The World Bank Group’s Country Office in Port Moresby is on the lookout for an External Affairs Officer who will take charge of the dialogues throughout Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Your responsibility will be to make our collaboration heard—creating narratives, interacting with media, providing advice to top management, and assuring that the communities, the government, and the partners are all on the same page concerning the growth and resilience path.
This position requires a diplomatic and proactive communication professional who firmly believes that strategic engagement is the key to unlocking opportunities and managing challenges. If you think you can be the trusted voice for one of the world’s major development institutions in a critical region, we’d love to see your application.
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External Affairs Officer – Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu
Job #: req35317
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Communications
Grade: GF
Term Duration: 3 years
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment
Location: Papua New Guinea (based in Port Moresby)
Required Language(s): English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date: 26 January 2026 (11:59pm UTC)
Organizational Context and Role
Are you looking to make a career that is particularly rewarding? The World Bank Group is an exceptional international collaboration whose primary goal is to abolish extreme poverty, enhance shared prosperity, and advance sustainable development. The External and Corporate Relations (ECR) Vice Presidency plays a pivotal role in enhancing the impact of the World Bank Group through the creation of public consciousness, stakeholder management, and the preservation of the institution’s reputation.
The job is located in the East Asia Pacific External Affairs Unit (ECREA), which covers the fast-paced and varied Pacific Island nations of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. These nations have to deal with a lot of different problems stemming from being at the edge of the world, being small, and having weak economies, but at the same time, they have a lot of potential for strong, being led by the private sector, growth. The World Bank Group has dramatically increased its presence in the Pacific in order to help overcome these structural limitations.
We are seeking a strategic and dynamic External Affairs Officer to be based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This role is central to shaping the narrative, managing relationships, and communicating the impact of the World Bank Group’s work across these three countries. You will be the voice and the strategic connector, working to build trust, mobilize support, and manage the institution’s reputation in a complex and evolving development landscape.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Reporting to the External Affairs Manager, you will be responsible for planning and executing a comprehensive communications and stakeholder engagement strategy. Your core duties will align with the ECREA’s four pillars:
1. Strategic Communications & Content Creation:
- Create, carry out, and appraise interconnected communication tactics and campaigns that make the World Bank Group’s policies, projects, and knowledge products more visible.
- Generate content that is of excellent quality and very attractive to different audience groups, and this content may be in the form of press releases, feature stories, website text, social media posts, talking points, and multimedia packages.
- Effectively and smartly distribute this content via the selected media and outside channels.
2. Stakeholder Engagement & Partnership Building:
- Develop and keep good relations with the most important external stakeholders, such as government officials, media, and civil society in your country, private sector, NGOs, and development partners.
- Look for ways to place the World Bank Group at the center of national dialogues and platforms, thus creating partnerships that increase development impact.
- Plan and take care of events, roundtables, and press conferences that gather stakeholders and promote discussions on important development topics with the help of the right information.
3. Reputational Risk Management & Media Relations:
- You will track and scrutinize political and media scenarios, gathering trends and news developments to inform and equip management.
- You will sweep the area and spot the growing issues that could harm the company’s reputation and suggest how the company can put things right.
- You will be the main point of contact with the media, handling inquiries, proposing stories, organizing interviews, and nurturing excellent connections with journalists from the local and regional areas.
4. Strategic Advisory & Operational Support:
- Provide strategic communications guidance and support to operational teams across the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA, ensuring their work is effectively communicated and contextualized.
- Support regional and corporate communications initiatives as required.
- Manage social media strategy, mapping key online voices and leveraging digital platforms for engagement and advocacy.
Selection Criteria
Education & Experience:
- A Master’s diploma in Communications, Political Science, International Relations, Journalism, Economics, or alike disciplines.
- At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in strategic communications, public affairs, journalism, or stakeholder engagement.
- Experience with multilaterals, international financial institutions, or the local private sector is a strong plus.
Skills & Expertise:
- Proven Track Record: Communication strategies, media relations, and creative storytelling, have been successfully designed and executed, hence, the proven success.
- Deep Contextual Knowledge: Losi aiki engei a na forte, omoni feo e, and stakeholder landscape in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and/or Vanuatu.
- Stakeholder Savvy: The established relationships and the experience of working with government, NGOs, and media have become the critical audiences.
- Risk Management: An ability to identify, assess, and control measures that eliminate or significantly decrease reputational risks has been shown.
- Personal Competencies: People with excellent interpersonal, organizational, and teamwork skills are preferred. Being a self-starter with the capacity to multitask, meet tight deadlines, and work flexibly in a fast-paced, multicultural environment is required.
- Language: English fluency (both written and spoken) is a must.
World Bank Group Culture & Core Competencies
The successful candidate will embody our cultural attributes:
- Sense of Urgency: Anticipates and responds quickly to stakeholder’s requirements.
- Thoughtful Risk-Taking: Overcomes the usual practices to conduct innovation and impact more.
- Empowerment and Accountability: They encourage both themselves and others to implement and all bear the responsibility for the outcome.
We adhere to core competencies including delivering results for clients, collaborating within teams and across boundaries, and creating, applying, and sharing knowledge.
Application
It is a local recruitment position located in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, for a three-year period initially. The World Bank Group provides a complete benefits package. We are an equal opportunity employer and dedicate ourselves to fostering a diverse workforce.
If you see yourself as a strategic communicator who is prepared to influence the development narrative in the Pacific region, we invite you to submit your application by the deadline of January 26th, 2026.
