International Consultant on Social Media and Digital Literacy for Gender Equality in Timor-Leste

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. UN Women’s goal in Timor-Leste is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality as the country works towards sustaining and furthering achievements in stability and development.

In addressing the widespread issue of hate speech in digital spaces and the tension of social cohesion amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Timor-Leste, and building on 20 years of experience in the area of Women, Peace and Security (WPS), including conflict prevention and resolution, peacebuilding, security sector reform and access to justice, UN Women is conducting digital literacy training for youth to counter hate speech and promote social cohesion in the context of COVID-19 in Timor-Leste. This works to ensure a gender-sensitive approach to promoting social cohesion and gender equality as part of wider efforts at the regional level to counter hate speech and prevent violent extremism. One of the components of this work is the empowerment of young women to promote social cohesion and counter hate speech and stigma in their communities.

COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequalities and, in some cases, social tensions. Both on and offline, hate speech, misinformation (“fake news”), discrimination and stigma are rampant as people experience fear and uncertainty accompanying the virus’s quick spread, and share unverified information. Groups who might use violence to assert their power in communities are likewise capitalizing on the spread of COVID-19 to advance their agendas. COVID-19 may become a driver of conflict, with devastating impacts on women and girls. In light of these developments, it is of particular importance to enhance young people’s abilities to promote social cohesion and awareness in their communities and to enhance their digital literacy so that they can engage positively online. This will include connecting women across the country and with regional networks of young women in peace and security so that young people can share their experiences and raise the voice of Timorese youth in countering hate speech and promoting gender-equitable social cohesion in the context of COVID-19.

Towards supporting such networks, UN Women Timor-Leste is seeking an international consultant on Social Media and Digital Literacy for Gender Equality in Timor-Leste

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Head of Office, and direct supervision of the Communications Officer, the consultant will support monitoring and follow-up from digital literacy training aimed to promote social cohesion in the context of COVID-19.

The consultant will work with 50 young women and men who have completed digital literacy training and the UN Women Timor-Leste team, to:

• Contribute to media monitoring by identifying negative content online and ways to counter them: to identify hate speech, fake news, and misinformation (especially in the context of COVID-19 and existing gender inequality).
• Create and spread positive content online: this will include developing a mass of positive online content targeting youth to participate online safely in a way that promotes social cohesion and peace in communities and increases skills of young people to counter threats in online spaces.
• Support linkages with other relevant campaigns and social media influencers in Timor-Leste: identify and facilitate connections between positive social media influencers and support greater visibility of online content that promotes gender equality and social cohesion issues.
• Contribute to UN Women Timor-Leste’s social media presence, including through conducting learning sessions on effective and positive content with UN Women staff and partners, developing a Facebook workplan and monitoring strategy and action plan for launch of a UN Women Timor-Leste Twitter account by March 2021.

Scope of work and tasks

Task 1: Support 50 youth to contribute to media monitoring by identifying negative content online and ways to counter them.

• Review the training tools and strategies the youth have received, and develop guidance tools to support youth to identify hate speech and misinformation.
• Work with identified youth on using these tools and applying their training to identify hate speech and misinformation. Encourage mutual support through peer support system.
• Develop monitoring and assessment tools to track the application of the training by the youth, including accuracy of identification of content, types of social media being tracked, occurrence rates of gender related content, types of content being identified, how youth are feeling affected doing this work etc.

Task 2: Create and spread positive content online.

• Develop templates for sharing consistent messaging.
• Research and develop examples of positive messaging, with clear explanations of the features that make good examples
• Work with youth to align messaging with youth perspective, culture, experiences.
• Work with youth on strategies to promote positive messaging based on research, and including risk communication.
• Develop monitoring and assessment tool (can be extension of tool from Task 1) to track application of this training and support and the posting of positive messages. Tracking should include occurrence of posts, themes of posts, whether posts are free-standing or in response to hate speech or misinformation, and how the youth felt following posting.

Task 3: Support linkages with other relevant campaigns and social media influencers in Timor-Leste.

• Research human rights and youth campaigns, and social influencers, to identify collaboration/amplification opportunities, collect hashtags, visuals. Work with youth develop collaboration strategy and prioritize use of key messages, hashtags, upcoming events (1325 Anniversary, 16 Days of Activism in November-Dec, Intl Day for Persons with Disabilities, Intl AIDS Day, Intl Human Rights Day) etc.
• Work with youth to emphasise the value of amplified messages and unity in promoting human rights.

