It’s an exciting time to be part of Habitat for Humanity International, HFHI, in Africa! Habitat has recently centered its operations for Africa in Nairobi, Kenya as part of its Global Impact 2025 initiative. This is a dramatic change initiative aimed at tripling our scale, impact and funding by 2025. As part of our rapidly growing regional team, you will be a critical member in helping Habitat realize that vision.

The Africa hub manages Habitat’s operations across the region, including Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Malawi. Nairobi provides access to some of the largest institutions and organizations shaping eastern Africa today. The Africa team plays a pivotal role in building Habitat’s brand in the market and helping elevate housing as a critical part of the solution to the complex challenges facing this region.

We are looking for candidates who are driven, resourceful and want desperately to help as many families as possible build strength and stability through housing. We want people who are uncompromisingly committed to Habitat for Humanity’s vision and core values of courage (to do what’s right), accountability (to take personal responsibility for the mission and our actions) and humility (to remember that we are part of something bigger than ourselves). Together, we will achieve a world where everyone has a decent place to live. www.habitat.org

ABOUT THE ROLE:

The Africa Communications Director leads communications related to Habitat’s work in sub-Saharan Africa, promoting the Habitat brand with targeted audiences in the region and around the world in concert with Habitat’s overall brand strategy. This key role is a member of the management team responsible for overall strategic direction and the effectiveness of Habitat’s work in the region. Reporting to the Senior Director, International Communications, based in the US, this position manages the creation of compelling content and identifies strategically important platforms, channels and initiatives in the region for delivering that content to advance Habitat’s brand awareness, advocacy efforts, programs and fundraising through Habitat’s global donor network. The Communications Director also works closely with the Africa Hub Senior Director to support regional events, message development and other efforts to strengthen Habitat’s positioning in sub-Saharan Africa. Both strategic and hands-on, this role is responsible for developing collaborative relationships at various levels of the organization, from other Global Communications department staff to fundraising, advocacy and program staff to leadership and communications leads at national organizations, branches and other Habitat offices in the region.

LOCATION AND TRAVEL: This role is based at our office in Nairobi, Kenya with up to 15% international travel.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Communications strategy (20%)

* Collaborate closely with the Senior Director, International Communications, and others on the International Communications team to develop and implement aspects of the international communications strategy related to sub-Saharan Africa.

* Work with the Africa Hub Senior Director and management team to develop communications strategies that help advance regional initiatives related to brand-building, programs, advocacy and fundraising, with a special emphasis on meeting the needs of Habitat’s global network of donors and supporters.

Storytelling and Brand-Building (25%):

* Lead the development of content for key communications platforms, ensuring projects are consistent with organizational brand strategy and Africa Hub strategy.

* Play a lead role in identifying the communications channels, platforms and events in the region that can best deliver Habitat’s content to audiences that are strategically important for brand positioning, fundraising, advocacy and/or programs. This includes securing media coverage of Habitat’s work and strategic initiatives across broadcast, radio, print and online media in sub-Saharan Africa.

Program Communications (25%)

* Help interpret Habitat’s programming and expertise for strategically important audiences by preparing both the messaging and the messengers.

* Support Habitat fundraisers with the necessary communications collateral related to programs in sub-Saharan Africa so that they can continue to gain support from Habitat’s global network of donors.

* Support subject matter experts and other program staff by editing presentations or developing talking points.

Regional Signature Events (20%)

* Lead on communications planning and implementation for the regional signature events such as Habitat’s Africa Housing Forum, AfriCities Summit and others.

Social Media (10%)

* Support social media efforts related to sub-Saharan Africa. This includes developing regional and local content/materials, working with national organizations and International Communications colleagues to ensure timely, accurate, compelling information about Habitat’s work in Africa is shared across a range of social media platforms.

* Support national organizations in Africa in their social media activities and increase supporter engagement.

REQUIREMENTS:

* Bachelor’s degree in communications or related field.

* 10+ years of related experience in regional communications work across multiple countries, especially managing regional projects with multiple stakeholders.

* 3+ years of experience with media relations in sub-Saharan Africa.

* Experience developing successful communications strategies that help advance both larger organizational objectives and those of a particular team or initiative within an organization.

* Proficiency in building creative concepts and demonstrated ability to see storytelling projects through to completion, including both written and visual aspects.

* Proven ability to write, edit, evaluate and curate strong content and design, while meeting brand, marketing and messaging needs.

* Strong communications and problem-solving skills.

* Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural competencies and organizational and project management skills that demonstrate an ability to successfully collaborate with a variety of departments and stakeholders.

