Communication Specialist, P-3, WCARO Dakar, Senegal

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 107,719 USD and 141,049 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.

For every child, Hope

West and Central Africa offers a portrait of the world’s unfinished development agenda and many challenging humanitarian situations. Inequalities and poverty, armed conflicts or weak governance characterize many countries, leading to an environment in which children’s survival and future well-being face daily challenges that often overshadow the region’s achievements and great potential.

The UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office’s (WCARO) communication and advocacy team works to ensure that the regional office and country offices in the region are equipped to carry out effective communication and public advocacy work through three integrated areas: 1. Media outreach and partnerships; 2. Story-telling through initiatives and products; and 3. Engagement with children, youth and influencers. The team works to facilitate and create synergies, opportunities and exchange among communication staff in 24 country offices, acting as a facilitation force with headquarters, country offices and national committees to ensure coherence and consistency in the implementation of communication and public advocacy strategies that are aligned with global strategies and relevant to regional and local context. Another important focus of its work is internal communication, in coordination with HR and the RD front office.

To achieve better results for children, it is critical to establish new ways of collaborating across the organization and leveraging digital media. For these reasons, UNICEF West and Central Regional Office is looking to recruit a Communication Specialist to develop and implement regional internal communication strategies with the aim of contributing to the acceleration of organizational results, while leveraging the digital and emerging information technologies ecosystem.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the job

Under the supervision of the Regional Chief of Communication, the Communication Specialist is accountable for developing, managing, coordinating, implementing and monitoring the internal communication strategies, and associated products and activities. The incumbent will also lead on technical support to internal communication initiatives and products, in close collaboration with the Regional Director’s Office and Human Resources team. Networking with internal and external audiences, with the goal to promote UNICEF’s work to engage the greater public, especially young people, as well as staff, thereby maintaining a cohesive workforce and a sense of community. The Communication Specialist will support a broad range of communication activities as part of the internal communication efforts, including writing, editing and producing high quality communication and advocacy products, and supporting coordination with sections within the Regional Office. The Communication Specialist will assist in planning, designing, rolling out and evaluating communication and advocacy projects and initiatives.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

1. Internal communication strategy
   • Facilitate the development and implementation of a West and Central Africa/regional internal communication, advocacy using evidence and data from programme sections;
   • Strategically plan, execute and measure the impact of targeted internal communication that fosters engagement and connectedness among all of UNICEF’s workforce;
   • Engaging and mobilizing functional networks to support the achievement of the global Internal Communication and Staff Engagement (ICSE) goals, and aligning and integrating functional regional SharePoint sites to create a more synergized digital ICSE ecosystem with the aim of improving internal communication in WCAR;
   • Foster inclusive, transparent, constructive and authentic exchanges between staff at all levels of the organization, for enhanced awareness, agile collaboration and connectedness – advancing UNICEF’s programmatic priorities and co-creating a value-based organizational culture.
2. Awareness raising and engagement
   • Continue raising awareness of the Regional Office for West and Central Africa communication and advocacy work and its role in supporting Country Offices and driving organizational changes among UNICEF staff in the region;
   • Promote UNICEF’s values and its mandate within the Regional Office to engage staff, thereby maintaining a cohesive workforce and a sense of community;
   • Increase staff awareness and practice of UNICEF’s Core Values to help ensure all behaviors' of staff are fully aligned with them;
   • Increase staff awareness and engagement on how to accelerate the achievement of UNICEF’s global targets in all SP Goal Areas;
3. Communication materials
   • Produce quality communication and advocacy products, presentations, a regional newsletter, speeches, and other and multimedia assets that tell the story of UNICEF’s impact on children in the region from a regional office perspective;
   • Support the communication section by working on social media outputs, developing, as needed, media releases, key messages, fact sheets, Q&As, speeches, presentations and other communication products to support effective internal communication;
   • Improve internal communication and staff engagement (ICSE), and collaboration among all staff globally through user-friendly and integrated digital ICSE sites, channels and tools.
4. Capacity building and knowledge sharing
   • Provide training and support the enhancement of communications and knowledge skills among staff to enable them to perform their duties in a consistent manner with high quality;
   • Advocate for a proactive information-seeking approach among staff and invest in capacity enhancement to achieve a sustainable and effective internal communication;
   • Coordinate knowledge management around photo and video coverage of UNICEF’s programming in the region and maintain a regional communication product library;
   • Maintain and update internal WCAR website in collaboration with ICTD and Focal points in Country and Regional Offices
   • Ensure that communication and advocacy products are disseminated and integrated across the Regional Office’s processes and aligned to organizational goals;
   • Ensure adequate incentives are in place including recognition of communication and advocacy knowledge champions;
   • Enhance capacities of staff members on internal communication and advocacy;
   • Support coordination and liaise with the global ICSE Office in the Division of Global Communication and Advocacy (GCA), UNICEF Country Offices in the Central and West and Central Africa region, and Regional Office colleagues

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

• An advanced university degree in Communication, Public Relations or related field. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• Five years professional work experience in communication, traditional and digital media or related field.
• Proven experience in using professionally social and digital media
• Excellent writing skills in English and French.
• Experience in producing feature stories for traditional and online media.
• Technical competence in producing visual content for various media formats (audio, video, photography).
• Ability to manage relationships with photographers, videographers, media representatives, government officials and other UNICEF partners.
• Planning and monitoring skills; ability to organize work and projects.
• Commitment to continuous learning for professional development.
• Initiative, passion and commitment to UNICEF’s mission and professional values.
• Previous communications experience in emergencies is highly desirable.
• Fluency in French and English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

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 here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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 are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

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.

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