Communications Officer at International Cocoa Initiative

Established in 2002, ICI is a humanitarian foundation that promotes partnership among the chocolate and cocoa industry, cocoa-producing governments, civil society and NGOs to support the elimination of child labour in cocoa-growing communities. Our head office is in Geneva, Switzerland and we have operations in Ghana and Ivory Coast with National Offices in Accra and Abidjan.

ICI has developed a Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) that allows industry partners to manage responsibly the risk of child labour in their cocoa supply chain. In line with the Ghana Child Labor Monitoring System (GCLMS), the system is based on the presence of Community Facilitators (CF) within cocoa-growing communities who raise awareness on the issue of child labour; identify cases and implement remediation activities. (www.cocoainitiative.org

Job Description

ICI is seeking to recruit a Communications Officer for its Ghana Office.

About the position 

We are looking for a Communications Officer to join our Communications team, based in ICI’s Ghana office in Accra. The Communications Officer will develop content for the organization’s website and social media channels, will maintain and develop strong relationships with national media, will engage with a wide network of national partners and stakeholders, in order to support ICI tell its story in a compelling and inspirational way and drive the achievement of the organization’s objectives.

Main tasks and responsibilities 

• Developing content for the ICI website and social media channels. This includes: 
  • Working with ICI’s project teams to identify interesting projects, stories and events, organizing field visits tmeet and interview members of cocoa-growing communities and producing articles, videos and social media content that bring our work in Ghana’s cocoa-growing communities ta wider audience, and
  • Producing articles, videos and social media content that communicate our research and activities tkey stakeholders.
• Strengthen relations with national media. This includes:
  • Building and strengthening a network of trusted media contacts,
  • Proactively targeting trusted contacts with relevant ICI news,
  • Coordinating responses tmedia requests,
  • Providing support tGhana based staff on dealing with media, and
  • Organizing trips for target media.
• Supporting the Country Director with participation in events including speech writing and presentation development
• Support the implementation of the organization’s visual brand guidelines and the overall respect of the visual identity
• Building partnerships with key national stakeholders including relevant government departments through the organization of events, communication campaigns and meetings.
  • Reporting to the Country Director (based in Accra, Ghana) and the Communications Director (based in Geneva, Switzerland), you will work closely with the communications staff based in Côte d’Ivoire and Switzerland, in addition to staff in other departments across all locations.

Required Skills or Experience

• 3 to 5 years of experience in non-profit communications, corporate communications or journalism
• University degree or equivalent in communications or another relevant field
• Experience in non-profit outreach and advocacy
• Ability to turn technical information into compelling stories, with outstanding writing skills and attention to detail
• Strong content strategy and content development skills
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple projects and adjust to changing priorities
• Strong IT skills including video/photo editing software, graphic design software and web content management systems
• A commitment to continuous learning with good knowledge of new developments in the communications field and a willingness to learn from others and constantly improve
• Curiosity and passion for communications and improving the life of children and their families in cocoa-growing communities
• Knowledge of French would be beneficial

How To Apply