Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international non-profit organization that promotes the peaceful transformation of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC, and Brussels, Belgium, Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict—moving away from destructive approaches and towards cooperative solutions. With more than 700 staff worldwide, Search implements projects in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and North America.

The Project 

It is for an 18-month project funded by the European Union. The project brings together four leading peacebuilding and development organizations in the Niger Delta, in a consortium aimed at providing a holistic, community-centered approach to addressing core drivers of criminality, violence, and conflict in the Niger Delta region. The Project has a specific focus on the empowerment and inclusion of youth in the security of their respective communities in the Niger Delta. The consortium partners will leverage existing relationships with the action’s diverse target groups, including at-risk youth, local communities impacted by oil production and oil bunkering, state security actors, the private sector, journalists and media actors, key civil society organizations, and policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels, to secure broad-based buy-in and participation in the action. Overall, the project seeks to initiate a shift in the way that relevant actors think about and approach issues of oil bunkering, criminality, and security in the Niger Delta in favor of more bottom-up, human-centered perspectives. This institutional and social shift is necessary to sustainably reduce the prevalence of oil bunkering and other forms of criminality and violence in the region in the long term.

The design of the action centers around four activity streams, each addressing a systemic driver of division, violence, and criminality in Bayelsa, Rivers, and Delta States:

Stream 1 will foster intra-community collaboration around issues of social exclusion, lack of economic opportunity, and environmental degradation.

Stream 2 will build trust and collaboration between communities government and security actors for more participatory, community-centered security operations.

Stream 3 will leverage arts- and culture-based approaches to foster social cohesion between divided communities both online and offline.

Stream 4 will facilitate policy change to institutionalize community-centered security approaches at the local, state, regional, national, and international levels.

Position Summary

To broadly socialize key messages and themes emanating from the project, Search will lead a multimedia peace campaign on both traditional (i.e. radio, television) and non-traditional (i.e. social media) platforms. To achieve these, Search is seeking an experienced multimedia specialist to produce the best quality audiovisual materials videos, photos, advertisements, TV interviews, and digital content for TV, radio, Social media, and other digital platforms. Search will equip the consultant with findings from its social media listening tool comprising real-time monitoring and tracking of the information ecosystem for identifying the drivers of conflict. This information will be deployed into building creative content to disseminate across multimedia platforms. The consultant will also be provided with a report on media mapping which will seek to identify the preferences of a targeted audience of the multimedia products.

The multimedia peace campaign will seek to raise awareness of core drivers of violence and criminality in the Niger Delta (as informed by the action’s research as well as takeaways from intergenerational and inter-communal dialogues), as well as provide fact-based information around particularly divisive issues (as informed by social media listening). Particular emphasis will be placed on the role that youth marginalization and limited livelihood opportunities play in driving criminality and violence, and the importance of community-centered, inclusive approaches to security. On radio programs and in social media content, project participants (i.e. members of CSADs, participants in transformative dialogues) will share their experiences of collaborating with diverse actors (community leaders, state security actors, private sector) to develop participatory strategies for preventing violence and criminality. The campaign will also widely broadcast effective approaches that peace architecture participants or targeted communities have found to preventing or mitigating conflict, offering actionable lessons learned that can be replicated elsewhere in target states. The position will be based in any of these three states: Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers but should be flexible to travel across project states to harvest materials from activities that will enrich content for dissemination.

Responsibilities

• Develop multimedia messages informed by findings from the real-time monitoring and tracking of the information ecosystem and other key findings from other activities across the project states.
• Further utilize the above information to develop alternative messages that will inform the content and audience targeting of the action’s multimedia peace campaign.
• Produce 168 high-quality multimedia content, including short videos, animations, interactive presentations, photography, and other digital assets, based on the recommendations provided by the media and communication channel mapping report
• Produce 24 culturally-sensitive contents that will be used for TV broadcast
• Produce 168 culturally sensitive contents that will be used for radio broadcast
• Develop and produce key messages that promote harmony, commonalities, trauma healing, and positive behavioral changes.
• Professional audiovisual coverage of project activities when needed including photography.
• Provide support to the Mass Media and Information Management Team in conducting a multimedia peace campaign to raise public awareness and knowledge around issues as they relate to the project objectives.
• Develop digital content for social media in collaboration with the communication team
• Ensure that audio and visual media content being collected include appropriate informed consent and is captured and stored according to the organization’s digital library and data protection protocols, and take prompt action to address issues.

