Consultant - Copy Editor & Writer (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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action.

UN Women’s Office in India, based in New Delhi, focuses on the following strategic areas of results: Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems; Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy; Marginalized women and young women have access to, participate in and achieve quality learning, entrepreneurship and employment outcomes; and a comprehensive and dynamic set of norms, policies and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is strengthened and implemented. Working closely with the Government of India, national partners, civil society, media, the private sector and influencers across sectors, UN Women aims to ensure women-led development and gender-responsive Covid-19 response and recovery in India.

The Country Office seeks to recruit a copy writer and editor to support the critical communications work to showcase programme, normative and advocacy results and to increase visibility of the gender equality agenda in India. The Copy Writer, Editor Consultant will be recruited for 60 days over a period of one year for this purpose.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this assignment is as follows:

• To write and edit content for UN Women websites, news and opinion pieces, human-interest storytelling to showcase UN Women’s programme impact and advocacy, and reports for external audiences.

Under the supervision of the Communications Officer, the Copy Editor/Writer Consultant will be responsible for writing and editing website content, impact stories, news and blogs and reports for external audiences, for UN Women CO, with inputs from UN Women Country Representative and programme portfolio focal points. Duties and responsibilities include:

• Writing and editing human-interest stories, following UN Women editorial guidelines, to showcase UN Women India’s programmes, advocacy and impact on the ground.
• Writing and editing contemporary blogs and opinion pieces tailored for media opportunities garnered to place UN Women-authored content on media sites.
• Copy editing UN Women research publications for external audiences, as needed.
• Supporting the Communications Officer with any other copy editing and copy writing needs that might arise.

Deliverables:

• Evidence of quality human-interest stories written and edited as agreed with UN Women India CO to showcase programme, normative and advocacy results.
• Evidence of news, articles, blogs and opinion pieced written and/or edited as per agreed editorial schedule and commitments.
• Copy editing support provided for UN Women research reports and publications.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Demonstrated research and analytical capacity;
• Excellent organizational, inter-personal, communication and administrative skills;
• Excellent drafting and presentation skills
• Strong IT skills
• Proven ability to manage diverse and complex tasks, with tight deadlines;
• Able to take initiative and work independently, with minimum supervision;
• Able to work effectively in a team and in an international environment.

Management and Leadership

• Focuses on impact and results and responds positively to critical feedback
• Creativity and innovation
• Conflict resolution skills
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
• Willing to work as a team, and promote a learning environment and a focus on results-based management.

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in communications, media relations, journalism or any other related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• 5 plus years of experience in writing website and news content, with a focus on human-interest and digital storytelling.
• 5 plus years of experience in copy editing print media or other writing.
• Excellent networks with mainstream media.
• Fluency in writing, editing and communicating in English.
• Ability to effectively organize, prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Familiarity of gender issues and the United Nations is an asset.
• Attention to details and familiar with the latest trends in blog writing and digital journalism.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.

Application:

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

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;
• Resume and Cover Letter
• Submit 2 Writing Samples. One of these should show your editing of a written document i.e., before and after.
• 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);
• Required experience (10 points)
• Excellent editing, analytical and writing skills in English as evidenced through writing samples (5 points).

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

• Desk Review –70%;
• Writing Samples –30%.

Please Note:

• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
• 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.

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.