Consultant - Communications Specialist (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women’s India Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, works to accelerate the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women through the strengthening of strategic partnerships, technical and policy advisory services and advocacy with governmental, inter-governmental and civil society partners. In addition, UN Women CO is charged with leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on gender equality, including through ensuring accountability for results.

Reporting to the Country Representative, Communications Specialist will collaborate closely with the Headquarters, Regional, Multi-Country Office and Country Offices’ (RO/CO/CO) colleagues to ensure communications strategies, media relations and organizational outreach efforts are developed, posted and aligned with corporate communications policies and initiatives. The Communications Specialist also collaborates with RO/CO and HQ colleagues to coordinate communications across all areas of the CO’s work. The Communications specialist will provide technical support on the COs outreach campaigns, resource mobilization and donor relations initiatives. The Communication Specialist supports intergovernmental processes, and activities and special events organized for UN Women. The Comms specialist will write press releases, briefs, speeches and social media posts to support the CO.

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead the development and implementation of communication and outreach/advocacy strategies and plans, with a specific focus on media:

• Conduct communication needs assessments for ICO, including projects, programmes and corporate change initiatives;
• Design, develop, and implement communication and outreach/advocacy strategies, including media strategies; ensure gender perspective;
• Integrate communication, advocacy and outreach strategies into proposals for project/programmes and other initiatives;
• Monitor and analyze print and social media and prepare speeches, press releases and reports;
• Launch in-country UN Women/ UN system corporate and local/regional campaigns and special events;
• Provide advice and guidance to and coordinate with CO, RO and HQ around comms in the region.

Lead the development and dissemination of advocacy materials in the country/region:

• Develop and produce communication and advocacy instruments and materials, including briefing materials, press releases, and articles and coordinate its dissemination through effective channels;
• Identify and launch information opportunities, activities, approaches and platforms and partners;
• Provide advice on advocacy materials and coordinate launching flagship initiatives and publications in the region;
• Lead the engagement and supervision of video producers and other communication specialists to produce audio/ visual material on UN Women’s work;
• Write speeches;
• Develop brochures, factsheets, stories from the field to inform media and general public at the regional and global level;
• Follow guidelines from and report to HQ.

Manage media relations for the ICO:

• Lead relationship building with press in country; maintain and update database of relevant press;
• Respond timely and clearly to media inquiries and to a variety of inquiries and information requests; prepare related correspondence; identify topics, background information, news-related development and coverage of interest;
• Organize roundtable discussions, press conferences, and briefing sessions with press;
• Facilitate interviews with senior managers; connect media with UN Women subject experts;
• Finalize talking points.

Build and maintain partnerships and maintain relations with donors:

• Identify and develop new communication partnerships and alliances to enhance visibility; manage and nurture existing partnerships;
• Liaise with advocacy partners and undertake outreach to civil society organizations, governments, and other groups to ensure that newsworthy information reaches the public and donors;
• Guide and collaborate closely with communication colleagues in other offices to ensure consistency with corporate policies, messaging and initiatives;
• Submit packages for programme initiatives for donor review.

Oversee the COs communication over all, including our online presence:

• Finalise and manage the CO’s communications strategy
• Coordinate all comms specialists in the CO so there is a consistent and ‘joined up’ approach to our comms work
• Build capacity of comms officers in the CO
• Ensure a professional and timely presence across all media
• Develop comms materials that can be used to mobiise resources for the CO
• Manage the Country Representative’s twitter account
• Oversee and maintain (regional) websites, including developing design and content;
• Manage the CO’s web-presence in the line with corporate web policy;
• Oversee and manage (regional and global) social media accounts in line with corporate social media policy.

Facilitate knowledge building and sharing:

• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned from the CO directly linked to programme country goals and activities and ensure exchange of information;
• Provide training and workshops on communication and advocacy as appropriate.

Deliverables:

• Successful implementation of the communications strategy leading to greater exposure and understanding of UN Women’s work in the ICO
• Quality and relevant advocacy materials and content or the website and social media channels
• Regular interactions with mass media, as shown by coverage
• Weekly management of our social media presence (twitter, web page and social media posts)
• Regular interactions with donors, as shown in increased funds
• Regular exchange of information between the CO, HQ and the region as shown in coherent and relevant regional public presence
• Successful monthly reporting to the Management

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to communicate sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Strong knowledge of managing web-based knowledge management systems
• Strong understanding of production, graphic design and photography standards
• Strong knowledge of social media platforms and experience in social media outreach
• Strong oral and written communication and editing skills
• Strong communication, networking and advocacy skills
• Ability to provide advice and be strategic and analytical
• Good knowledge of local country media landscape
• Knowledge of gender and human rights issues is desirable

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in communications, public relations, journalism or relevant field is required.

Experience

• At least 5 years of professional work experience at national or international level in public relations, communications or advocacy, including in media relations;
• Experience in the use of social media;
• Experience in media relations is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Hindi is required.
• Other Indian languages are desirable.

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Working knowledge and experience of working Communications/Advocacy (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview (70 Points)
• Written Test (30 Points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.