsibility is required for this position.
- Develops and maintains relationships with stakeholder groups both within Plan International and externally.
- May deploy at short notice to a Country Office for up to 4 months.
- The post is expected to be on deployment for up to 9 months per year.
- Reports to the Country Office when on deployment with a technical line report to the GH Head of Global Media.
- Regular interaction with GH media and digital teams and regional communications specialists, close collaboration with programme, Humanitarian, Advocacy and National Organisation communications colleagues.
ACCOUNTABILITIES
- Position Plan International as a key agency in the emergency response to help us raise funds.
- Develop the crisis communications plan, including key comms messaging, and update regularly so our external communications are aligned with our programme response and reflect the evolving situation.
- Advises County Management Team on comms and media approaches and opportunities.
- Primary contact in-country for setting up and managing media interviews.
- Develops and updates communications talking points.
- Develops skills of key staff to be confident and able to participate in media interviews.
- Develops strong content highlighting the impact of our programmatic response, and the humanitarian situation on the ground and reinforce. Plan International’s advocacy and policy messages
- Produces a range of compelling human interest child-focused content such as case studies, eyewitness accounts, blogs, first-person accounts, images, audio, video
- Ensure all content is available for everyone in the Plan International communications network to use by uploading all content in high resolution onto the global Media Bank or working closely with the GH Media Librarian to ensure that everything is available on the Media Bank
- Uses social media to highlight the humanitarian situation while in country
- Monitor the situation for challenges, risks, threats and opportunities related to the emergency context that may impact communications and public engagement approaches, messaging and operations
- Ensure brand visibility of Plan International where appropriate and promote the local partners we work with.
- Ensure that child protection guidelines for content are strictly adhered to including consent
- Look for opportunities to use developments and the international news agenda to drive positive and consistent messaging about Plan International which represents the organisation effectively and raises its profile and reputation as a principled humanitarian agency.
- Liaise with journalists/correspondents, manage media requests and provide spokespersons with briefing and talking points.
Safeguarding
- Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
KEY RELATIONSHIPS
The post holder will need to be an excellent team worker who can operate in a large organisation and deliver results by collaboratively working with others as well as autonomously.
Internal
- Work closely with humanitarian, regional and country-based colleagues in the assigned regions; build relations and offer guidance, support and coaching as required.
- Work collaboratively and supportively with other teams, National Organisations, Liaison Offices, partner organisations and external contacts.
- Work positively with other Communication Department colleagues – including the video unit, multimedia archivist, digital and internal communications teams as well as with freelance photographers and filmmakers in creating effective press packages and content.
External
- Proactively develop and strengthen productive relationships with key global media contacts and outlets in assigned regions and specialist areas.
- Managing and overseeing the work of freelancers, including photographers, videographers and comms consultants.
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Essential
- Able and willing to deploy at short notice to humanitarian crises.
- Substantial experience working in journalism, media relations or PR at an international level.
- Excellent verbal and writing skills in English with the ability to quickly translate complex information into strong messages and compelling content.
- Track record of writing news articles, features, picture stories, op-eds and press releases and developing vlogs and visual content.
- Multimedia skills, including photography and filming.
- Proven success at pitching stories to the media and working with journalists.
- Strong understanding of international humanitarian and development issues and rights-based work.
- Practical experience working in complex emergency settings.
- Practical experience with and ability to organise media visits, set up interviews and brief spokespeople.
- Track record of handling complex, sensitive, and fast-moving situations and working in high-pressure environments with tight deadlines.
- Good understanding of social media and digital channels.
- Keeps up to date with key humanitarian and international development issues and trends and can spot new opportunities as they arise.
- Strong organisational skills to deal with a complex work environment.
- Work enthusiastically as part of a team and forms effective and constructive working relationships across the whole organisation and wider network within the sector.
- Good understanding of humanitarian values, principles, the Humanitarian Charter and Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief.
- Committed to actively upholding Plan International’s vision, values and behaviours and policies, including the Say Yes! To Keeping Children Safe Policy.
Desirable
- Fluency in English and at least one other language (e.g., French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese)
Method of Application
Interested and qualified? Go to Plan International on jobs.plan-international.org to apply
