Madagascar: Media, Communications and IT Officer

Media, Communications and IT Officer

An exciting in-country opportunity supporting the media and communications functions in one of the leading sustainable development and conservation NGOs in Madagascar

Position overview:

This position offers an excellent opportunity for a media and IT specialist to gain valuable experience working abroad for a medium-sized NGO in stunning southeast Madagascar. This opportunity would be a positive step to gain experience in order to work with larger organisations or simply as a career break. Your skills will be used to deliver media, communications and IT courses to NGO staff, develop external communications and troubleshoot problems in the day-to-day running of the IT systems.

The post-holder will spend at least six months working with SEED Madagascar in and around Fort Dauphin, Madagascar. They will be part of a team of local and international staff and volunteers who develop and implement sustainable development projects in the area. The successful applicant will be expected to work independently to meet the organisation’s international media, communications and IT needs. These include but are not limited to: identifying training needs within the NGO and developing courses to meet these; training staff on a 1:1 basis; day-to-day computer setup, troubleshooting and repair; advising on IT development; coordinating material for the website and social media platforms; and producing photos and videos of project work for local, national and international audiences.

The volunteer will be fully integrated into the team and have full access to projects, which currently include health education, environmental conservation, school building and sustainable livelihoods programmes. Although predominantly office-based, the post-holder will regularly visit project sites both in town and in the bush to take photographs and video of activities and carry out repairs. For more details on the projects we run, visit https://madagascar.co.uk/projects.

Creative solutions are often necessary for IT issues and capacity building exercises as many standard techniques and fixes used in developing countries do not apply here, due to reliance on high-speed internet connections and resource availability.

Duties and responsibilities

The Media, Communications and IT Specialist will work across all departments on the following areas:

· Setup and maintenance of computers and network infrastructure used in the busy NGO office and on project sites

· IT training and development for staff and project beneficiaries

· Advice on IT development and equipment purchasing

· Coordinating social media and website updates and newsletter material with staff across all departments

· Photography and videography to document project activities at a national and international level

· Maintaining a well-organised database of media content

· Physical hardware repair of computers, mobile phones, GPS units and more

· Renewable solar power installations and repair for rural project sites

Contract type: Volunteer, unsalaried
Contract duration: Minimum 6 months, extendable
Reporting to: Director of Programmes and Operations

Requirements

The successful applicant will:

· Have IT experience, preferably at an advisory or development level

· Demonstrate sound technical knowledge of high-quality photo and video production

· Have a strong ability to communicate events to a national and international audience through photography, videography and writing

· Good working knowledge of image management and editing in Photoshop or equivalent

· Have experience with video editing techniques in Premiere or equivalent

· Ideally have experience in good sound recording techniques

· Experience with GIS and visual communication of data is desirable

· Demonstrate an interest in conservation and community development

· Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for the organization at all times

· Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others

· Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures, and work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers

· Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations

· Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect.

· Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard

· Have previous experience working to deadlines and project requirements

· Ideally have previous experience living, working or travelling in a developing country, though this is not essential

· Be fluent in English to a high standard. Basic working knowledge of French is desirable though not essential

· Be capable and comfortable adapting to life in a less developed country with sometimes basic living conditions

· Be able to adjust to life in another culture and a foreign language, and be able to work with cultural sensitivity at all times

· Be able to financially support themselves for a minimum period of 6 months

· Have all the necessary equipment to carry out the responsibilities outlined above

Practicalities:

· The successful candidate will be able to financially support themselves for the duration of their internship and have their own laptop computer (non-tablet).

Interested applicants should send a CV and covering letter outlining how their skills and experience match the requirements in the role description criteria to Lisa Bass by email on Lisa@seedmadagascar.org. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Long-listed applicants will have an initial informal chat with Madagascar based staff and short-listed applicants will then be offered a face-to-face interview with the London team in-person.

More information on the work of SEED Madagascar can be found at

www.madagascar.co.uk