Communications Officer

Reporting to the Project Management Specialist, the Communications Officer ensures the timely and quality formulation and implementation of the communications and advocacy plans to increase the standing and awareness of UN Women with partners, the media and the public. The Communication Officer will support advocacy efforts, maintenance of media relations, and organizational outreach efforts, in order to increase the standing and awareness of UN Women with partners, the media and the public. The Communications Officer collaborates closely with other Country Office colleagues, as well as the Regional Office counterparts, to ensure communications activities and organizational outreach efforts are aligned with corporate communications policies and initiatives and follow innovative approaches and good practices. The Communications Officer promotes a client-oriented approach in UN Women. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead planning and design of communications and outreach/advocacy strategies and plans and ensure their efficient implementation:
• Coordinate preparation and implementation of communications needs assessments for the project, ensuring gender perspective is fully mainstreamed;
• Elaborate, implement and continuously monitor the project’s communication strategy and plan, including appropriate feedback mechanisms and monitoring tools;
• Contributes to identification of appropriate suppliers for the provision of goods and services for activities under the communication plan; Coordinate and evaluate project service providers related to communication & visibility products and service delivered to the project; Develops relevant Terms of References and technical specifications;
• Oversee the organization and realization of events, campaigns, workshops, coordinate the project team on all communication and visibility aspects;
• Coordinate monitoring and analysis of media and social media and draft reports; Provide inputs to the quarterly and annual Office work plan and progress/annual reports.

Coordinate and implement the development and dissemination of advocacy materials related to the project:

• Develop and produce communications materials, including brochures, publications, briefing materials, press releases, and articles on project activities, and manage their dissemination;
• Identify and propose information-sharing opportunities, activities, approaches and platforms and partners;
• Oversee the translation/adaption/rewriting of communications materials, coordinate printing and dissemination of publications and audio-visual materials.

Coordinate media relations for the Project:

• Develop a tailored strategy on working with media and manage relationships with the media; ensure maintenance and update of a media database; provide advice to project team on media relationships;
• Respond to media inquiries and information requests related to the project; prepare related correspondence;
• Respond to queries from the EU Delegation, Government, other UN Agencies, and other external parties with respect to communication and visibility aspects of the project;
• Organize roundtable discussions, press conferences, and briefing sessions for the media, as required;
• Design concepts of various media products such as TV and radio programmes, op-eds and other materials in cooperation with staff and partners;
• Coordinate and facilitate participation of project’s team members in different TV broadcast programmes, radio, written interviews etc;
• Ensures timely preparation of talking points, their relevance to the event and compliance with organization’s mandate and priorities.

Coordinate communication with Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and ensures visibility:

• Informs SDC of the planning and implementation of specific visibility and communication activities before they are implemented and ensures adequate visibility of SDC financing;
• Measures effectiveness of communication activities on awareness about the project and its objectives as well as on SDC funding of the project;
• Reports on visibility and communication actions as well as the results of the overall Action to the relevant monitoring committees and the contracting authority;
• Coordinates actions related to communication and visibility with the SDC communication department, to ensure coherence of narrative and message, as well as horizontal strategic communication.
• Liaise with advocacy partners and undertake outreach to civil society organizations, government, and other groups to ensure that newsworthy information reaches the public and SDC;
• Provide inputs to SDC reports and information packages for SDC’s review;
• Be aware and guide colleagues on SDC`s specific visibility rules.

Ensure the web and online presence of the project:

• Draft articles on activities of the project for CO’s website;
• Ensures social media presence for the project activities on the social media channels of UN Women CO;
• Ensure visibility and presentation of results of the project activities; ensure increased hits on the website and reach of the social media accounts, as well as evidence of visual content;

Required Skills and Experience:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree in corporate communications, public relations, social sciences, international relations, journalism and/or other relevant is required; or
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• Additional training and certification in communication and related areas is a strong advantage.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years’ experience in communications at the national or international level, including experience in media relations is required;
• Experience in developing and implementing media/communications strategies and plans, including organizing awareness campaigns is an advantage;
• Experience in active/advanced use of social media, multi-media and digital platforms is required;
• Experience in writing reports, articles and/or blogs is required;
• Experience working in a large development agency is an advantage;
• Previous experience with gender issues, with UN Women and UN system is an advantage.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Romanian is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=116592