Deliverables

• Create and produce high-quality relevant multimedia products that cut across all platforms which will contribute to changing attitudes and challenging stereotypes.
• Convert video formats for use on the web
• The consultant will provide all necessary production equipment. No equipment or software (i.e. cameras, computers, movie editing software, etc.) will be purchased under this activity.
• The consultant is solely responsible for engaging all personnel to facilitate all aspects of this contract as necessary. All costs associated with the production of the multimedia products will be the sole responsibility of the contractor and should be incorporated in the contract cost proposal.
• Ensure that the project integrates ‘Do No Harm’ principles at all levels. The consultant will carefully produce the multimedia products by adhering to the script strictly. There will be room for creativity and flexibility on the prior approval of the Search. The consultant will take high-quality, high-resolution professional action photographs during film production for SEARCH photo library.
• Ensure that all requests and instructions on the multi-media production requirements are fulfilled.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent in Communications, Journalism, Digital media, International relations, Development Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Marketing, or a related field; a Master’s degree is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience and competency in communications for development, solutions journalism, and multimedia content production relating to the conflict context of the Niger Delta region.
• Minimum of five years of working experience in multimedia content production and excellent technical capacities to ensure smooth and high-quality production including proficient use of specialized multimedia and film editing software.
• Outstanding knowledge of the industry standards.
• Working experience within multicultural teams and international organizations or companies and knowledge of Niger Delta development issues.
• Accurate current addresses i.e. physical, postal, telephone, and email
• Understanding of and experience in harnessing traditional and social media for awareness-raising and advocacy, social media savvy.

Other Relevant Requirements

• Strong command of the English language, with excellent written and oral communication skills. A very good working knowledge of the local languages in the Niger Delta will be an added advantage including the Pidgin language.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, with the ability to gather and synthesize contributions from multiple sources and colleagues effectively into creative storytelling scripts for social media and other digital platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,)
• Excellent analytic skills and ability to produce high-quality written materials for different audiences;
• Creative writing, editing, photography, presentation, public speaking and active listening skills;
• Experience in  commissioning, procuring, contracting, developing, and producing marketing/campaign/advertising materials and products; good working knowledge of media buying will be an asset;
• Proven ability to work effectively in a team environment and communicate highly.
• Proactive, creative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative; ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• A demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards and a diverse workplace; and
• Ability to prioritize, plan, and organize workflow to tight timeframes, handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities.
• Portfolio showcasing relevant previous work
• Detailed methodology and approach for the assignment

Time Frame And Place Of Work

• The Consultant is expected to commence the assignment in June 2024. He/She will work Rivers and pay regular visits to other Delta and Bayelsa project states as he/she is expected to cover activities not limited to the community town Hall meeting to generate some data.

Selection Criteria

• Relevance of proposed methodology to the goal, and objectives for the project.
• Quality of proposed methods, conflict sensitivity approaches, and methodology
• Qualifications of the candidate(s).
• Proposed budget in relation to proposed methodology, deliverables, and team.
• Timeline for proposed activities.

Applications

To apply, interested candidates (individuals or teams) are requested to submit the following two documents:

1. A technical proposal proposing a methodology for the engagement with a financial proposal for the completion of the aforementioned deliverables;
2. CV of team members/Company profile
3. Samples and Evidence of previous related engagements – links and pictures will be useful

Note: Only two documents can be submitted, so the technical and financial proposals must be combined, along with the short cover letter.

Applications must be submitted on or before 24th May 2024. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

To Apply Visit : https://jobs.lever.co/sfcg/96f98ac6-3a07-45c5-ae91-7127bae36948/apply