Project Communication and Dissemination Officer

Africa Health Collaborative Project of Addis Ababa University

Context

The Africa Health Collaborative (AHC) is a pioneering initiative aimed at strengthening primary healthcare across Africa and empowering the continent’s health sector through transformative education and innovation. It involves eight African Universities/Institutions (Amref International University (AMIU)-Kenya, Moi University Kenya, The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Addis Ababa University (AAU), The African Leadership University (ALU) -Rwanda, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)- Ghana, University of Cape Town (UCT), and Asheis-Ghana), and University of Toronto (UofT), each in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. AAU has launched the Africa Health Collaborative Project at the College of Health Sciences (CHS). It is a 6-year project focusing on three pillars of work to achieve the AHC’s objectives:

• Health Employment (HEMP) aims at equipping the primary healthcare workforce in Ethiopia with relevant skills that productively match the health and well-being needs of the Ethiopian population.
• Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) aims at launching entrepreneurial ecosystems and platforms in Ethiopian Universities to optimizing and scaling health startup, creating jobs with a focus on youth and women, while addressing critical gaps in primary healthcare to accessibility, affordability, and quality.
• Health Ecosystem (HECO) aims at developing a dynamic and sustainable health ecosystem network that integrates local knowledge, supports policy development, and equips actors with the skills needed for sustainable health sector growth, transformation, and job creation across Africa.

The project wants to hire qualified and experienced staff on a contract basis for the following position.

II. Position/title: Project Communication and Dissemination Officer

Employment status: Full-time Contract

Duration of Employment: 6- years; annually renewable contract depending of employee’s performance

Primary Work Location: Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences

Travel out of Addis Ababa: To National Partner Universities (Debre Berhan, Wollo, Wolkite Universities)

Department/Project: Africa Health Collaborative Project of AAU

Job Role: 

The Project Communication and Dissemination Officer will plan, develop and implement effective dissemination of products and activities; disseminate the core objectives of Africa Health Collaborative’ programs: Health Employment (HEMP), Health Entrepreneur (HENT), Health Ecosystem (HECO), and Networking, Research and Learning agenda; contribute to the Collaborative’ success and recognition in the academic and public spheres; advise the Project Co-PI/Manager on effective communication and dissemination strategies; collaborate with regional Collaborative Partners’ Communication Teams; develop an annual Strategic Communications Plan; develop and implements dissemination strategies that align with the Collaborative’s objectives, targeting key stakeholders; and will perform other duties as assigned.

Objectives of the Assignment: The objectives of the Project Communication and Dissemination Officer are reaching out policy makers and Collaborative’s stakeholders in making evidence accessible; communicating key messages and raising the profile and visibility of the Collaborative programs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts; and fostering communication and knowledge brokering networks through policy dialogue, website and social media to increase impacts.

Target Groups: University undergraduate and postgraduate students receiving scholarship, trainings and other supports from the Collaborative programs, local partner universities, and other stakeholders involved in the Collaborative program activities.

Scope of work: This position is a full-time contract employment. The scope includes but not limited to:

• Strategic Planning: Prepare the AAU-Mastercard Foundation Health Collaborative Annual Strategic Communications Plan; collaborate with the Africa Health Collaborative Communications Teams and develop an Annual Strategic Communications Plan and implements dissemination strategies that align with the Regional Collaborative Partners’ objectives; and responsible for regularly checking timeliness, consistency and validity of information shared with different target groups.
• Communications channels: Leverage a range of communication tools to share the Collaborative outputs and evidences with targeted audiences using Website, Newsletters, Mass Media, Blogs, Policy Briefs, Face-to-Face Meetings (Policy Dialogues), workshops, conferences, and other platforms, and Community Events.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Networking: Contribute to the development of appropriate value proposition of the project to the different user groups-students, instructors, university administrators, and eco system actors; work closely across project partners to develop findings and insights from the project to health sector decision-makers; foster robust engagement with stakeholders at both the national and regional levels with targeted efforts to involve policymakers, healthcare practitioners, advocacy groups, and the public in meaningful dialogues, workshops, conferences, and other platforms; create a conducive environment for open discussions, knowledge exchange, and collaboration; cultivate positive relationships with media professionals’ bloggers, thought leaders, influencers and other media personnel to help shape the projects image.
• Reporting: Support the development and circulation of knowledge products to draw out lessons learned and success stories; Prepare quarterly and annual project communication and dissemination reports.

Available position: One (1).

Salary and benefits: Attractive- as per the Collaborative Project Scale

Education Requirements: A Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism & Communication, Foreign Language (English), Literature, Political Sciences & Internal Relations, Public Administration and Management, Social work, or related field

Minimum Experience Requirement: Eight (8) years of experience as Communication and Dissemination Expert/Officer for a Bachelor’s Degree holder, or five (5) years for a Master’s Degree holder in one of the above fields, or related.

Competency Requirements

Core competencies

• Ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals,
• Ability to develop useful communication and dissemination interventions,
• Proven track record of working with projects’ communications hosted at government organizations/institutions,
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills,
• Proven experience in digital communication and graphic design,
• Proven experience with social media content creation and management,
• Proficiency in Zoom and other virtual event platforms,
• Ability to work within the team and support other colleagues to achieve the overall project goals,
• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform, and
• Ability to get things done before the deadline.

Functional competences

• Ability to identify and execute opportunities to improve communications strategy,
• Proficient in Excel, Word processing and PowerPoint.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills,
• Ability working in cross-functional teams and provide actionable recommendations to emerging issues,
• Relevant experience in planning, monitoring, promotion, or managing communication and dissemination of products/outputs/activities,
• Developing communication and dissemination plans,
• Writing blogs or web content,
• Capability to establish and maintain effective relationships with supervisors and subordinates, other employees and the general public.