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EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT
– 50 MILLION WOMEN SPEAK (50 MWS) PROJECT –
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES AS ASSISTANT CONTENT DEVELOPERS IN EACH PARTNER STATE
- Background
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising the Republic of Burundi, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Rwanda, the Republic of South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Uganda. The EAC Secretariat Headquarters are located in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC mission is to widen and deepen economic, political, social and cultural integration to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments.
Article 5 of the EAC Treaty provides for gender equity, gender mainstreaming in all EAC Projects and Programmes and the enhancement of the role of women in cultural, social, political, economic and technological development.
The African Development Bank is collaborating with COMESA, EAC and ECOWAS through the 50 Million Women Speak (50MWS) Project to create a dynamic Digital Networking Platform for women entrepreneurs. The Platform will enable women to connect with one another in ways that will foster peer-to-peer learning, knowledge exchange/transfer, mentoring and the sharing of information and knowledge within communities, and provide them with access to trade finance and market opportunities between urban and rural areas, and across borders and between countries. In addition, the Platform will enable women to develop market intelligence skills to stay abreast of business development trends within their contexts, regionally and globally to ensure sustainability of their businesses. The Project is implemented in 38 countries belonging to COMESA, EAC and ECOWAS.
The Project is expected to achieve among others, the following results: increased access and use of financial services by women entrepreneurs; increased participation of women entrepreneurs in business networks; availability of statistics on women in business; and increased access to national and regional markets. Subsequently, the Project is expected
to contribute to the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs through the use of the platform for business development.
To ensure collection, development and management of content on information needs and services for women in business, for the Digital Networking Platform in respective Partner States, Project Country Teams are being established in each Partner State made up of representatives from the Public Sector, Private Sector and Civic Society i.e. representatives from Ministries responsible for Gender, Trade, ICT, Youth, EAC Affairs, Private sector, Women Associations, and membership-based entities working with women in business or enterprise development. The Project Country Teams will be supported by two (2) Country Content Developers – a Lead Content Developer and an Assistant Content Developer in each Partner State.
This is an opportunity for highly motivated and results-driven professionals who are citizens of the East African Community Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda) to apply for the following opportunity tenable at each Partner State.
- Recruitment of an Assistant Content Developer in each Partner State
The EAC – 50MWS Project would like to recruit an Assistant Content Developer from each Partner State to support the Project Country Team in content development for the Platform. The Assistant Content Developer will be resident within the Partner State and will work closely with the respective Project Country Team and Lead Content Developer to gather information and develop relevant content on information needs and services for women in business to be uploaded on the Digital Networking Platform.
- Duties and Responsibilities of the Assistant Content Developer
The Assistant Content Developer will script, curate, summarize, originate and edit compelling, relevant and clear content on financial and non-financial services to be uploaded on the Digital Platform to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
They will develop tailored content, ensuring it responds to the needs of the targeted audiences as well as help track success and make data-driven decisions for content changes.
Working with the Lead Content Developer, the Assistant Content Developer, in liaison with the Project Country Team will be largely responsible for information gathering and content development for the Digital Networking Platform. Specific roles and responsibilities will include, but not be limited to the following:
- Liaising with the Ministry of Gender to identify informational products or content to be featured in the platform;
- Developing an editorial calendar of content to be developed based on the identified information needs;
- Developing relevant original content beneficial to women entrepreneurs;
- Collaborating with the Project Country Team to continuously identify sources of content and develop appropriate content;
- Developing content that is informed by country specific information needs and services to enhance prospects of ownership and sustainability;
- Ensuring content is developed within the set timeframe;
- Ensuring the content gathered is validated by relevant authorities;
- Assisting the Lead Content Developer in coordinating the Project Country Team for all 50MWS Project related activities;
- Assisting the Lead Content Developer in coordinating content revision and updates ensuring that the content on the Platform is relevant and up-to-date;
- Refining and improving content basing on feedback and analysis of platform performance;
- Liaising with the line Ministries/Agencies, National Gender Machineries including both the Private Sector and Civic Society;
- Curating content related to women economic empowerment initiatives and repurpose to suit the target audience;
- Continuously identifying topical and business trendy content beneficial to women entrepreneurs and develop relevant content;
- Developing content of different formats and styles to deliver unique and delightful experiences for platform users.
