National Consultant for communication and Visibility

Contract

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

Background

The UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is the organization’s financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries or situations at risk or affected by violent conflict. The PBF invests with UN entities, governments, regional organizations, multilateral banks, national multi-donor trust funds, or civil society organizations. Guinea-Bissau is one of five countries on the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and, to date, approximately USD 61.487.560 million have been allocated to the country since 2008.

The Commission plays an active role in accompanying the evolution of the situation in Guinea Bissau, mobilizing the member states around the peace agenda for the country. As one of five countries on the agenda of the PBC, Guinea-Bissau is entitled to receive support from the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). Building on the UN’s valued-added, agency mandates, and comparative advantages, the Peacebuilding Fund portfolio currently consists of 7 projects, involving 10 UN organizations, one international CSO, and 2 national CSOs.

The PBF Secretariat is placed at the UN Resident Coordinator Office and is responsible for ensuring coordination, coherence, and synergy among PBF funded projects in Guinea-Bissau, and serves as a liaison among the entities of the peacebuilding architecture in NYHQ and the UN and national and international partners involved in peacebuilding in the Country. The Secretariat aims at supporting not only the efficient and gender-sensitive delivery of the complete PBF portfolio and to support the development of new projects, as per established priorities, but also to ensure visibility of the PBF investment in the country.

Moreover, the PBF Secretariat also provides implementation oversight,technical advice, M&E and communications support, aiming to strengthen social communication and general peacebuilding advocacy as a way to ensure, at the portfolio level, coordinated and effectively implemented PBF funded projects.

In this regard, the PBF Secretariat in Guinea-Bissau is looking for a national consultant specialist to provide communications support to PBF Secretariat to strengthen the portfolio level communication and visibility and ensure more effective information sharing among the PBF funded projects, projects’ partners, and national and international stakeholders.

Objective of the assignment:

The objective of this consultancy is to provide support to the PBF Secretariat and to assist PBF funded projects in developing communication-related products, articulating and disseminating more and better information on their works and achievement to the UN Country Team, projects’ partners, and other stakeholders. The products should be delivered in Portuguese, English and, Creole when deemed necessary.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities:

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the PBF Secretariat Coordinator, the Consultant Specialist in Communication is expected to perform the following activities: a) Strategic communication and visibility

• Write web content for the PBF Secretariat’s online presence, including to the corporate website and regular updating.
• Produce via photo, video and text, human-interest stories stories to highlight the impact and results generated under the PBF supported projects and initiatives, both for projects and for the PBF Secretariat’s regular work.
• Write articles, blog posts, press releases, briefing papers, fact sheets, and social media packs as and when required.
• Write case studies, project briefs/pagers, and other materials as and when required.
• Liase with the PBF funded projects’ team members, the RCO and other UN agencies' communication focal points, as well as the implementing partners’ focal points to identify strategic opportunities to increase the visibility of PBF’s investment in the country.

b) Communication related support to projects’ activities, events and field missions

• Cover field mission, seminars, workshops, and other events organized by the PBF Secretariat and the PBF recipients agencies and develop related communication pieces for print/online publication (articles, photos, videos) to enhance the Fund’s visibility, stakeholders engagement and, information sharing.

c) Design of communications and visibility materials:

• Provide support to the PBF funded projects on media coverage. This includes engaging with national and international diversified media (TV, radio, newspaper, social media, etc.) to increase visibility of the PBF portfolio in the country.
• Liaise with UN AFP communication officers in the country as well as the PBSO focal point to promote outreach and ensure that messages are consistent with PBF communication guidelines.
• Design infographic content for both online and printing materials.
• Design layout booklets, leaflets, pagers, and posters.
• Photo and video making and editing.
• Editing reports, briefing papers, and fact sheets.
• Editing media-related pieces of content.

d) Perform any other tasks as requested by the PBF Secretariat Coordinator

Expected deliverables:

The following products/outputs are expected:

Deliverable 1. Strategic communcation and visibility

• Review and promote knowledge of the PBF Guinea-Bissau’s Communication & Visibility guidance note, in line with PBSO guidelines.
• Develop the PBF Secretariat Communication and Visibility plan.
• Support project teams to develop Project Communication Plans to accompany the Project Work Plan.
• Produce one video about the overall PBF support in Guinea-Bissau
• Produce short videos for social media for each of the five current PBF funded projects
• Develop projects summaries for projects’ public presentation, for online and printing use;
• Develop factsheets (one per month, 2 to 5 pages) informing on overall projects’ accomplishments.
• Create and feed PBF Secretariat social media profiles, monitoring and reporting on feedback;
• Design of communications and visibility materials creating engaging content, including blog pieces, articles, newsletters, press releases, speeches and videos;
• Constantly monitor the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) main initiatives, adapting the content dissemination narrative of PBF projects under the leadership of engagement strategy of these two bodies.

Deliverable 2. Communication related support to projects' activities, events:

a. Coverage of events, including photos, videos and texts with quotes b. Draf and edition of materials (texts/videos/photos) c. Review of communication materials produced with the PBF Secretariat and recipient project teams d. Write and submit communication pieces after conducting interviews, including texts, videos and photos. e. Write articles relating projects impact stories, photo and video stories illustrating PBF investment impact and results

Deliverable 3. Design of communications and visibility materials:

• Writing and designing fact sheets, briefing documents, feature articles, press releases, brochures, newsletters, banners, roll-ups, leaflets (print and online media).
• Facilitate TV, radio, and newspaper coverage of events
• Create radio spots

Duration of the assignment

The assignment should be conducted within 90 working days, in a scope of 5 months.

Competencies

• Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speaking clearly and convincingly;
• Ability to produce high-quality professional documents and products under pressure and to defend and negotiate difficult issues and positions for senior and official employees;
• Ability to engage with media and stakeholders;
• Strong ability to present at meetings with the ability to adapt to different audiences;
• Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;
• Strong clear and fast communication skills;
• Strong interpersonal skills in negotiation and liaison

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Bachelor’s degree in the areas of communications, public relations, journalism, audiovisual sciences, international relations, or related field.

Experience:

• Professional experience of at least three (3) years at the national or international level in public relations, communications, and/or social media management;
• Demonstrated experience in developing content that clearly communicates ideas for media, social media, print production, and audio-visual productions;
• Proficiency in Portuguese and English languages, speaking and writing. The working knowledge of French is an advantage;
• Experience in developing printed materials (from concept/design to final printing);
• Experience in video and image/photo production and edition ;
• Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing communication and/or media outreach plans in support of overall corporate goals is desirable.
• Knowledge of multimedia to develop a range of communication and information products.
• Experience in managing social media platforms, including content creation.
• Knowledge of video and image/photo production and edition;
• Knowledge of layout development, photoshop, coreldraw or similar;

Language: Excellent written and verbal communication skills in Portuguese and English is required.

Required documents:

• A cover letter explaining the motivation;
• A brief technical proposal explaining the approach.
• A financial proposal;

A CV including past experiences and at least 3 professional references

Evaluation: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies: Cumulative analysis When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
• Technical Criteria weight – 70 points;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Evaluation criteria:

• Education background - 10 points;
• Experience as defined in the ToR - 20 points;
• Competences as defined in the ToR - 10 points;
• Understanding of the ToR - 15 points;
• Methodology and overall approach - 25 points;

Overall quality of the proposal (comprehensiveness, structure, language and clarity) - 20 points.