Consultant, Strategic Communications

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Job Title: Strategic Communications Consultant

Type of

Contract:

Regular Consultant

Division: ARC African Risk Capacity

Duty Station (City, Country): Johannesburg (with a possibility to relocate to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire within the contract period)

Duration: 11 months with the possibility of extension

Reporting to: ARC Director General with some work streams reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, ARC

African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a Specialised Agency of the African Union that offers an African solution to two of the continent’s most pressing challenges: climate change and disease outbreaks. It is mandated to work with AU member states to help plan, prepare, and respond to climate-induced disasters and disease outbreaks. The ARC mechanism, a continental early response mechanism and index-based weather risk insurance pool, is designed to improve the continent’s preparedness to respond to these threats by building the capacities of countries to effectively manage these risks towards the protection of lives and livelihoods of their most vulnerable populations.

The ARC Group’s value proposition brings together four critical elements of preparedness for member states: capacity building, early warning, risk pooling, and risk transfer, with the aim of managing weather and disease risks by transferring the burden away from African governments to international markets. In addition to empowering member states with the skills they need to respond effectively, it also directly links insurance payouts to pre-defined contingency plans for disasters exceeding an agreed threshold, giving member states access to funds to facilitate early response.

In the process, the goal is to incentivise governments to plan for and implement best-practice response mechanisms, and ARC’s mission is to serve African governments and their communities in reducing the financial impact of natural catastrophes. Pan-African solidarity in the creation of insurance pools like ARC is financially efficient as it provides immediate liquidity through the provision of insurance through the ARC Ltd, the insurance affiliate of the Group.

Since being founded in 2012, ARC’s reach and impact has grown significantly, covering more people with a diversified and innovative product offering that protects against droughts, tropical cyclones and outbreaks and epidemic, significantly contributing to improving food security and driving for sustainable development.

Responsibilities

Over the years, ARC has garnered extensive expertise and knowledge in the dynamic space of climate change, and with a goal is to provide world class service to member states and other stakeholders. The organisation has progressively become a strong and credible voice in the Disaster Risk Management and Financing (DRMF) space in Africa and globally. The Group Director General leads as the face of the organisation responsible for positioning the Group and showcasing ARC as an authority in Africa’s resilience-building journey.

To this end, the primary role of the Strategic Communications Consultant will be to anchor the GDG and ARC leadership’s efforts by ensuring that the organization keeps abreast of developments in DRMF and can stay on top of new thinking in an era of a growing climate crisis and increasing incidents of disease outbreaks. Using innovative research tools and knowledge-share platforms with stakeholders, the function will elevate ARC’s understanding of this dynamic space and showcase the Group’s unique expertise and leadership in shaping Africa’s response to better serve our member states.

It will play a strong advisory role in the strategic positioning of the ARC Group by working closely with the GDG’s office and ARC leadership to strengthen thought leadership, knowledge share, and strategic communication. In the process, it will make recommendations for message and information development, selection of communication methods, and scheduling of…