Short Term Consultant

Roles & Responsibilities:

The specific accountabilities include:

 1. Strategic Communications and Political Economy Update:

Responsible for significant portions of planning, design, and implementation of strategies to promote effective communications with external and internal audiences on Bank-financed operations, research products, and campaigns.

Helps resolve most effective content and communications interventions to address challenges.

Support the development and implementation of an integrated communications strategy for the Structured Dialogue Platform (SDP):

- Serve as a trusted advisor to the Country Manager, providing strategic guidance on stakeholder engagement, partnerships, reputational risk, strategic positioning, advocacy, and leadership communications.

- Craft and deliver high-quality briefings on the reengagement. - Support targeted outreach to key stakeholders, including Development Partners.

- Ensure exceptional output quality, compliance with mandates, and data-driven reporting, with a strong focus on measuring and evaluating impact of the reforms.

- Prepare leadership for media engagements, ensuring key messaging alignment and effective representation.

The Zimbabwe Socio Economic Transformation Fund (ZISET):

Finalize the ZISET Communication strategy and guide its implementation (in consultation with ECR), periodically update the strategy to tailor it to the specific contexts and reflect lessons from any successes or failures experienced during implementation.

- Prepare a stakeholder and audience mapping exercise, outlining the key target groups and how they will engage with ZISET.

- Support the development of communication assets to advance conversations with current and prospective partners, including the Trust Fund’s visibility and engagement at relevant external events and support relevant country-level high-level engagements.

- Draft talking points and strategic key messaging for World Bank leadership and relevant trust fund donors at various levels of management.

- Manage the development of a new external website for the Trust Fund - Write and edit annual and bi-annual reports, impact stories, blogs, and social media messages for the trust fund channels on X and LinkedIn, as well as coordinate inputs for the trust fund website, monthly newsletters, etc.

- Suggest and encourage new and creative ways to communicate ZISET's impact.

- Consult with Recipients and local Donors’ representatives on communication and visibility approaches.

Risk management:

Consultant must monitor perceptions, track shifts in opinion, and respond to inquiries, while publishing and updating key facts about country program goals and breakthroughs.

Must be able to interact with operations staff and project teams, organizing meetings with media and civil society as appropriate. Must be able to take the pulse of the country and advise country teams, with analyses on the political economy, especially during election years, and regular monitoring of the media.

2. Stakeholder Engagement, Advocacy, and Campaigns

• Relationships:

Identify opinion leaders and influential organizations in Zimbabwe and guide a strategy of engagement with these various stakeholders, which might range from parliamentarians to civil society organizations to business associations.

Responsible for Official Use Only convening partner groups for consultations and structured dialogues around projects, knowledge outputs, and country development priorities.

• Events:

Coordinates communications activities and events ranging from press conferences to large seminars and town hall meetings, involving external and/or internal audiences.

• Representation:

Must be prepared to represent the Bank, and Zimbabwe office, before external and internal audiences, explaining WBG policies and operational goals.  

3. Narrative development, Positioning, and Media

• Responsible for planning and delivering a range of written products on the Bank's operational goals, results and knowledge. Outputs range from traditional press releases and Op-Eds to web features, brochures, Q&As, briefing notes, and speeches. Responsible for updating the World Bank's internal and external websites for the country.

• Support WBG operations and engagement: Draft talking points and strategic key messaging for World Bank leadership and relevant partners involved in mechanisms such as the Structured Dialogue Platform (SDP) and the Zimbabwe Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Transformation Fund (ZISET) at various levels of management.

Support the development of communication assets to advance conversations with current and prospective partners, including ZISET’s visibility and engagement at relevant external events and support relevant country-level high-level engagements.

• Manage the development of a new external website for ZISET.