Task 4: Contribute to UN Women Timor-Leste’s social media presence

• Provide training to UN Women personnel and partners on using social media to promote and amplify women’s rights messages.
• Work with the Communications Officer to develop a Facebook workplan and monitoring strategy incorporating key UN Women dates and planned work.
• Work with the Communications Officer to develop an action plan for the launch of a UN Women Timor-Leste Twitter account.

1. Expected Deliverables

#

Deliverable

Target Deadline

1

Work plan and monitoring tools including:

• Develop a workplan and monitoring tool for the post-training activities with the 50 young people, which should include three components:
  • A community, youth-led mechanism to identify and report the hate speech, fake news, and misinformation online
  • Develop a social media campaign to produce positive online content to counter hate speech and promote social cohesion
  • Participation in a regional event in 2021

2 Nov 2020

2

Submit a Concept Note and Agenda, including:

• Provide accompaniment and guide 50 youth who have completed digital literacy training to:
  • Develop and carry out a community, youth-led mechanism to identify and record hate speech, fake news, and misinformation in producing content
  • Carry out a social media campaign to develop positive online content to counter hate speech and promote social cohesion, especially in the context of COVID-19. This could be linked with upcoming advocacy opportunities (1325 Anniversary at the end of October, 16 Days of Activism in November-December), Intl Day for Persons with Disabilities, Intl AIDS Day, Intl Human Rights Day, etc.)
  • Support the youth’s participation in a regional event, connecting the 50 youth to share knowledge and form linkages among young people working on social cohesion in their communities across the Asia and Pacific region.

6 November 2020

3

Report of the monitoring and results assessment

Produce an assessment of the results of the activities with youth, including results from identifying online negative contents and producing positive content

29 November 2020

4

Facebook workplan and monitoring strategy and action plan for launch of a UN Women Timor-Leste Twitter

Provide technical support for UN Women’s social media presence and online advocacy: develop a social media plan for UN Women’s online advocacy (including for Facebook and Twitter). This will include conducting learning sessions on effective and positive content with UN Women staff and partners, developing a Facebook workplan and monitoring strategy and action plan for launch of a UN Women Timor-Leste Twitter account by March 2021.

26 January 2021

All deliverables should incorporate UN Women feedback before finalization and all reports and training material shall be presented in English, in electronic version.

Due to work requirement and current situation, preference will be given to candidates based in Dili Timor-Leste.

1. Principles

• The advocacy messages (social media content developed) should be positive and empowering to counter hate speech and promote social cohesion in the context of COVID-19 in Timor-Leste and assess the risk communication management.
• Materials designed in such way that they can be updated and adjusted for future use (content of the messages, all colours, fonts, or any other used resource should be included in the design package).
• Ensuring the design of the materials is consistent with UN Women communication guidelines.

1. Duration of the assignment

The total duration of the contract assignment will be from 28 October 2020 to 26 January 2021.

1. Schedule of Payment

Payment in full upon final submission and satisfactory outputs/products in accordance with specified requirements.

All the deliverables, including events materials, notes and reports should be submitted in written in English language.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the instalment, the deliverables-related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women. The period of the review is one week after receipt.

1. Inputs

• The consultant is expected to use her/his own computer and have all needed software for related tasks.
• Cost of mobile phone communication needs to be covered by the consultant.
• UN Women will provide the consultant with office space, access to internet and a printer in Dili, if needed.
• UN Women team will support resource materials, and reference documents as relevant;
• UN Women will cover cost of travel and travel allowance to the municipalities as per UN Women rules and regulations.

Competencies

Competencies

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

Required Skills and Experience

Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the deliverables.

1. Required experience and qualifications

The Consultant should fulfil the following requirements:

1. Education

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Communication or Social Science or relevant disciplines.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor degree) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

1. Experience:

• At least 2-years previous work experiences in digital literacy development, ideally related to gender equality or human rights.
• Previous work experiences with a demonstrable ability to undertake analytical work, prepare reports, publications, web-based communication materials.
• Experience working with young people through remote channels of communication to promote gender equality, social cohesion or human rights.
• Familiarity with the context of Timor-Leste and popular social media platforms would be an advantage.
• Very good creative skills and command over basic video production, and InDesign, Photoshop would be an advantage.
• Previous experience in developing audio-visual communication material would be an added advantage.

1. Language and other skills:

• Excellent verbal and written English communication skills are essential, Tetum would be an advantage.
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, Internet and email.
• Ability to use video equipment and video editing material is an added advantage