GWOPA Advocacy and Communications Consultant

Result of Service This consultancy assignment is to support the planning and implementation of advocacy and communication activities in GWOPA’s portfolio.

Work Location Bonn, Germany

Expected duration 12 months

Duties and Responsibilities The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human settlements mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. UN-Habitat helps the urban poor by transforming cities into safer and healthier places with better opportunities. It works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector.

The Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) is a network of partners, led by UN-Habitat, committed to helping water operators help one another improve their capacity in providing access to water and sanitation services for all. Following the “Hashimoto Action Plan” launched in Mexico in March 2006, the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) requested UN-Habitat to establish this global mechanism to promote not-for-profit peer support arrangements between water utilities, so-called Water Operators Partnerships (WOPs). Noting that much of the responsibility in meeting the water and sanitation related MDGs fell to water operators, UNSGAB recommended the scaled-up use of WOPs to help develop their capacity to sustainably deliver safe water and sound sanitation services.

Water operators are critical players in efforts to achieve sustainable and universal water and sanitation. But many operators today are not keeping pace with demand. They face a myriad of challenges including rapid urbanization, rising inequity, pressures on water resources, severe resource constraints and ineffective governance.

There is a growing understanding that strong local capacity can provide the foundations to respond to emerging challenges with meaningful and lasting solutions. Supporting water operators in their organizational development efforts to manage effectively over the long-term is the purpose of Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs).

WOPs are peer-support arrangements between two or more water service providers, carried out on a not-for-profit basis in the objective of strengthening operator capacity. They are based on the observation that capacity development supported by mentors can accelerate water operators’ ability to meet the challenges facing the sector. They draw on the fact that much of the innovation and expertise to address water operators’ challenges reside within utilities (not with consultants or other external experts), and that a growing number of these successful operators are highly motivated to share their expertise and innovation with others as “mentors” on a not-for-profit basis.

WOPs were identified as a high-potential solution by the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board for Water and Sanitation. Upon request of former UN Secretary General and the advice of his UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), GWOPA was established in 2009 as a network of partners committed to helping water operators to help one another improve their capacity in providing access to water and sanitation services for all. By scaling up effective WOP practice, GWOPA aims to help utilities play their full roll in the local realization of sustainable development.

The GWOPA Secretariat translates GWOPA’s mandate into strategies and programs. It implements, through collaboration with a range of partners, annual alliance work plans which include support for regional WOP platforms, WOPs direct brokering and funding, financial guidance and support, development and management of WOPs knowledge, branding, alliance and partnership building, as well as advocacy and communication activities. The GWOPA Secretariat is currently hosted in Bonn, by the Government of Germany.

Under the overall supervision of the GWOPA Programme Management Officer in charge of Advocacy and Communications, the consultant will support the planning, implementation and monitoring of GWOPA’s various Communication Efforts. Tasks include to:

- Production and dissemination of GWOPA newsletters, including soliciting articles from team members and partners while collaborating with web and design consultants to design and review, as well as outreach

- Maintain and develop content for the GWOPA website, liaising with web developer and visual designer consultants

- Support the planning and implementation of communication and promotional efforts around the 5th Global WOPs Congress and related events

- Implement communications in support of the GWOPA Membership Campaign

- Plan, implement, monitor and report on the Communication and visibility activities for the EU-WOP Programme, including supporting project partners to do their own Comms and Visibility

- Plan and implement communications for the CWIS project, including leading outreach, and supporting events and product development

- Production of the final design and dissemination of GWOPA knowledge products

- Support Advocacy efforts, such as participation and outreach at the UN 2023 Water Meeting preparatory task force sessions

- Manage communication knowledge, including building a database of photos, presentations, and text to support comms activities

Qualifications/special skills Skills: Strong writing skills; Creativity Proven team-working ability Partnership and networking

Good understanding of new and evolving technologies and digital platforms; Academic Qualifications: A Master’s degree related to water and sanitation, urban planning, management and/or communications/journalism is required. A first-level university degree (B.A./B.S.) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience: A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience related to one of the following areas are required: water and sanitation, urban planning, capacity development and/or journalism, communications; Experience in implementation of communications strategies and plans; Experience with production of online content and newsletter tools; Excellent command with major social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; Good command with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign is an asset; Experience in supporting the organization of events, preferably at the international level; Familiarity with the work of the United Nations Organization, its mandate, main areas of focus; United Nations bodies, agencies, entities and departments; current priorities issues; is an asset

Experience related to GWOPA’s themes (water and sanitation, cooperation, urbanization, sustainable development) is an asset Language: Excellent English language is required, both understanding and writing skills. Knowledge of Spanish and French would be an advantage.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.