Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Specialist at WWF South Africa

Minimum Requirements

• Qualification in a communication-related field, postgraduate qualification would be advantageous.
• Working knowledge of the Southern African conservation sector.
• Minimum of ten years’ experience in a senior communication or stakeholder-engagement related role in NGO sector. This should include public relations, stakeholder management and engagement, and communication management.
• Ten years’ experience in managing projects in complex settings with culturally diverse groups. This should include a track record of successfully brokering/negotiating collaborations in a highly political / pressured environment with NGO’s, government, private sector and communities.
• Experience in media monitoring, including social media monitoring, is highly advantageous.
• Superior writing and verbal skills in English and ideally an African language. This should include superior report writing skills.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to communicate, advocate and influence debates amongst the diverse community of practitioners.
• Superior understanding of the media landscape as it pertains to conservation issues in Southern Africa.
• Strong strategic planning, project management and administrative skills.
• Strong event planning and coordination skills.
• Excellent attention to detail, including document editing.
• Strong social media content creation skills.
• Ability to convene and build strong partnerships and interpersonal relationships with all levels of stakeholders from differing contexts and organisations.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and be flexible in the face of the unexpected.
• Diplomacy and political savvy
• Self-efficacy and ability to work independently.
• Team-player willing to collaborate and regularly interact with other team members.
• A passion for environmental and conservation issues, and an understanding of the connection between social issues, local communities and the environment.
• Ability to undertake extensive travel is essential for this position.
• Valid Driver’s License and Passport.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the development and implementation of the annual Khetha work plan, with a focus on how the plan creates communication and relationship-building opportunities.
• Provide strategic leadership for communications and stakeholder engagement, captured in a communication and stakeholder engagement plan that can be tracked over time. This should include the development of a social media monitoring and engagement strategy.
• Drive learning, collaboration and coordination with influential institutions in the Greater Kruger landscape to strengthen the collective response to wildlife trafficking and community engagement.
• Conduct and oversee all donor and internal reporting to ensure reports are submitted on time, in the correct format and to the highest standard.
• Oversee all program communications, including final review and sign-off of communication campaigns, reports and other communication products. Ensure all Khetha and partner organisations’ products are compliant with donor branding and marking guidelines.
• Support specific landscape-level communication initiatives, such as GEF 6,7, the Greater Kruger Strategic Development Programme, the GLTFCA Cooperative Agreement, etc. Raise awareness of the importance of communication in the conservation sector with all partners. Provide technical communications and capacity building support/training to program partners and beneficiaries.
• Plan and participate in all donor and other stakeholder site visits to project areas.
• Assist with the design and planning of research projects to ensure results are accessible to non-specialist audiences and can inform adaptive management and Khetha program design (includes hosting community-based research symposiums and technical webinars that provides feedback on Khetha's research outputs).
• Improve media reporting on wildlife crime to provide balanced perspectives on its impacts on wildlife and local people.
• Organise and oversee training on mediation, conflict resolution, peacebuilding and dialogue facilitation for conservation practitioners.
• Maintain open and regular communication with WWF South Africa Head Office Communications Team and rest of the network as required.
• Assist with program administrative processes.
• Support the monitoring, evaluation and learning requirements of the Khetha program.