CALL FOR CONSULTANTS – WRITERS
Client’s Contact Details
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
West End Towers, 4th Floor, Kanjata Road, off Muthangari Drive
P.O. Box 66773 Westlands, 00800 Nairobi, Kenya
Main Off. Tel: +254 (20) 3675 000
Contact Person
Head of Procurement at [email protected]
BACKGROUND
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa – AGRA, is an African-led alliance focused on putting smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives.
Founded in 2006, at a time when agricultural development was emerging from a 20-year decline characterized by minimal growth and investment in the sector, AGRA’s mission is to catalyze and sustain an agricultural transformation in Africa through innovation-driven productivity increases and access to markets and finance that improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
From the beginning, AGRA was positioned to tailor the research, technologies, and lessons of the world to the needs and opportunities of smallholder farmers in particular agro-ecologies and farming systems. AGRA’s approach was private sector driven and represented a more robust and sustainable way of addressing chronic, systemic failures in African agricultural development.
Together with its partners—including African governments, researchers, donors, the private sector and civil society— AGRA works to catalyze an agricultural transformation in Africa through innovation-driven and sustainable productivity increases and access to innovative finance and markets that improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
As the sector that employs the majority of Africa’s people, nearly all of them smallholder farmers, AGRA recognizes that transforming agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.
AGRA will aim to catalyze and sustain inclusive agricultural transformations through integrated, country-based investment plans in 11 countries with high potential for take-off over the next five years. To deliver this transformation, AGRA and partners will draw on experiences gained over the last decade to implement a fully integrated set of activities in 11 countries located mainly in three high-potential, under-exploited agro-ecologies – the Guinea Savannah Zone (West Africa), the East African Highlands, and the Miombo Woodland (Southern Africa), where it has developed agricultural technologies, understands the landscape and has strong partnerships.
AGRA’s overall vision of success is centered on three headline goals to achieve by 2020 through its efforts to catalyze, convene, and align with an alliance of partners and grantees:
- To support 11 African countries on a pathway to create and sustain agricultural transformation. The investment will empower AGRA to work through an ecosystem of public and private partners to work with government and private sector to overcome bottlenecks and unlock transformation. As part of this effort, AGRA will work to generate evidence and follow up with targeted technical, planning and coordination support.
- To increase the incomes and food security for 9 million farm households through the direct result of activities of AGRA, grantees, and partners to increase productivity and access to markets and finance in six countries where it is seeking to catalyze an agricultural transformation. At this level, AGRA wants to help farmers adopt an integrated package of improved seeds, fertilizers, and agronomic practices that close the yield gap sustainably in staple crops, and consequently enabled to support and improve their families’ well-being – through increased food security and additional income.
- To contribute to increasing the incomes and food security of another 21 million farm households through the contributions of AGRA, grantees, and partners to policies, programs, and partnerships that increase productivity and access to markets and finance in other countries where an agricultural transformation is already under way, but needs to be sustained.
In the attainment of these goals, AGRA will support progress towards transformation through integrated delivery approaches to achieve tipping points – the moment when the build-up of new activities, innovations, and solutions becomes self-sustaining and will no longer need AGRA’s support- at farmer, system and national level. This will minimize the philanthropic and public subsidy required from AGRA, while also ensuring these contributions are catalytic and create sustainable change at scale.
Communication has been central to this transformation and will play an even more crucial role in ensuring that our messages and stories of change and impact are pro-actively identified, packaged in formats that appeal and shared through multiple digital platforms optimizing, traditional, new and social media.
To complement our in-house capabilities and capacity to deliver a world class communication function, we are hiring consultant editors, writers, stringers and a technology developer. The consultants will be engaged for an initial period of one year based on performance. The consultant will be commissioned for specific deliverables.
WRITERS
Duties and Responsibilities
Planning:
- Discuss with the communications team and the senior management to have the best understanding of writing requirements;
- Pinpoint relevant content themes and create compelling content that will resonate with target audiences;
- Undertake in-depth research to identify key trends to inform the production of thought leadership pieces
Generating Content:
- Commission and edit news and feature stories for on African agriculture, reflecting AGRA’s communications priorities and key messages and liaising with the AGRA communications team.
- Write, edit and create compelling Op-eds, fact sheets, white papers, blogs and any other content;
- Repurpose content as needed;
- Ensure all content is on-brand, consistent in terms of style, quality and tone of voice, and optimized for search and user experience for all channels of content including online, social media, email, video, print (whitepapers, case studies, fact sheets) and in-person.
Content Review:
- Work with owners of particular content to review and sign-off
- Conduct ongoing usability tests to gauge content effectiveness.
Functional Competencies:
- Strategic vision and strong analytical capabilities;
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
- Sound political judgment and highly developed inter-personal skills;
- Must have strong organizational skills and attention to detail;
- Ability to quickly adjust priorities to respond to pressing demands.
- Strong editorial judgement, including ethical and political awareness.
- Excellent communication and editorial skills.
- Strong understanding of the global media environment, including grasp of social media.
General Requirements:
- Highly developed writing and editing skills.
- Proven ability to produce incisive, thought provoking and in-depth pieces.
- Experience working in sensitive and fast-moving news, communications, advocacy and/or fundraising contexts.
- Proven ability to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas as well as transfer knowledge and skills.
- Excellent written, oral and comprehension command of English. Knowledge of French is an added advantage.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously with a sense of urgency;
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Master’s degree in marketing, communications, journalism, political science, international relations or a related field.
Job Experience:
- Minimum 5 years’ professional experience in journalism, communications, marketing or development work. Bachelor’s degree holders with extra 2 years’ experience are eligible to apply.
- Proven ability to act with discretion and diplomacy.
- Excellent communication and editorial skills.
- Strong understanding of the global media environment.
Language Requirements:
Fluency in oral and demonstrated superior writing skills in English is required. Fluency in French is an added advantage.
SUBMISSION
Qualified and interested candidates are encouraged to submit detailed copies of their CV and their financial proposal saved as 2 files separately to [email protected] by 10 February 2018, 5PM (East African time).
Clearly indicate the consultant position you are applying for in the subject of your application email.
DISCLAIMER
AGRA reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed candidates and the right to withdraw from this process at any time without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.
More Information
- Job City Nairobi
