International Consultancy - Content development for communication material on shock-responsive social protection in Malawi

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, social protection!

BACKGROUND

Malawi has been hit with consecutive and successive climatic shocks over the last few years. With a low capacity to cope, and little time to recover, the country has witnessed escalating food and nutrition insecurity. In this context, humanitarian food response, most commonly referred to as ‘MVAC’ , has increased considerably, reaching 6.7 million people across 24 of the 28 districts between July 2016 and March 2017. This was the largest and longest response in the country’s history. In 2017, 1,043,000 people in 20 districts have been identified as phase 3 food insecure.

With pre-existing high and chronic levels of food and income insecurity, any shock further negatively impacts the most vulnerable populations. Poor people are among the groups most exposed to and suffering the most from shocks, including drought or floods: Limited livelihood options, resources, and access to services, mean that these households are the least able to withstand shocks, especially without resorting to negative coping mechanisms. Major negative events, particularly rainfall and loss of off-farm employment, contribute to the poor households remaining in their status, and also increase the likelihood of non-poor households falling into poverty.

Social Protection Programmes are currently unable to predictably meet chronic needs and systems are not prepared to effectively expand or facilitate humanitarian interventions in times of crisis. To date, important investments have been made in the social protection sector, but coverage has remained limited, and the system has suffered from insufficient integration in programme design and consistency of programmes’ objectives.

Humanitarian action has in practice been filling the gap by responding to chronic needs which ought to be addressed by social protection systems. In turn, the social protection system hasn’t been leveraged to implement a more cost effective humanitarian response thereby leading to a suboptimal response, drawing on humanitarian budgets, technical expertise, and stretching the positioning of humanitarian actors as non-government stakeholders. The underlying vulnerabilities of Malawi, including chronic levels of food insecurity and high exposure to climate risks, “are an important factor in producing recurrent humanitarian emergencies”. As such, predictable seasonal patterns, and even minor weather variations currently result in humanitarian crisis.

To tackle this issue, efforts have been made by the Government of Malawi, in line with global commitments , to expand the current coverage of the social protection system and better align humanitarian action and social protection. Through the Malawi National Social Support Programme II, the government has made a strong commitment to design and implement a social protection system that: covers more people, provides complementary support to respond to the multiple and compounding needs of the population, and that is sensitive to shocks, i.e. that contributes to mitigate, respond to and recover from shocks, in collaboration with the humanitarian sector. This notably includes the ability of key social protection programmes to temporarily scale up to expand in response to a shock when needs of the population are exceeded and scale back down.

JUSTIFICATION

Shock-sensitive social protection is a topic that has attracted a lot of interest from different actors, within and external to Government, including from Development Partners, Donors, NGOs and Government Ministries.

Different actors have brought in, and partially operationalized, different approaches towards SSSP that fail to follow a joint understanding in Malawi, despite broad guidance in MNSSP II.

Shock-sensitive social protection is a relatively young concept within UNICEF which requires better communication to fulfil its full potential in linking social protection with humanitarian interventions.

How can you make a difference?

The successful candidate will be expected to carry out the following key objectives:

1. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, develop a story-board for a 3-4 minute documentary video, explaining why SSSP is important in the Malawi context, and showcasing the positive effect of Shock-Sensitive Social Protection in Malawi;
2. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, develop a story-board for a 2-3 minutes animated video explaining briefly what Shock-Sensitive Social Protection (SSSP) is and as an example, how the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme already expands vertically in response to shocks, and has the potential to further expand coverage and services in the future, if systems allow;
3. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains SSSP as a concept in general, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
4. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains SSSP as a concept in the Malawi specific context, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
5. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains how the SCTP has scaled up vertically, and can increase coverage and services, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
6. Based on the content for the above infograph (SSSP as a concept in Malawi), write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains the SDG grant, DFID, and Irish Aid contributions to advancing SSSP in Malawi conceptually, showcasing effective contribution coordination;
7. Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF staff, write a two-pager on UNICEFs position and contribution towards SSSP in Malawi

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Master’s degree in c communications, media, or a related field;
• Minimum of 5 years work experience in copywriting with proven experience of developing written content for Development Partners and/or NGOs;
• Proven background knowledge on social protection and particularly shock-sensitive social protection is a strong asset;
• Demonstrated ability to produce high quality, creative communication materials;
• Excellent writing skills and strong communication skills;
• Ability to communicate complex content in an easily understandable, engaging and child-friendly manner;
• Previous experience in working with UNICEF or other like organizations is an asset;
• Excellent command / highly proficient in spoken and written English;

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

View more information in the terms of reference attached

2020-09-10_SSSP comms content_DRAFT TORs.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles 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.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.