The Open Society Institute’s (OSI) Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) seeks to appoint an Advocacy and Communications Officer, who will be based at the offices of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The communications officer will be primarily responsible for the development and implementation of a strategy to ensure that AfriMAP’s research is packaged for and reaches the widest possible audience. The communications officer’s first responsibility on starting work will be to assist in the development of a public relations and advocacy strategy for a major comparative report on the broadcast media in Africa for which research is already under way.

Among the target audiences that the communications officer will be expected to assist us to reach are the organs of the African Union (including the AU Commission, the APRM and NEPAD secretariats, ECOSOCC and the Pan African Parliament), the regional economic communities (SADC, ECOWAS etc), Africa’s bilateral and multilateral development partners, national governments, civil society organisations and the public at large,.

Key areas of responsibility are:
• Assisting the conceptualisation, organisation of roundtable discussions at which AfriMAP research findings are presented; in the first case the research findings of AfriMAP’s 12-country survey of public broadcasting services in Africa
• Planning follow-up activities once the reports are launched (conferences, seminars, hearings etc)
• Preparation (in cooperation with the authors/editors) of summary versions of AfriMAP reports and recommendations for use by parliamentarians, civil servants and other policy makers and assistance to the other AfriMAP and OSI staff in presenting these documents at different fora.
• Development and implementation of a strategy to ensure substantive coverage of our work in African and international media, including preparing press releases and other promotional materials and briefing selected media on the findings of AfriMAP research
• Taking over primary responsibility for the development and enhancement of the AfriMAP website as an advocacy tool, including assisting with its maintenance and the additions to its library database (no particular web programming skills are required, however)
• Development of the occasional AfriMAP newsletter into a more substantive publication
• Coordinating the process of producing AfriMAP’s publications and supervising the finalisation of printed versions.
• Assisting with other aspects of AfriMAP’s and OSI’s work in Africa, as instructed by the AfriMAP director.

Requirements
• Master’s degree in journalism, social science, human rights law, development studies, political science, international relations, any related field, or equivalent experience
• Demonstrated excellent written and oral presentation skills in English
• Reasonable spoken and written French
• Willingness to travel widely in Africa and occasionally outside the continent, as required
• Familiarity with the politics of the African continent and with the issues researched by AfriMAP
• Ability to work independently but also as a team member (with staff of AfriMAP project, OSI Africa foundations and national partners).

An attractive remuneration package, commensurate with experience, are offered. The job is offered on a three-year contract.

The Open Society Institute and AfriMAP: OSI works to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. AfriMAP is an initiative to promote compliance by African states with the requirements of good governance set out in African and international treaties. AfriMAP works closely with OSI’s African foundations and with African civil society organizations to research and publish reports on themes related to governance in individual African countries. More information about AfriMAP and OSI can be obtained on http://www.afrimap.org
Interested and qualified candidates who match the profile are invited to submit their CV and a letter of interest to:

The Human Resources Department
AfriMAP
c/o Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
P.O. Box 678
Wits 2050
Fax: +27 86 626 086827 / +27 11 4032708
Email: [email][email protected]

Closing Date for applications is 12th September 2008
Only short-listed candidates will receive a response from AfriMAP.