Design national urban policy and planning publications for Guinea-Bissau

Volunteering

Overview

Produce graphic design and layout for urban policy publications in Guinea-Bissau.

You have:

• Experience in graphic design and editorial layout of long-form institutional or technical publications, using InDesign, Affinity Publisher or equivalent professional layout software.
• Ability to work with content in Portuguese, including correct handling of accented characters, hyphenation and typographic conventions.
• Skills in integrating maps, tables, charts, photographs and diagrams into a coherent visual narrative.
• Strong attention to detail, consistency across pages and adherence to a defined visual identity.
• Ability to work autonomously and remotely, to meet agreed deadlines and to communicate regularly with a small technical team.
• Familiarity with UN or public-sector visual identity standards, or with urban planning and public policy publications, is considered an asset but is not required.

Contract

This is a UNV contract. More about UNV contracts.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote, monitor and report on progress in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, with the twin objectives of housing for all and sustainable urban development. UN-Habitat works with governments, local authorities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other agencies to promote sustainable urbanization and reduce urban poverty, through norm-setting, operational activities, capacity-building, monitoring, advocacy and partnership building at global, regional, national and local levels.

UN-Habitat has been active in Guinea-Bissau since 2015, working on urban resilience, urban and regional planning, urban governance, reduction of land-related conflicts, basic services delivery, affordable housing, urban policy and related legislation. The Programme partners with UN sister agencies and the European Union, and especially with the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Urban Planning (MOPHU), the State Secretariat for Planning and Regional Integration (SEPIR) under the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment and Biodiversity (MEB), the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Local Power (MATPL), as well as regional and city authorities.

In Guinea-Bissau, UN-Habitat performs both normative and operational work. On the normative side, it has supported the elaboration of spatial and strategic plans such as Bissau 2030 and Bijagós 2030. On the operational side, it has promoted initiatives on public infrastructure (logistical facilities, sanitation, etc.), is engaged in two Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) projects on land and water governance for vulnerable groups, and in 2023 launched a multi-year Green and Inclusive Cities programme through the EU-funded project "Nô Misti Disinvolvimentu Local" (NMDL). The Country Office in Bissau, led by a Country Manager and a Chief Technical Adviser, ensures coherence with the UNSDCF, government priorities, the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda.

It is within this framework that, under the leadership of the Government of Guinea-Bissau and in the context of the NMDL project, the National Urbanisation Policy and the General Urban Plans for the cities of Buba and Gabu have been developed and validated with the technical support of UN-Habitat and MOPHU. These three documents are policy and planning instruments that will guide sustainable urban development, land use and municipal investment in Guinea-Bissau over the coming years. With the technical content now finalised and validated, the remaining step is to prepare the documents for publication. Neither UN-Habitat Guinea-Bissau nor the counterpart ministry has in-house graphic design capacity for this stage, and support from Online Volunteers with graphic design skills is therefore needed to produce publication-ready versions of the three documents.

Beyond delivering accessible and professionally designed publications, this contribution supports Guinea-Bissau's efforts to strengthen urban governance and implement the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda — in particular SDG 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. Well-designed and disseminable planning documents are essential for ministries, municipalities, partners and communities to engage with the plans and translate them into action on the ground.

Under the technical supervision of UN-Habitat Guinea-Bissau, each Online Volunteer will produce the graphic design and layout (diagramação) of one institutional publication in Portuguese, based on final drafts provided by the office. Three publications are covered by this DoA: - Guinea-Bissau National Urbanisation Policy (Política Nacional de Urbanização) - General Urban Plan of Buba (Plano Geral Urbanístico de Buba) - General Urban Plan of Gabu (Plano Geral Urbanístico de Gabu) Three Online Volunteers are requested, one per publication. Each volunteer will be assigned one document and will work on it independently, with regular check-ins with the technical team. The three assignments are equivalent in scope; documents are matched to each volunteer's availability and profile at the start of the collaboration. Deliverable (per volunteer): one publication-ready file of the assigned document, submitted in editable format (InDesign package, Affinity Publisher file or equivalent) together with an exported PDF version suitable for both print and web dissemination. The final files must integrate all text, tables, maps, photographs, diagrams and cover elements into a coherent layout aligned with the UN-Habitat visual identity guidance provided at inception.

• Experience in graphic design and editorial layout (diagramação) of long-form institutional or technical publications, using InDesign, Affinity Publisher or equivalent professional layout software.
• Ability to work with content in Portuguese, including correct handling of accented characters, hyphenation and typographic conventions.
• Skills in integrating maps, tables, charts, photographs and diagrams into a coherent visual narrative.
• Strong attention to detail, consistency across pages and adherence to a defined visual identity.
• Ability to work autonomously and remotely, to meet agreed deadlines and to communicate regularly with a small technical team.
• Familiarity with UN or public-sector visual identity standards, or with urban planning and public policy publications, is considered an asset but is not required.

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Potential interview questions

Added 1 month ago - Updated 1 month ago - Source: unv.org