International Communications Consultancy to support Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International 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.

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) remains a major obstacle to the empowerment of women in Uganda. UN Women EVAW interventions are majorly supported with funding from the Government of Sweden and the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls. The implementation of the EVAWG efforts is underpinned by strong partnership with Government of Uganda, CSOs, Media fraternity, Private Sector, Cultural and Religious leaders. UN Women implements two of the largest Joint Programmes on GBV in Uganda.

The Joint Programme on Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response with integration of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights in hard to reach (furthest behind) and vulnerable populations in Uganda, funded by Sweden is designed to contribute to elimination of GBV and improvement of SRHR of women, men, girls and boys including disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in Uganda while the Spotlight aims to support transformative change on the ground to end violence against women and girls and harmful practices, in numerous countries globally.

The Spotlight Initiative comes with the highest level of commitment globally and governed by the

UN Deputy Secretary General and the Vice President of the EU Commission. The Initiative is built around six pillars developed after an extensive global theory of change exercise. The pillars are: 1) Laws and Policies; 2) Institutions; 3) Prevention and Social Norms; 4) Services; 5) Data; and 6) Women’s movement. Uganda is one of the participating eight countries in the Africa region and will have interventions in all the six pillars.

Both the JPGBV and Spotlight programmes are now in their second phase of implementation with focus on being placed on generating and documenting knowledge products, advocacy, bringing innovations undertaken in phase 1 to scale, directing more investments to transformative approaches and reporting of results.

Whereas the Uganda Country Office EVAWG portfolio has significantly grown, in the last 5 years, its noted that this growth has resulted in the need for heightened communication of results, fundraising, and advocacy. Innovative contents media and digital media spaces today are critical in mobilizing and maintaining interest of stakeholders in the prevention and response to VAWG. Furthermore, the surge in cases of VAWG due to COVID-19 pandemic and related public restrictions taken to curb its spread in Uganda have meant that alternative modalities for communicating EVAWG interventions need to be explored and adopted. UN Women Uganda Country Office therefore needs to engage an individual consultant to bolster the team’s communication potential; contribute to advocacy and brand recognition of UN Women and bring to scale dissemination of programme information, results, and visibility of EVAWG programme efforts in Uganda.

Duties and Responsibilities

Overall Objective for the Consultant

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the EVAWG Programme Specialist and supported by the CO Communications Specialist, the Consultant will document and provide increased visibility for EVAWG interventions supported by UN Joint Programme on Gender Based Violence, EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and other thematic portfolios as may be required. Specifically, the consultant is expected to:

• Develop and produce multimedia materials and resources.
• Support web related activities and events
• Document good practices and lessons learnt from the different EVAW interventions.
• Integrate innovations into implementation of EVAWG programme.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Consultant

Task 1: Develop and produce multimedia materials and resources

• Develop and implement an EVAWG Communications Plan in accordance with UN Women CO Communication Strategy and Resource Mobilisation Strategy.
• Contribute to UN Women Uganda Knowledge Management portfolio in the following areas; Production of booklets profiling EVAWG Best Practices in Uganda (two editions) under the EVAW programme. The first edition to be finalised by November 2021 and the second by June 2022.
• Produce and disseminate Quarterly Newsletters for the Ending Violence Against Women (EVAWG) Unit in Uganda for the contract period. The quarterly newsletters profile UN Women EVAWG Programme work, to keep donors, development partners and other key stakeholders up to date with quarterly achievements and is to be shared at the end of every Quarter.
• Produce and disseminate Quarterly Newsletters for the Ending Violence Against Women (EVAWG) Unit in Uganda for the contract period. The quarterly newsletters profile UN Women EVAWG Programme work, to keep donors, development partners and other key stakeholders up to date with quarterly achievements and is to be shared at the end of every Quarter.
• Contribute to the visibility and advocacy sections of 4 annual reports: UN Women Country Annual Report and 3 Donor Reports

Task 2: Support web related activities and events

• Support Planning, preparation, and execution of key gender equality events such as 16 Days of Activism, procurement, Development of a social Media plan and contribute social media materials as well as a posting pack for all UN agencies and stakeholders, in line with 16 Days theme
• Provide planning, preparation, and execution support to the Communications team for key gender equality events such as International Women’s Day (8 March); Develop a Social Media plan and contribute social media materials as well as a posting pack for all UN agencies and stakeholders, in line with IWD theme.
• Input into in-country UN Women/UN system corporate and local campaigns and special events
• Contribute to Planning, preparation, and execution of an EVAW Donor Round Table

Task 3: Document good practices and lessons learnt from the different EVAW interventions.

