Director of Communications

Internationally recruited position

• Department: Office of the President
• Directorate: Communications
• Grade: D1
• Salary: USD 92,866.73
• Supervisor: President of the ECOWAS Commission
• Reference: ECW-COMM/REC/PO-D/002/2010
• Duration: Permanent
• Closing date: 18-02-2011

Following the restructuring of the ECOWAS Commission from an Executive Secretariat in 2006, the number of Directorates was increased from 16 to 25. A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Commissioners. Directorates are headed by Directors.
Directors are responsible within the Commission for providing the technical expertise in particular technical areas for the design and implementation of technical projects within the region in line with ECOWAS objectives.

Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution’s mandate. They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies’, the President’s and the Commissioner’s broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.

Duties and responsibilities

Leadership Tasks

Directors report directly to respective Commissioners who head Departments. As the principle link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible to:

• Clearly communicate the President’s and Commissioner’s vision to staff, explain how the Directorate’s activities aligns with them and how the Director expects the Directorate to carry-out set tasks on it.


• Stay on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes.


• Remain in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.


• Maintain a network of peer technical specialists and decision-makers in Member States, needed to ensure the smooth introduction of ECOWAS programmes.
  

Managerial Tasks

The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff. He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.
Managerial tasks will include:

• Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Commission’s overall plans; measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;


• Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;


• Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;


• Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;


• Set standards of work and creating mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;


• Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;


• Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reports;


• Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;


• Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourages staff participation.

Use of Personal Expertise

While the Director will have a staff of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:

• Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
• Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;


• Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;


• Advise President, Vice President and Commissioner on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;


• Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.

Technical Tasks

• Develop partnerships and networks both internally and externally.


• Ensure good governance is in place for all resources within the directorate, taking accountability for their strategic management and co-ordination


• Ensure Strategic plans are in place for each division in the Directorate with clear objectives, performance measures and monitoring and evaluation systems


• Ensure the organisation’s website(s) is/are developed in all aspects as the main communications tool for the organisation adhering strictly to the principles guiding the organisation’s brand representation


• Ensure the development and implementation of an ECOWAS Brand strategy which is integrated into all aspects of the strategic plan


• As part of the crisis and risk management arrangements, devise and maintain a strategy and advise on media relations


• Lead, identify and initiate new opportunities to maximise the impact and effectiveness of the communications of the organisation


• Lead processes and actions to ensure work carried out within the Directorate is to agreed quality standards with content to be accurate, evidence based and up to date


• Maintain the reputation of the organisation through overseeing the communications output, ensuring consistently high standards in all aspects of communications across the Community


• Provide senior leadership to the Communications Directorate, taking accountability for the work of the team


• Develop and sustain consistent focus on team and individual performance and quality, through the use of the performance management process, including monitoring, review and identification of training and development needs, in line with the Commission’s strategic aims

Qualifications/Experience/Skills

Educational Qualification

• Master’s degree (or equivalent post-graduate professional qualification) in the Public Relations, Mass Communication or related field

Experience

• Minimum of 12 years progressively responsible and relevant experience in Communications;


• Minimum of 5 years work experience managing others, preferably in a supervisory capacity within an international organization;


• Experience in developing internal and external partnership working in pursuit of agreed objectives


• Experience of high-level relations with top government officials and diplomats


• Must be conversant with the operations of international organizations, and possess the ability to adapt and work freely in a multi cultural environment.

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities)

• Ability to chair meetings efficiently and effectively;


• Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving)


• Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression)


• Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, takes on share of the work, reliable). Ability to align self and Directorate to the Commission;


• Drive and energy;


• Demonstrates fairness;


• Self-control and stress management methods;


• Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;


• Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.

Age

Candidates must not be fifty (50) years old or over at the point of recruitment and must be a citizen of one of the ECOWAS member states.

Languages

Must be fluent in one of the official languages of ECOWAS: English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of a second official language would be an advantage.