Communication Specialist (Content Creator) – Nutrition Crisis (Sahel and Horn of Africa), P-3, TA (6 months), Marketing and PR Services PFP, Geneva, Switzerland

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 137,951 USD and 180,636 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

UNICEF’s Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP) has ambitious goals to deliver on income, influence, and brand recognition. A key driver of increased income is a strong brand, and a key strategy to deliver that is through engaging content to both build the brand and engender support.

PFP is seeking ways to engage private sector audiences in a more enriching and meaningful way about the malnutrition crisis in the Sahel and Horn of Africa. In these regions, the impacts of climate change, conflict and insecurity are multiplying existing levels of extreme poverty and a lack of sustainable development opportunities.

In the Sahel, 6.3 million children under the age of five, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year alone. While countries in the Horn of Africa are currently facing a fourth consecutive below-average rainfall season, which is aggravating the current water crisis and ongoing drought in five countries. Up to 20 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Somalia will need water and food assistance until the end of 2022 due to drought, insecurity, conflict, and economic challenges. In Somalia, catastrophic hunger levels have left more than 513,000 children at risk of dying – 173,000 more than during the 2011 famine.

The crisis is having devastating consequences for women and children, also heightening the risk of gender-based violence (GBV), sexual exploitation and abuse and hampering children’s access to education.

Currently, the crisis is receiving muted global attention – overshadowed by other emergencies and global socio-political and economic issues. Creating compelling content is key to raising awareness and funds needed to support affected women and children over the coming months while working to enable communities to build resilience against future shocks. This content must protect the dignity of participant communities and avoid harmful stereotypes.

The PFP Supporter Content Team is looking for a creative, versatile content creator who will deliver a new and compelling way to approach and develop content relating to malnutrition in affected countries.

For every child, a Champion

The PFP Supporter Content Team is looking for a creative, experienced professional who has an acute understanding of the lived experience of women and children in the context of conflict, climate change, and malnutrition. The professional will have the knowledge and experience in content creation about marginalized and affected communities, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and the affected countries in this crisis. Importantly through this experience, knowledge, and consciousness of global representational trends, the role will move beyond the traditional way of storytelling about malnutrition to develop a rich and compelling narrative framework for creating content with and about the people affected.

The role will convene a small reference group of stakeholders from UNICEF’s national committees and develop this framework and include an appropriate approach to planning, gathering content (e.g., through participatory methods), and post-production. The framework will incorporate available audience insights, new trends, and ways of storytelling in a way that can connect the issues with UNICEF’s private sector audiences in a meaningful way and enlist their support.

Based on this framework, the role will design, develop, and produce content. This may include traveling to an affected country and producing multimedia materials often together with local content creators, producing content remotely and through repurposed material. The role will also create a dissemination plan for the content. Finally, the role will document the learnings of the project, including identified challenges and opportunities for developing this approach in a short report.

How can you make a difference?

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Under the supervision of the Communications Manager of the Supporter Content Team and working closely with the team members, and a small reference group of stakeholders, as well as relevant country and regional offices, the role will undertake the following tasks:

1. Develop a narrative framework for content creation: The role will be responsible for developing a short framework that incorporates available insights about the situation, representational trends, audience, engaging content formats and styles, and needs reflected by UNICEF’s private sector community. The framework will outline an appropriate approach to planning, gathering (e.g. participatory) and post-production of the content for the project. Important in this process is conveying a group of stakeholders from national committees who will provide inputs insights and ensure the content is relevant to audiences during the project.
2. Develop and produce content: based on this framework, and where needed working with internal and external consultants, the role will develop a content production plan and develop content that can include:

• Repurposed assets using archive material on UNICEF’s Digital Asset Management platform WeShare to create new assets
• Creative conceptual assets using graphic/ animated elements
• Remote produced content by remotely working with often amateur content creators to produce content packages.
• In-country content production by travelling to an affected country to produce content packages (often working in collaboration with local content creators)
• Managing post-production process of content assets
• Ensuring that all content production and post-production meets UNICEF’s ethical and technical specifications and is prepared with various versions for dissemination including packaging on WeShare

3. Create a dissemination plan including links to the content and short descriptions for each of the packages.
4. Draft a short analysis of lessons learnt from the experience and any refinements to and any document any testing results shared by national committees who used the content during the period. This analysis can also include any refinements to the approach which can potentially be applied to future content production.