* Active support of HFHI values and commitments:
Humility – We are part of something bigger than ourselves.
Courage – We do what’s right, even when it is difficult or unpopular.
Accountability – We take personal responsibility for Habitat’s mission.
Safeguarding - HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguarding our intended beneficiaries, their communities (especially children), and all those with whom we work. In line with the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, all staff must pass a thorough background screening and will be held accountable to upholding our policies around ethical behavior, including safeguarding and whistleblowing.

PREFERRED:

* Previous nonprofit or NGO experience.

* Experience with international development and social change.

* Deep knowledge of and experience in sub-Saharan Africa.

DEADLINE: Apply online by 30 November 2021.

Background Information - Job-specific

The Centre for Humanitarian Data is focused on increasing the use and impact of data in the humanitarian sector. It is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and is based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Centre’s services are available to humanitarian partners and OCHA staff in the field and at headquarters.

The Centre focuses on four areas: data services, data responsibility, data literacy, and predictive analytics. The data services workstream focuses on the management of the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform, the development and use of the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) data standard, and support to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). The data responsibility worksteam focuses on the development and adoption of guidelines and different techniques for the secure management of data, both within OCHA and the broader humanitarian system. The data literacy workstream focuses on improving the data skills of technical and non-technical humanitarians through the delivery of training programmes and sharing of capacity-building material. The predictive analytics workstream focuses on model development, including threshold and trigger design for anticipatory action, and quality assurance of partner models through validation and peer review.

The Centre is looking for a Data Manager to support data-contributor organisations with sharing data on HDX. The role will primarily be responsible for ensuring the quality of data shared on the platform, offering data visualization and standardization support, and maintaining good working relationships with data contributors. We are looking for a candidate who is self-motivated, enjoys working with data and the people who produce it, and can thrive in an international, remote, and multidisciplinary team.
Reporting Relationships

Data Manager will be a part of the Centre’s Data Partnerships Team and will report to the Head of the Data Partnerships Team who is based in Geneva. The Data Manager will be expected to work closely with the rest of the HDX team and with information/data managers at headquarters and field locations.

Functional Responsibilities

The Data Manager will be responsible for the following:

• Work with partner organizations to support their data sharing efforts on HDX.


• Develop data visualizations and analysis for data-sharing organizations.


• Support daily maintenance of HDX by creating new organization pages, reviewing the quality of new datasets, adding gallery items to featured datasets, and archiving out-of-date data.


• Curate the HDX Data Grids by focusing on specific countries or sub categories and helping to increase data completeness in priority humanitarian operations.


• Identify potential data contributors and work to bring new organizations into the HDX community.


• Promote the use of the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) data standard to increase interoperability of data from spreadsheets and systems.


• Work with HDX data contributors and data users to explore opportunities for data integration and backend development; propose improvements to existing processes and systems.


• Provide training to partners on the HDX platform, data cleaning and data visualization tools.


• Attend meetings and workshops to represent HDX and the Centre.


• Participate in team and partner meetings as required.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

*Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply
*Candidates with no United Nations or UNOPS experience are strongly encouraged to apply

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) preferably in statistics, mathematics, economics, computer science, or related field.


• A first-level university degree in similar fields in combination with two (2) years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

Required

• A minimum of 2 years of experience using spreadsheets, statistical software and/or open source tools to analyze, evaluate and visualize data is required.


• Strong interpersonal and networking skills are required.

Desired Experience (The following experiences are optional. Candidates who do not have them are welcome to apply)

• Knowledge of geographic (GIS) data, its analytical procedures and software is desirable


• Knowledge of statistical programming languages (e.g. R, Python / NumPy) is desirable.


• Knowledge of web-development technologies is a plus (e.g. JavaScript, HTML, CSS).


• Experience with humanitarian data and indicators is desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English (read, write, speak) is required


• Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

Contract type, level and duration

Contract type: Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA) - Retainer : A retainer contract is issued for a period of time during which the services of the individual contractor are required intermittently. The individual contractor agreement on retainer basis will specify a “unit price” per day worked. For budgetary purposes, a monetary cap will be determined when the contract is awarded and issued. Please note that the retainer contract will not provide for a minimum, and payment will be made only after completion of work

Contract level: International Individual Contractor Agreement (I-ICA 1)

Contract duration: 12 months

For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:
https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx

This is not a position in UNOPS. UNOPS is solely providing operational support to its partner UNOCHA for this recruitment process. The selected candidate will be a personnel member of UNOCA under its full responsibility and salaries and benefits will be decided by UNOCHA.