• Production of booklets profiling EVAWG Best Practices in Uganda (two editions) under the EVAW programme
• Conduct field work to document good practices human-interest and feature stories; success stories and produce communication, campaign, periodic feature stories in the dailies and advocacy materials on prevention and response to VAWG for dissemination to various audiences and via media channels.
• Create a digital repository of photos, video documentaries that relate to VAWG and other CO thematic program that demonstrate results, by December 2022

Task 4: Integrate innovations into implementation of EVAWG programme.

• Support Communications Capacity Building on social media engagement for UN Women staff and EVAW IPs. The training for staff will supplement Annual Retreat Programme agenda, to take place in January 2022. Support UN Women and EVAW partners to develop new and innovative content for use on their social media platforms to enhance dissemination of information on VAWGs, SRHR and harmful practices.
• Support regional capacity building for EVAW Communications, through supporting ESARO-led trainings on best practices taken from Uganda.
• Train program and IP staff in ethical interviewing, story writing, photography, and documentation of promising practices
• Develop new and innovative content to boost UN Women presence on digital landscape and social media content as relates to the EVAWG Programme supported
• Contribute to EVAWG specific bulletins, newsletters, commentaries, and blogs to the UN Women African Regional and global website.

Expected Deliverables:

1. A work plan for the consultancy including schedule of activities with agreed timelines; October 2021 - 5 days.
2. A Communications Plan including 5 social media packages for; 16 Days, Generation Equality, IWD, CSW and EVAW donor round table; November 2021 - March 2022 – 8 days Per Social media Pack (Total 40 days).
3. Develop and produce multimedia materials and resources; Quarterly (4) newsletters, Quarterly Analytical impact/success stories and lessons learned, 6 Stories on EVAW published on the Spotlight and UN Women Global Website; December 2021, April and July 2022 - 10 days per newsletter (Total 40 days) and 5 days per story (Total 30 days).
4. **Document good practices and lessons learnt from the different EVAW interventions****; Quarterly (4) visits undertaken to field sites to document most significant change stories, Biannual editions of booklets profiling EVAWG Best Practices in Uganda, document good practices human-interest and feature stories; January, April, and July 2022 - 6 days per visit (incl. travel) (Total 24 days) and 15 days per booklet (Total 30 days).
5. Integrate innovations into implementation of EVAWG Programme, Capacity building trainings for staff at annual retreat and support to UN Women IPs in dissemination of innovations; January 2022 - 5 days.
6. **Contribute to the visibility and advocacy sections of 4 bi-annual and annual reports****: UN Women Country Annual Report, 3 Donor Reports and 2 Bi-annual reports; January-June 2022 - 5 days per report (Total 30 days).
7. Final consultancy report: Summarising recommendations, lessons learned and handover from the SSA period; July 2022.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

• Integrity
• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of the UN systemin actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and a high degree of professionalism when dealing with survivors and sensitive information.
• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity
• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff, and of those of Government of Uganda entities.
• Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values, and learning from cultural diversity.

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN, particularly relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, sexual orientation, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly and without favoritism.

Functional Competencies

• Ability to create, edit, and present information in clear and appealing formats.
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondences, and reports.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and work well with diverse and multicultural supervisors and staff members.
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• A Master’s Degree or equivalent in Communication, Law, Public Relations, Journalism or Social Science.
• A first- level University degree in relevant field in combination with 3 years of experience may be considered.
• Additional training and certification in communication is an advantage,

Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years’ experience in communication at international or national level,
• Experience in media relations is added advantage.
• Experience in use of social media platforms, multi-media and digital platforms is required.
• Experience in Video and photo editing, and designing is an asset.
• Previous experience in EVAWG programme, with UN Women and UN system is an asset.

Language:

English, and any other official UN languages would be an added advantage.