Terms of Reference for the recruitment of:

Project Support Assistant for the Smart Africa Digital Academy.

Position

Project  Support Assistant in charge of Marketing and Communications

Introduction

SMART Africa is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government and a wide range of stakeholders including the private sector, international non-government organizations, and academia to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, ushering Africa into a knowledge economy through affordable access to Broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies.

The Smart Africa agenda is led by visionary Heads of State who believe in ICT’s power for the advancement and betterment of the African continent. This agenda will lead Africa to the 04^th industrial revolution, using the transformative power of ICTs through successful implementation and deployment of major ICT infrastructure, applications, services, and creating locally relevant content for Africa while developing a vibrant ICT industry and creating jobs.

Smart Africa aims to put ICT at the Center of the National socioeconomic development agenda of member countries, improve access to ICT, especially Broadband, improve accountability, efficiency, and openness through ICT. It promotes the introduction of advanced technologies in telecommunication while putting the Private Sector first, and leveraging  ICT to promote sustainable development.

About the Smart Africa Digital Academy

Over the past decade, Africa has made great strides in enrolling children in school, with some countries providing free primary education for the first nine years. Despite this achievement, the average Human Capital Index (HCI) falls below the average, with one of the highest being 52 on a scale of 100, education being a major determinant factor.

With a population estimated to approximately 1.3bn people who are majorly youthful, ensuring quality jobs to leverage on the continent’s demographic opportunity is set to be one of Africa’s game-changer. An estimated 15 to 20 million increasingly well-educated young people will join the African workforce every year for the next three decades.

The Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) is the delivery vehicle of the Smart Africa capacity building and skills development activities across the various digital skills spectrum. It is a pan-African dynamic learning ecosystem in which African citizens of all ages and social classes can gain or improve their digital skills, gain qualifications, meet the emerging talent needs of employers, industry or be self-reliant.

The birth of SADA was driven by the need to meet a genuine need for sustainable jobs driven by the fact that 15% of the world’s working-age population are expected to be from Africa by 20303. The governments of the Smart Africa Member States recognize the urgency to drive inclusion and economic growth through the development and adoption of strategies for education and skills development to build this required future workforce.

Digital skills development at all levels – from basic to competency-based – is required to allow the uptake of new technologies in the economy, increase productivity, support growth while avoiding unnecessary disruptions in the labor market and society.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Smart Africa Secretariat would like to recruit a Project Support Assistant to support the Smart Africa Digital Academy implementation in a marketing and communications professional’s capacity.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop, support, and promote SADA’s goals, including message development, social media content creation, and media outreach.
• Develop a corporate identity for SADA under Smart Africa.
• Develop and disseminate public relations materials that increase SADA and Smart Africa’s visibility among stakeholders and lawmakers.
• Build and maintain relationships with journalists, bloggers, investors, and customer audiences that will help advance SADA and Smart Africa’s work.
• Identify target audiences and create strategies to engage through effective communications.
• Ensure digital marketing content aligns with our brand’s identity and message, and assist with marketing campaigns as needed
• Work closely with leaders and executives to develop and strengthen employee engagement activities
• Using appropriate techniques and tools to create a wide range of graphics, videos, and layouts for SADA’s activities, logos, websites, banners, flyers, social media posts, Certificates, emails communications (HTML), and related;
• Work closely with the solution architect for SADA to ensure brand alignment.
• Project support activities including input into project planning and documentation; assistance with implementation resources, monitoring, and reporting on project progress

Other responsibilities will include:

• Any other assignments or projects, which will be assigned from time to time by the leadership of Smart Africa;

Key qualifications

Education and Professional experience:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, or related field
• A minimum of three (3) years of experience in communications strategy development
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Knowledge of digital marketing tactics, such as SEO and email marketing
• Excellent critical thinking skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment and solve problems quickly and effectively
• Experience working in customer relations preferred
• French and English would be an advantage
• Ability to understand training cycles (needs assessments, planning, development, coordination, and monitoring and evaluation);
• Proficiency in MS Office;

General experience and skills:

• Good interpersonal skills with experience in networking with partners at all levels;
• Creativity and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to work in a team;
• Strong communication skills

Languages:

• Excellent Knowledge and Fluency in French or English.
• Good working knowledge in another language will be an added advantage.

Duration of the assignment

The appointment will be for one (1) year renewable subject to availability of fund and performance assessment.

Reporting requirements

The Project support assistant will report directly to the assigned supervisor under the Marketing and Communications department.

Location 

Kigali, Rwanda

Please send your Curriculum Vitae, cover letter, either French or English to the following email address:[email protected] not later than 11^th January 2021 5:00 pm Kigali time.