Deliverables:

Under the supervision of the Communications Manager of the Supporter Content Team and working closely with the team members and in accordance with UNICEF’s ethical imagery guidelines and technical specifications, the role will undertake the following tasks:

1. A 5-6 page narrative and content framework for the current nutrition crisis in Sahel and HOA: Working closely with the Supporter content team and relevant stakeholders, the role will develop a short framework of around 5/6 pages. To do this the role will:

• Convene a core group of representatives from national committees who will provide inputs and insights and ensure products are relevant to audiences
• Review relevant and available research regarding the situation in the affected countries,
• Identify representational trends for consideration
• Identify appropriate content trends for consideration and provide any available references of relevant content formats and styles
• Develop a suitable approach to planning, gathering, and producing content as part of this project.
• Write and compile the framework

2. Develop and produce content: based on this framework, and where needed working with internal and external consultants, in close coordination with relevant teams, the role will:

• Develop a content planning document and system for the project including pre-production work
• Create content from existing assets: the role will use available assets on WeShare and stock footage to create at least 3 new multimedia content packages (e.g. an explainer video, a photo essay)
• Create creative conceptual assets: the role will develop at least 5 pieces of compelling content assets using graphic elements. (e.g. a collage animated piece, constructed portrait series, Instagram reels)
• Work with often amateur content creators to create remotely to produce 3-4 content packages. (e.g., working with a youth reporter/volunteer or producing a short day in the life selfie video)
• Produce new content (photo, video, text, creative content package) on location by travelling to 1-2 affected countries (often working in collaboration with local content creators) to produce 2/3 content packages
• Oversee and manage the post-production of all the content and where necessary also do their own post-production eg video editing.
• Ensure that all content produced is formatted for UNICEF’s uses including Broll, MIX, and INT versions, and versions for social media and include all necessary shortlist, transcripts, etc
• Supervise packaging and distribution, and archiving of content on WeShare
• Ensure all content meets UNICEF’s technical and ethical guidelines.

3. Develop a short dissemination plan for the content that includes links and descriptions of the content

4. Draft a short analysis (less than 10 pages) of lessons learnt from the experience and any document of any testing results shared by national committees who used the content during the period. This analysis can also include any refinements to the approach which can potentially be applied to future content production.

Estimated duration of the contract:

• 6 Months

Reporting to:

• Communications Manager – Supporter Content

Working Place:

• Geneva, Switzerland

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Marketing, Communications, the humanities, journalism, broadcast, or another relevant field.
• Alternatively, a first-level university degree in a relevant field combined with 2 years of additional professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• Any other additional training in a related field is an asset.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience as a content producer with proven videography and photography experience (filming, editing) is required
• Experience in creative direction is required
• Experience working with content creators / participants using collaborative and participatory approaches is an asset
• Experience in animation and graphic design is an asset
• Experience in project management is an asset
• Experience in working with creative teams or agencies and a sound understanding of the creative process is an asset
• Experience in the NGO sector/ for UNICEF and/or UN is an asset
• Experience working closely with women and children in communities affected by conflict, climate change, and malnutrition is an asset

Language requirement:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1) are required.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF PFP-Geneva is currently reviewing organizational changes; therefore, the exact future location of the post is still under consideration/to be determined. Candidates may be asked to commence duties remotely. Should the selected candidate be assigned and relocated, they may later be asked to relocate and be assigned to another location during the initial contract or assignment period.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.