International Communications Consultant – Women's Economic Empowerment and Private Sector Engagement

Consultant

Contract

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

Background

I. 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.

Through the regional office for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok and a number of country and multi-country offices, UN Women builds on a long history of support to governments and women’s movements. UN Women’s programs in Asia and the Pacific focus on ending violence against women, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction, women’s economic empowerment, CEDAW and women’s human rights, peace and security, governance and HIV/AIDS. For more information about UN Women in Asia and the Pacific, visit the official website.

WeEmpowerAsia

This position will round out the EU-funded WeEmpowerAsia (WEA) programme, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP), a collaborative effort between the Regional Office of UN Women for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the European Union (EU), which is funding the programme under its Partnership Instrument. With this programme, the two entities will leverage their joint commitment to enhance women’s economic empowerment globally. They each have longstanding experience and partnerships in the Asian region. UN Women will apply its triple mandate of normative, operational and coordination actions and use its convening power to bring multiple stakeholders together for effective collaboration. EU brings valuable private and public sector partnerships across sectors as well as its solid expertise in trade and economic development.

The overall objective of the WEA programme is that more women lead, participate and have access to enhanced business opportunities and leadership within the private sector to advance sustainable and inclusive growth. The programme will achieve this through three complementary outcome areas to be implemented in seven selected middle-income countries of Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam) in Asia:

• ADVOCACY: Women’s networks, public institutions, and the private sector will collaborate and share expertise and knowledge to build an enabling business environment for women’s economic empowerment in the workplace and in the marketplace;
• ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The capacity of women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs will be developed to enable them to engage with government and private sector corporations in policy development and dialogues for advancing women’s economic empowerment, and;
• BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT: The private sector will be supported to implement gender-sensitive practices and culture within their businesses through the take-up of the Women Empowerment Principles (the WEPs – a set of guiding principles to achieve gender equality within companies).

Ultimately, the programme will contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s increased participation in the labour force and in the marketplace, improved opportunities for women entrepreneurship and business start-ups, and through strengthening of corporate sector’s commitment and action to ensure gender equality in business culture and practices.

WE RISE Together

Following the end of the WeEmpowerAsia Programme in June, this position will transition to cover WE RISE Together, a three-year Mekong-Australia Partnership (MAP) project developed by UN Women. It sits under MAP’s Economic Resilience Fund (MAP-ERF) and addresses its four drivers of resilience (including macroeconomic, household, business, and government resilience). The project responds to the prioritisation of women’s economic empowerment by expanding market access for Women-owned Businesses (WOBs) and Gender Responsive Enterprises (GREs) through procurement opportunities.

WE RISE Together tackles the structural gender inequities that exist within the global procurement market in which WOBs secure only one per cent of spending worldwide. By introducing and advancing increased market access through gender-responsive procurement (GRP), WE RISE Together operates with the overall objective to empower more women to equally access, lead, and benefit from expanded market opportunities in the Mekong subregion.

The project works across the Mekong subregion, namely in Thailand and Viet Nam, where the concept of GRP is still in nascent stages of development. Despite regional and national initiatives prioritising financial inclusion of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), there is currently a limited amount of gender-sensitive data available to promote GRP practices and policies in the project’s geographical focus areas.

As such, WE RISE Together will introduce GRP as an opportunity to address and attempt to channel more procurement spend towards WOBs /GREs. The project will work on four interlinked outcomes:

• Outcome 1: More national public and private organizations are engaged in an increased number of processes and actions to influence and develop public policies and practises that promote gender-responsive procurement as a pathway for women’s economic participation. (Normative Change in the Ecosystem)
• Outcome 2: WOBs/GREs have increased capacity to build more resilient and inclusive business models and utilise networking opportunities to better access markets. (Strengthening the Supply Side)
• Outcome 3: Larger public and private sector organisations have increased capacity to advocate, promote and implement GRP within their organisations and industries to enable market access for WOBs/GREs. (Strengthening the Demand Side)
• Outcome 4: More equitable market opportunities are created through connecting WOBs/GREs to larger public and private buyers. (Connecting Demand Side and Connect to Supply Side)

The project’s activities will provide evidence, information, and learning sessions to raise awareness about GRP; offer technical support and training for WOBs and GREs to develop skills to build more gender-inclusive and resilient business models; and facilitate the creation of referral networks amongst WOBs. In addition, it will provide capacity building among public and private sector organisations to develop and implement GRP policies and practices and focus on establishing collaboration opportunities between larger public and private sector buyers and WOBs/GREs to facilitate future market connections.

