Senior Writer, Public Affairs
Ethiopia or Kenya
Public Affairs /
Full Time /
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
The END Fund is the world’s leading collaborative philanthropic investment vehicle dedicated to controlling and eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). NTDs are parasitic and bacterial infectious diseases – including intestinal worms, river blindness, trachoma, schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis – that affect over 1.7 billion people globally. The END Fund’s vision is to ensure people can live healthy and prosperous lives free of the risk of NTDs and has set out to accomplish this by:
- Mobilizing and investing resources for maximum impact,
- Advocating for innovative, integrated and cost-effective NTD programs; and
- Facilitating philanthropic and private sector engagement to end these diseases.
By engaging a community of activist-philanthropists and taking a systems approach, the END Fund works in collaboration with governments, local and international NGOs, pharmaceutical companies, and academic partners on the global campaign to control and eliminate the most prevalent NTDs by 2030.
Since our founding in 2012 through 2020, with our partners, the END Fund has provided over 1.1 billion treatments for NTDs worth more than $1.3 billion. In 2020 alone, we reached more than 91.9 million people with more than 133.6 million NTD treatments, representing an almost 10-fold increase from 2012. The END Fund works globally in 25 countries, with a primary emphasis in Africa. You can learn more about the END Fund and our 2020 impact story here.
ABOUT THE END FUND’S PUBLIC AFFAIRS TEAM
The Public Affairs department builds on the END Fund’s fundraising and grantmaking by using the influence of our brand, reputation, and relationships to: (1) identify and cultivate new opportunities for financing the END Fund and the NTD sector, and (2) encourage greater leadership, and more local and sustainable resourcing of NTD programs from governments, businesses, and communities affected by NTDs. The Public Affairs team’s work is bolstered by a network of extraordinary champions for the END Fund and the NTD sector.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The END Fund is seeking a curious and collaborative communications professional to investigate, report on, and write compelling stories around the challenges, opportunities, and impact of the END Fund’s programmatic funds and collaborative philanthropic investment model. The successful candidate will have demonstrated experience as an interviewer, writer, and storyteller in the context of public health and development, and a significant aptitude for transcultural communication and building trusted relationships with government stakeholders, communities, and donors alike.
The Senior Writer will have an initial focus on capturing and disseminating the story of a new investment portfolio called the ARISE (Accelerate Resilient, Innovative, and Sustainable Elimination of NTDs) Fund. They will embed themselves within strategic and executional processes, and interview and observe a variety of ARISE stakeholders in multiple countries, highlighting why and how the approach to ARISE is new and compelling, where challenges are experienced and opportunities unearthed, and how the fund’s impact manifests primarily among NTD-affected communities and other local constituencies.
The position--a Director, Public Affairs--will report directly to the Senior Director, Public Affairs responsible for the organization’s communications function, and work in close partnership with a large number of the END Fund’s senior leadership and most important external stakeholders, including the founding donor organizations, local and national government representatives, local and international implementing partners, NTD technical advisors, and other NTD sector stakeholders.
This role is remote, working on a distributed team that communicates regularly via Zoom and Slack. This is a new, individual contributor position with no direct reports.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & CORE COMPETENCIES
Ensure authentic, country-centric, sophisticated communications about the END Fund’s programmatic investment funds and investment model, with a specific initial focus on the ARISE Fund portfolio supporting national NTD roadmaps in five countries.
- Support the END Fund’s learning from and accountability of the ARISE Fund by researching, writing, and publishing an ongoing series of investigative pieces on why the fund emerged, how it will accelerate progress towards elimination, what should happen in the various geographies to enable elimination, and who is behind the Fund.
- Partner with stakeholders including founding donor organizations, local and national government representatives, local and international implementing partners, NTD technical advisors, and print and online partners to develop opportunities for content planning, research, development, and delivery / dissemination to established target audiences.
- Developing and disseminating clearly written, well-designed thought leadership pieces on fund differentiations, along with reflections on the challenges and successes it brings.
- Work in conjunction with country-based stakeholders to support local advocacy plans and strategies that will encourage and compliment endemic country leadership.
Report writing
- Responsible for writing narratives around ARISE progress, learnings, and impact for regular donor reports and to share best practice with external audiences including endemic country governments, international donors and philanthropists, private sector coalitions, and the global health community.
- Responsible for contributing to other END Fund donor reports around thematic issues related to the fundamentals of ARISE.
Media engagement
- Contribute to the planning and implementation of strategies for dissemination and amplification of content through END Fund channels and partner channels. This will require collaboration with the Communications Associate, Senior Director, and a communications agency to identify and pursue viable prospects, along with engaging in active pitching.
Collaborate across various internal teams
- Contribute regular content and perspectives to, and collaborate closely with others on the Public Affairs team to support a broad array of ongoing END Fund communications endeavors.
- Collaborate closely with colleagues on the END Fund’s Programs team to ensure that all communications developed by this role are accurate, support the country-led ethos of the ARISE Fund, and where possible, contribute to country-centric advocacy efforts.
EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION
- Minimum 8 years of experience in journalism, communications, and/or advocacy in the global health sector
- Significant professional experience living and working in at least one of the five ARISE Fund countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, and South Sudan)
- Degree in journalism, strategic communications, international development, public health, or a relevant discipline
- Strong collaborative team-work experience, including experience playing a leading communications role in a large-scale, multi-stakeholder initiative
- Fluency in professional communication, both verbal and written, in English and French
- Ability to translate technical material and distill programmatic learnings for both technical and non-technical audiences
- Proactive communicator and collaborator who enjoys working in a dynamic, evolving, cross-cultural, globally distributed team
- Passionate about philanthropy and public health, with a global mindset and perspective
- Proficient knowledge in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and Google products (Drive, Mail, Calendar); comfortable working virtually on a globally dispersed team
- Work authorization in either Ethiopia or Kenya required
- Willingness and ability to travel extensively required
POSTING: Senior Writer, Public Affairs
LOCATION: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; or Nairobi, Kenya
REPORTS TO: Senior Director, Public Affairs
TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: Up to 60-75% local and international travel
POSTING DEADLINE:This position will close at 9:00am EDT, Monday, August 15
SALARY:If based in Addis Ababa, anticipated starting base salary range is … Birr. If based in Nairobi, anticipated starting base salary range is KES ….
