Consultancy - Writer/storyteller: Climate Innovation, Office of Innovation, 7 months, REMOTE, REQ

Contract

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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, innovate...

The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable innovative solutions.

UNICEF's Office of Innovation does this by:

• Connecting with the youth generation as co-shapers, designers and doers for social change in their communities as well as for setting a pace of change for generations of children to come.
• Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
• Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the diversity of public and private sectors to collectively accelerate the delivery of results for children.

About the Climate Change Portfolio

Children are the least responsible for climate change, yet they will bear the greatest burden of its impact. The worsening effects of climate change mean that children face both the immediate impacts of climate-exacerbated humanitarian emergencies and the slower-onset impacts such as water scarcity and disease burden. For children who are already disadvantaged, the risks of climate change are even higher: as crises become more common, poorer families will face even greater difficulties recovering from these increasingly frequent shocks.

The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and time is running out to make the transformations necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Innovation can and must play a central role in finding solutions to this crisis and accelerating the impact of our work in protecting children from the effects of climate change, placing their needs at the center of environmental strategies, and empowering them as agents of change.

The UNICEF Climate Innovation portfolio discovers, iterates, validates, and scales digital, social, data and frugal innovations to tackle the most pressing climate challenges facing children and young people.

About the Young Climate Innovators Initiative

Young people are key stakeholders in shaping climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. They bring fresh perspectives, creativity, and innovative ideas to address the climate challenges affecting their communities. In the last decade, there has been a growing global recognition of youth innovators, and a plethora of scalable innovative solutions abound.

While UNICEF and other UN agencies have already climate programs in place with member states, there remains a disconnect between climate innovations, including youth-led innovations, and government adoption in the trajectory of scale.

The UNICEF Emerging Climate Innovators Shaping the Future Initiative aims to develop a pipeline of proven youth-led interventions (developed by under 30) with the ambition to scale globally through UNICEF's network of over 190 countries. These solutions will be made available to the public on the UNICEF website as well as to UNICEF colleagues on INVENT - the UNICEF global marketplace for innovation. This will enable UNICEF Country Offices to identify proven climate innovation solutions that respond to their programme needs and priorities.

The first global cohort of young, certified climate innovators will be showcased at COP28.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of work

1. Writing 10 innovation impact / human interested stories (500-600 words) for the Climate Innovation Portfolio.
2. Writing 20 creative profiles of transformative climate innovations and the innovators who have developed them (max 800 words for both section solution and innovator)
3. Creating 1 Media and communication package for launching the Climate Innovators Initiative at COP28, including:

a. 1 page of content for the UNICEF website (ca. 1000 words). b. Summary title for each innovator tile in the initiative page to redirect readers to innovation + innovator profile page. c. 5 Key Messages around the Initiative which can be used for social media and for communication with external partners. d. 20 taglines (1 sentence long) summarizing the solution and the innovator behind it to be used on the social media cards. e. Social media copy f. 1 Press release

Your main responsibilities will be:

Innovation Stories

● Writing 10 inspiring impact-focused, human-interest stories highlighting innovative solutions from the Climate Innovation Portfolio that demonstrate: - The results of innovation at scale - That the innovation was developed with and for children and youth - Innovation impact on the ground - The behind the scenes work of the Office of Innovation supporting these solutions to scale sustainably

● Desk-based research to gather necessary information for writing the stories and conducting at least 1 interview per story to gather direct quotes from UNICEF staff and beneficiaries

● Developing a thread throughout the 10 stories to weave a larger narrative of UNICEF innovative climate action. The stories are intended for internal and external publication.

Climate Innovators Initiative

● Writing 20 creative profiles of transformation climate innovations and the innovators who have developed them (max 800 words for both section solution and innovator)

● Research of creative and innovative ways used by successful media and communication agencies to profile solutions. The consultant will work in close cooperation with the UNICEF Office of Innovation Graphic Designer, who will be responsible for designing the media assets for the Climate Innovators Initiative.

● Preparing 1 Media and communication package to launch the Climate Innovators Initiative at COP28.

● Desk-based research to gather necessary information for writing the profiles and conducting at least 1 interview per story to gather direct quotes from innovators themselves

Please click TOR - Writer_Storyteller in Climate Innovation.pdf to access the full TOR and related information.

About you

You are a master storyteller with an eye for detail. You write with clarity, confidence and flair. Ideally, you’ll bring proven experience in writing and editing across complex, technical subjects and creating content strategies in at least one of the following sectors; innovation, technology, finance, human rights or international development. You understand the importance of building strong working relationships.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher*) in Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Information or other relevant field
• A minimum of 5 years of proven professional experience in writing and content development for international organizations and / or media.
• Fluency in English is essential, competence in another UN language will be considered an asset.

Specialized experience and knowledge required for the assignment

• Skilled wordsmith who can develop stories for external or internal audiences that work well across a variety of communication channels, and able to communicate technical complexity with ease and clarity
• A strong, proven track record of developing quality written content
• Experience in creating content plans
• Capacity to prioritize and manage a diverse range of partners, projects and activities
• World class interpersonal skills *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.

Additional experience and knowledge that would be an advantage

• An understanding of the role innovation plays in the development and humanitarian sectors, as well as the UN system.
• Experience working with and across different internal and external communication channels
• Understanding of UNICEF Innovation operating environment and priority partners
• Ability to work with a diverse team in a rapidly-changing work environment and adapt to unforeseen changes

Payment details and further considerations

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant. • Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance

Travel :

• Throughout the recruitment period, the consultant will not be expected to travel.

Duty Station : Remote.

Duration: May - December 2023

Insurance:

UNICEF will not be responsible for costs arising from accidents and/or illness incurred during the consultant’s service. Therefore, the selected candidate must provide proof of enrollment in a health/accident plan prior to starting his/her work.

How to apply:

• Interested applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. Please complete your profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system. • Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class), daily subsistence allowance (limited to UN official rates), and other estimated costs such as visa and travel/health insurance. Please indicate your ability, availability and financial proposal (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. • Applications submitted without a financial proposal will not be considered.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.