- Promoting the Project through participating in national events which focus on women economic empowerment;
- Working with outreach teams at country level on outgoing communications/messages
- Producing content (through articles, infographics, images or videos), which highlight success stories;
- Partnering with all stakeholders to ensure issues related to platform use are captured and channeled to be addressed (allowing women users to find solutions to common platform use issues)
- Providing capacity building and technical support through a combination of both hand-holding and tuition-based transfer of knowledge to members of the Project
- Country Team regarding content gathering, development and packaging and
- eventual dissemination;
- Coordinating field visits with Donors, media or with any other delegation
- Developing simple, easy-to-understand, user friendly content;
- Writing and submitting country reports and statistics on the project;
- Acting as a careful custodian of the 50 Million Platform brand, representing it to an audience;
- Performing any other activities related to content development assigned by the Lead Content Developer who will be the Team Leader;
- The right candidate will be passionate about working with others, “translating” technical concepts into simple, easy-to-understand content.
- Reporting
The Assistant Content Developer will report to the Lead Content Developer but will work closely with the Project Content Manager at EAC.
- Skills and Competencies
The ideal candidates should demonstrate and provide examples of past similar tasks undertaken in content development for websites, portals and/or related media channels at national or regional level. They must be creative thinkers to conceptualize content. Experience in knowledge management will be highly desirable. They should be able to stay up-to-date with developments and generate innovative ideas to draw audiences’ attention. The candidates should have a good understanding of challenges affecting women in business as well as various sources of content required for the Platform in the respective country. Applicants must be citizens or natives of respective EAC Partner States from which they will be applying for these positions. They should preferably be having knowledge of local languages, cultural backgrounds, administrative systems and government organization structures.
He/She should have the following skills and competencies:
- Excellent writing, editing and presentation skills;
- Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources and translate it into creative and engaging digital content;
- Data analytics skills in collection, interpretation and reporting;
- Ability to independently plan, direct and evaluate all the content-related assignments;
- Excellent command of English both written and oral for English speaking countries and French both written and oral for French speaking countries; (knowledge of both French and English will be an added advantage).
- Comfortable writing for multiple audience segments, using differing voices and tones;
- Able to collect, summarize and interpret data insights;
- Experience with women economic empowerment projects will be an added value;
- Knowledge of Content Management Systems and social media platforms. This includes understanding of content limitations and the pros/cons of different CMSs and platforms;
- Good knowledge of PC-based software programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and databases
- Ability to work in a team in a multi-cultural environment;
- Ability to multi-task and work irregular and long hours;
- Knowledge of Search Engine Optimization and web traffic metrics will be a plus;
6. Academic Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s Degree in Communications; Marketing; Business Administration/Management; Journalism; Information Science and/or Management; Communications Management; IT Management; Finance; Economics or any related or relevant fields;
- Minimum 5 years’ relevant experience (as seen from previous assignments);
- Experience in Digital marketing will be an added advantage;
- Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation of the above qualifications and experience will be done based on the following criteria and scores;
- Academic qualifications relevant and suitable for the assignment: 30%
- Adequacy for the assignment as described in the TOR (previous relevant work experience): 50%
- Skills and Competencies as per ToRs (Language, knowledge of local conditions, computer applications usage, etc): 20%
- Total: 100%
The Consultant will be selected in accordance with selection of individual consultant method and the eligibility criteria, establishment of the selection procedures shall be in accordance with the “African Development Bank’s “rules and procedures for the use of consultants “May 2008 Revised July 2012”.
- Duration of the Consultancy Assignment
This assignment has a duration of 12 months with possibility of extension subject to the need, availability of funds and satisfactory performance by the Consultant.
- How to Apply
Interested consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the service. Expressions of interest in English must be sent to the following e- mail addresses; wkaremera@eachq.org with a copy to wmuyenzi@eachq.org not later than Thursday, 27th September 2018 at 2:00 P.M GMT.
In the email Subject line, please make sure to include the following text “Expression of Interest for the position of Assistant Content Developer for ………………. (Mention the country).