Duties and Responsibilities

II. Scope of Work

Under the supervision and guidance of the Regional Programme Manager, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Ensure smooth transition of work with the Country Teams through the end of WeEmpowerAsia and the launch of WeRise Together
   • Work in coordination with team members to ensure smooth transition of work through programme and staff changes.
   • Work in coordination with Regional and Country Office team members to ensure 2022 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards is smoothly implemented under both WEA and WeRise Together
2. Lead on communications implementation and reporting for WeEmpowerAsia
   • Collaborate with the Women’s Economic Empowerment M&E Consultant to ensure accurate and efficient communications reporting and develop monthly communications and visibility reports
3. Develop, implement, and maintain an external communications, outreach, and advocacy strategies for the We Rise Together Project
   • Lead on planning, curation and quality control of regional and country office campaigns and events
   • Manage launch of key publications to generate awareness
   • Conduct monthly updates to a regional plan of events and activities
   • Develop campaigns to promote important advocacy moments (i.e. International Women’s Day, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, etc.)
4. Oversee Strategic Programme and Project branding
   • Ideate new ideas to create powerful recognizable WEA program materials, including print, digital, and video assets
   • Provide brand direction with external service providers and agencies
   • Provide feedback and quality control on assets created by country offices and external partners to ensure adherence with brand guidelines
   • Visualize impactful ways to communicate the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
   • Coordinate with international partners on joint branding and communication strategies
   • Liaise with Regional team to ensure the 2022 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards maintains a consistent brand identity and coordinate with Country teams to ensure alignment between Country and Regional teams
5. Manage social media and website presence for the Women’s Economic Empowerment (including WEA and WeRise Together)
   • Review, approve, and post social media and website content in line with corporate social media policy and programme branding guidelines
   • Lead the creation of social media content and roll-out plans across regional and country offices for specific events and activities
   • Ensure quality control for all women’s economic empowerment assets in the region
6. Support on the Execution and Visibility of Women’s Economic Empowerment Events
   • Set up event pages and webinar links
   • Ensure technical coordination and livestreaming of major events
   • Produce post-event attendance reports
   • Develop event slides and polls, and coordinate with speakers to collect headshots and biographies
   • Liaise with Country Office teams to support and coordinate high-quality country-level WEPs Awards ceremonies
   • Support event conceptualization, design, and communications strategy, including coordinating with event organizing agency, for the 2022 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards Regional Ceremony
7. Develop and Copy Edit Women’s Economic Empowerment Communication Materials and Publications
   • Create and edit press releases, media advisories, human-interest stories, and case studies for the UN Women Asia-Pacific website
   • Coordinate with the regional copyeditor on any material related to donor visibility, and on all press releases
   • Provide copy-editing on content developed by country teams
   • Prepare ad-hoc and quarterly newsletters (bulletins) for Women’s Economic Empowerment stakeholders on MailChimp
8. Build and maintain relationships with donors and potential partners
   • Maintain relationships with partners and alliances to enhance visibility
   • Liaise with advocacy partners and undertake outreach to private sector organizations, civil society organizations, governments
9. Support the communications reporting of both programmes

• Monitor the communication results and indicators of each programme
• Support Design and copy-editing of reports

III. Expected Deliverables and Timelines

Tasks and Deliverables

Target Dates

Monthly Status report with packaged materials on ongoing tasks in the following areas:

• Communications, outreach, and advocacy strategies and implementation
• Strategic and programme branding, including the design and launch of publications
• Communications and visibility reporting (monthly reports, RMS inputs, and annual reports)
• Support provided to and campaigns developed around Women’s Economic Empowerment events and advocacy moments
• Communication materials developed and copy-edited
• Reporting updates
• Donor and partner relations

Due the 1st of every month

The first deliverables submission date is no later than 1 May 2022

Competencies

IV. Core Values and Competencies

In addition to the position requirements and qualifications, it is important that the consultant shares the core values and core competencies of the organization.

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

• Strong judgement in reputational risk and demonstrated experience in crisis communications.
• Proven ability to shape, develop, implement, and optimize social media moderation strategies for an international organization that can be customized for a wide range of channels.
• Experience managing digital communication channels (especially social media channels) is needed.
• Understanding of current trends and best practices in digital communication, social media engagement and best in class digital and social media platforms in both developing and developed regions.
• An organized and agile team player with high attention to detail and ability to prioritize tasks.
• Comfortable working independently with flexible hours and managing one’s own time and responsibilities.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf (unwomen.org)

Required Skills and Experience

V. Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Communication, Journalism or related field or Bachelor’s degree in Communication, Journalism or related field in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in communications, journalism, or related field preferably with international organizations/companies.
• At least 2 years of professional work experience at national or international level in public relations, communications or advocacy, including in media relations.
• Have strong skills in key message development, visibility, and branding.
• Demonstrated experience in project management and implementation covering the use of social media and web-based platforms and managing vendors.
• Demonstrated experience in setting up webinars and livestreaming events.
• Track record of building and maintaining relationships with external partners, especially in diverse settings and in both high-level and business context.
• Experienced use of social media management, audience and influencer research, productivity, collaboration and project management tools, such as Hootsuite and others a plus.
• Language Requirements: Native level fluency in English

VI. Contract Duration and Duty Station

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Regional Programme Manager and thematic lead for Women’s Economic Empower at UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The duration of the consultancy starts on 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. This consultancy is Bangkok-base, full-time (20 working days/month) and will be expected to report to UN Women ROAP Office in Bangkok for the role once office operations encourage in-person working arrangements. Payment will be made on a monthly lumpsum basis.

VII. Submission of Application

Interested applicants are encouraged to submit an electronic application to the UNDP job board at https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm or submit their application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org with dollaporn.intrroong@unwomen.org in copy, not later than March 19th, 2022 at 23:59 New York time.

Submission package to include:

• Cover letter outlining relevant work experience
• Personal History Form (P11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Writing sample
• Sample of communication project

VIII. Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [100%]

The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

Education

• Master’s degree in Communication, Journalism or related field or Bachelor’s degree in Communication, Journalism or related field in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.

20 %

Experience and skills

• Minimum 2 years of experience in communications, journalism, or related field preferably with international organizations/companies.
• At least 2 years of professional work experience at national or international level in public relations, communications or advocacy, including in media relations.
• Have strong skills in key message development, visibility, and branding.
• Demonstrated experience in project management and implementation covering the use of social media and web-based platforms and managing vendors.
• Demonstrated experience in setting up webinars and livestreaming events.
• Track record of building and maintaining relationships with external partners, especially in diverse settings and in both high-level and business context.
• Experienced use of social media management, audience and influencer research, productivity, collaboration and project management tools, such as Hootsuite and others a plus.

60%

Language and report writing skills

• Native level fluency in English

20 %

Total Obtainable Score

100 %

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

IX. Payment

Payments for this consultancy will be processed on a monthly lumpsum basis based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed.

• Monthly rate (20 working days): 4,000 USD (200 USD/day)

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org