External Relations & Communications Officer

WFP

JOB PURPOSE:

The External Relations Officer leads and coordinates partnerships, communications, and operational reporting to strengthen the Country Office s external engagement, positioning, and advocacy in line with corporate priorities and national context. The role ensures coherent narrative, messaging, and high quality external products, supports effective engagement with government counterparts, donors, partners, and media, and provides strategic analysis of contextual developments to inform management decision-making. Through strong leadership and cross functional coordination, the position safeguards reputational risk, enhances visibility and resource mobilization efforts, and ensures consistency, quality, and alignment across all external relations outputs.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

External Relations Coordination:

• Ensure coordination and alignment of external engagement activities across partnerships, communications, and reporting, in line with Country Office plans and management priorities.
• Contribute to the Country Office s positioning and advocacy by shaping and reviewing strategic narrative, messaging, and key briefing materials to support management external engagement.
• Monitor national contextual developments and humanitarian / development trends to inform external positioning and engagement and provide updates to management highlighting risks and opportunities.

Partnerships:

• Contributes to engagement with government counterparts, donors, and partners, including identifying and shaping partnership opportunities based on programmatic priorities and contextual analysis.
• Ensure effective preparation of partner engagements through the development of high-quality briefing materials and contributions to the planning of key missions, meetings, and engagements.
• Provide review and guidance on partner proposals, reports, and related products from an external relations perspective, ensuring alignment with corporate messaging, donor requirements, and Country Office positioning.

Communications:

• Manage the development and implementation of communications plans, ensuring effective delivery to raise WFP s profile and support fundraising activities.
• Guide the development of communication products, including media materials, digital content, and donor visibility, ensuring quality, accuracy, and consistency of messaging across all products and alignment with partnerships and reporting outputs.
• Draft and provide inputs to content development, messaging, and communication approaches based on operational priorities, external engagement needs, and reputational considerations.
• Lead and coordinate media engagement and outreach, including managing key media relationships, ensuring appropriate positioning and reputational risk management.
• Monitor media and analyze trends relevant to WFP s operations and advise on adjustments to communication or external engagement approaches where needed.

Operational Information Management and Reporting:

• Provide oversight and ensure alignment of operational information and reporting outputs, maintaining quality, consistency, and coherence with external messaging and reporting requirements.
• Facilitate collaboration across units and with external counterparts to strengthen data consistency and complementarity of analysis, and identify gaps or risks in reporting outputs, proposing corrective actions where needed.

General:

• Manage the Partnerships, Operational Information Management and Reporting, and Communications team, ensuring coordination, quality of outputs, and alignment across functions.
• Represent WFP in external engagements, as delegated.
• Other as required.
• undefined