Vacancy Announcement #087/2023

Intern Communications

Climate Change Cluster

Sustainable Energy for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda (SEFFA)

Contract duration: 31.12.2023

Application deadline: 22.05.2023

Duty station: Addis Ababa 

As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, the federally owned Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supports the German Government in achieving its development policy objectives. GIZ promotes complex reforms and change processes. In Ethiopia, GIZ has been working for more than 40 years in bilateral cooperation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and on the commission of the Ethiopian Government and other international donors.

Energising Development (EnDev) is an international flagship program for facilitating market-based access to modern energy services. 760 million people worldwide live without electricity and about 2.6 billion people lack access to clean cookstoves. The global multi-donor partnership program implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) focuses on providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy to deliver social, economic, and environmental change in more than 20 countries worldwide.

In Ethiopia, EnDev cooperates closely with the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE) in providing access to modern energy services to Ethiopian households, social institutions, and SMEs through market development for solar PV, mini-grid, hydro, and energy-efficient cook stoves. For smallholders, the lack of access to modern energy sources for productive use (PUE) is a main limitation to development and improved livelihoods. Energy-related costs often represent one of the highest agribusiness operating costs. Some renewable energy technologies have been developed already, however, very few can be called “accessible” to smallholder farmers to date due to high investment costs. A major reason for this is the lack of scalable, innovative business cases that ensure that already available PUE technologies and services reach smallholder farmers and local agribusiness enterprises.

In line with its work on the productive use of solar energy, EnDev Ethiopia is implementing activities to support smallholder farmers in Ethiopia in accessing and using solar energy to improve their livelihoods and increase their resilience to climate change. The project aims to increase the productivity and economic competitiveness of smallholder farmers and other actors along the dairy and horticultural value chains in Ethiopia by identifying a number of successful PUE business cases and innovations which will be ready for larger scaling up at the end of the three years of project implementation (01/2021 - 12/2023).

The GIZ project team is piloting one business case in the dairy value chain for the solar cooling of milk and the second business case will be a renewable energy rice processing hub. The pilots are accompanied by awareness-raising activities and capacity-building measures.

Responsibilities

The Intern will have the following areas of responsibility:

• Provides support to the project communication work, e.g. contributing ideas and content to the development of impact stories, news items, interviews etc. on the project level in Ethiopia as well as on the global level addressing global partners and stakeholders.

• Work together and coordinate with the EnDev communication experts in the project countries, the communication experts at EnDev HQ in Germany, and the communications team at the GIZ Ethiopia country office.

• Participate in relevant (virtual) meetings and support in organizing events/workshops etc.

• Conduct research and collect information for the preparation of social media posts, speeches, press releases, or any type of written piece for communication purposes.

• Support and follow up on the production of digital and printed communication products developed by the project.

• Administrative tasks in relation to communication and knowledge management activities.

• Support the EnDev Ethiopia program in their communication activities as assigned by the project coordinator

General Duties

• Familiarise with the GIZ Ethiopia and Djibouti communication guidelines as well as with the EnDev communication principles and brand book. This also includes the IKEA Foundation communication guidelines.

• Represent the interests and always acts on behalf of GIZ.

• Ensure the use of office and transport facilities in accordance with terms, conditions and any other agreements of usage.

• Carry out any other tasks relevant to the project which may not be explicitly mentioned in the job description but lie in its nature and as assigned by the project coordinator.

Job Requirements

Education Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications, Journalism, Political Science, Economics or a related field.

Professional experience

• Passion for the topic of Renewable Energy, especially PUE

• Proven experience in content development, writing and/or editorial work and graphics design (work samples may be requested)

• Dedicated, reliable team player and highly adaptive, accommodative with intercultural sensitivity and ability to handle pressure and discourse in a professional setting.

• Good diplomatic and intercultural skills and a sound awareness and sensitivity to gender issues.

• Ability to think and act strategically and analytically, grasp new concepts rapidly and prioritize key topics.

• Proactive, and creative, bringing in own ideas and suggestions.

• Experience in social media content production and management is an advantage.

• Experience in design and video production with expert knowhow of applications such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro is an advantage.

 Other knowledge, additional competencies

• Native Amharic speaker

• Impeccable English language proficiency, both in written and spoken form. Knowledge of German is an advantage.

• Excellent networking skills, communication, and presentation skills,

• Able to contribute to partnership development, considering the cultural and political contexts in development cooperation particularly in the energy sector;

• Strong research and documentation skills;

• Willingness to travel to other regions in Ethiopia.

• Strong computer skills and proficiency in using Microsoft Office 365 applications (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook, MS Teams, etc.)

• Very good technical affinity for media contexts including knowledge of a wide range of multimedia, web and digital tools, and content management systems is an advantage.

How to Apply

Application procedure:

Submit your motivation letter along with your recent CV via email: hreth@giz.de

Note: Please make sure you mention the vacancy number and position ‘Intern Communications #078/2023’ in the subject line of your email application.

Due to the large number of applications, we categorize applications with vacancy numbers.

Applications without vacancy numbers in subject lines might not be categorized in the appropriate folder and could be disqualified.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We encourage persons with disabilities to apply for the position. In the case of equal qualification, persons with disabilities will be given preference.

Applications from qualified women are encouraged.

“Please refer to our brochure to learn more about GIZ’s attractive benefit package.”