Communications Assistant

ABOUT VILLAGEREACH

VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone, so that each person has the health care needed to thrive.  We develop solutions that improve equity and access to primary health care.  This includes making sure products are available when and where they are needed and primary health care services are delivered to the most under-reached.  Radical collaboration with governments, the private sector and other partners strengthen our ability to scale and sustain these solutions. Our work increases access to quality health care for more than 79 million people in Africa. VillageReach in incorporated in Washington State and has offices in Seattle (USA), Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Mozambique.

Summary

The government of Côte d'Ivoire (CDI) aims to increase the modern contraceptive prevalence rate from 22.5% in 2020 to 30% by 2030. However, many challenges remain, including the issue of availability of products at service delivery points. A pilot phase of free provision of FP services was launched in the Agneby-Tiassa region and demonstrated a significant increase in the use of FP services in a context of constant availability of contraceptive products, with a 52% growth in the number of new acceptants of FP methods from September 2021 to May 2023.

To replicate and extend the results of this pilot project to a larger number of health districts, particularly with regard to the availability of contraceptive products at service delivery points, VillageReach is recruiting a Communications Assistant to support this work.

VillageReach is seeking a qualified individual to fill the role of Communications Assistant. This position is based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with frequent travel within the country. The Communications Assistant will report to the Senior Program Manager and collaborate closely with the Communications Manager, as well as other team members at both the country and global level.

Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

• Support solution activities implementation
• Support the organization of key events disseminating VillageReach’s solutions e.g. Launch ceremonies, campaigns, and Open days.
• Support relations with media to disseminate VillageReach’s impact on the field.
• Ensure documentation (written blogs or articles, audiovisual) of VillageReach’s impact on communities.
• Support the publication of VillageReach’s actions on various social media platforms e.g. X/Twitter, website, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Support the documentation of operational activities, approaches, and methodology, related to process and lessons learned by capturing; what process changes are made, results of those changes, reasons for changes, and impact of solutions on the community.
• Collect and draft storytelling of key learnings and the impact of VillageReach’s solutions.
• Support translation of English and French documents and materials for advocacy and communications purposes
• Participate in regular internal project meetings
• Compile and submit reports as needed.
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Competencies:

VillageReach has ten (10) Organizational Competencies that describe how we work together and get things done they are grouped into three strategic areas: Achieving Great Results, Setting Direction and, Bringing Others With you. For a full description, please download our Organizational Competency document.

Achieving Great Results:

1.      Risk Taking and Innovation

·        Key Behaviors: Comfort with ambiguity, curiosity, adaptability, unconstrained and undeterred creativity, resourcefulness.

2.      Business Judgement

·        Key Behaviors: Getting to root causes, understanding environment, navigating complexity and ambiguity, entrepreneurial energy.

3.      Building Strong Teams

·       Key Behaviors: Trust in Subject Matter Experts (SME’s); radical candor to resolve conflict, hold each other accountable as colleagues, focused on results, commitment to mission.

Setting Direction:

4.      Compelling Communication

·        Key Behaviors: Clear and evidence-based communication, audience adaptability, curious listener. 

5.      Resilient Self Leadership

·        Key Behaviors: Self-aware, plan how one shows up, emotionally intelligent, use one’s own agency and takes accountability.

6.      Stewardship and Personal Alignment

·        Key Behaviors: Take ownership, display ethical conduct, effective at resource management, alignment of personal objectives with organizational goals and mission, focus on continuous improvement and sustainability.

Bringing Others with You:

7.      Influencing Leadership

·        Key Behaviors: Cultivate trust, influences to make change, navigate the matrix structure.

8.      Radical Partnership

·        Key Behaviors: Share information and credit, address conflict, increase impact through collaboration, political and contextual awareness.

9.      Cultivates a Growth Mindset

·        Key Behaviors: Seek out diverse input, demonstrate flexibility in thinking and curiosity, embrace challenges, demonstrate persistence, seek learning opportunities.

10.   Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion

·        Key Behaviors: Continuous learning and ally-ship across cultural lines, challenge prejudice and bias, modeled in one’s own behavior.

Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Education & Experience:

The ideal candidate will have the following professional qualifications and personal characteristics:

Required education, skills and experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Public Health, Social Sciences, Journalism, or a related field.
• 3+ years of communications experience, preferably in an international organization serving underserved communities.
• Demonstrated experience in media relations, including drafting and pitching opinion editorials or stories to top-tier media outlets.
• Experience working with international organizations or Ministry of Health programs at national and sub-national levels.
• Experience in community health, immunization, public or community health services, particularly in rural or low-income settings.
• Proven ability to work independently and collaboratively in fast-paced, multicultural environments.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, strong problem-solving skills, and detail orientation, with the ability to adapt to changing demands.

Other Qualifications

• Cultural competency in partnering and communicating with racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse groups.
• Understanding of the challenges in rural, underserved, and low-income contexts; experience living or working in a low-income country is a plus.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and web-based applications.
• Fluency in English and French; knowledge of a local language is desired.
• Demonstrated experience in media relations, including drafting and pitching opinion editorials and stories to top-tier media outlets.
• Prior experience documenting program processes is desired.

Environment and Physical Demands:

VillageReach has no private offices, employees work in a shared, open environment with task and conference rooms accessible to employees for privacy and meetings. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet. Due to the time zone differences between our USA office and our Country Offices and location of other global staff, we have established core collaboration hours between 6am Pacific Time and 18:00 South Africa Time (GMT+1) Monday through Thursday. All staff, regardless of location are expected to be available between these hours. During Daylight Savings Time, this allows for 12 hours per week (3 hours/day) of collaboration time and during Standard Time, 8 hours (2 hours/day). We do not hold cross-office meetings on Friday.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY & INCLUSION:

VillageReach is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer committed to workforce diversity. We believe that diverse, equitably weighted perspectives foster an organizational capacity to create novel solutions that improve health in the most under-reached and hard-to-reach areas. To align our values, innovations and impact, VillageReach is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse global workforce.

APPLICATION INFORMATION:

This is hire is dependent of the availability of funding and necessary approvals. Resumes will be reviewed on a rolling basis until November 1, 2024. To apply, please submit your resume, a cover letter in ENGLISH to our online portal: http://www.villagereach.org/join-us/

Hiring Process:

The hiring process will include the following steps:

1. Review submitted applications
2. Conduct 20–30-minute screening interviews for shortlisted candidates
3. Conduct skills and value-based interviews for 3-5 candidates.
4. Request that top candidates submit a practical assessment (designed to take no more than two hours to complete). Sometimes the assignment will occur before the interview.
5. Conduct final interview if necessary
6. Request references 
7. Make offer 
8. Conduct background check

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, but candidates who proceed to step 2 will be notified if they are not chosen for step 3.

Safeguarding:

VillageReach is committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults, and beneficiaries with whom it engages. We expect everyone working with us to share this commitment through our code of conduct.All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which may include criminal records. VillageReach participates in the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and, in line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By applying, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Benefits

Compensation & Benefits:

VillageReach has an established compensation structure that is based on the relevant market and internally transparent. The range for this position is $24,600.00  to $31,600. We hire people into the established range based on one’s experience and education and considering internal equity. We do not inquire about salary history.