Communications Specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women Jordan works in close collaboration with the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the UN System, Civil Society, and members of the international community to advance the women’s national agenda, promoting women’s empowerment, women’s rights, and gender equality.

Context

The Communications Unit works on strengthening strategic partnerships and resource mobilization at the country level, while ensuring sustained and coherent social mobilization with national stakeholders towards the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment. All these areas of work are supported by extensive internal and external communication, drawing attention to the specific projects and campaigns implemented by UN Women in Jordan. As such, the Unit is also leading communication and advocacy efforts to enhance the visibility of gender-related instances at the country level, including the implementation of national, regional, and global advocacy campaigns, such as on the occasion of International Women’s Day, the annual Women Film Week, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence etc.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Country Representative or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the Communications Specialist Volunteer will:
1. Lead the development and implementation of communication and outreach/advocacy strategies and plans, with a specific focus on media:
• Conduct communication needs assessments for the UN Women Country Office (CO), including projects, programmes and corporate change initiatives;
• Design, develop, and implement communication and outreach/advocacy strategies, including media strategies; ensure gender perspective;
• Integrate communication, advocacy and outreach strategies into proposals for project/programmes and other initiatives;
• Monitor and analyse print and social media and prepare reports;
• Manage in-country UN Women/ UN system corporate and local campaigns and special events;
2. Lead the development and dissemination of advocacy materials in the country:
• Develop and produce communication and advocacy instruments and materials, including briefing materials, press releases, and articles and coordinate its dissemination through effective channels;
• Identify and launch information opportunities, activities, approaches and platforms and partners;
• Provide advice on advocacy materials and coordinate launching flagship initiatives and publications in the country;
• Lead the engagement and supervision of video producers and other communication specialists to produce audio/ visual material on UN Women’s work;
• Develop brochures, factsheets, stories from the field to inform media and general public at the country and regional level;
• Follow guidelines from and report to HQ.
3. Manage media relations for the Country Office:
• Lead relationship building with press in the country; maintain and update database of relevant press;
• Respond timely and clearly to media inquiries and to a variety of inquiries and information requests; prepare related correspondence; identify topics, background information, news-related development and coverage of interest;
• Organize roundtable discussions, press conferences, and briefing sessions with press;
• Facilitate interviews with the Country Representative; connect media with UN Women subject experts;
• Finalize talking points.
4. Build and maintain partnerships and maintain relations with donors:
• Identify and develop new communication partnerships and alliances to enhance visibility; manage and nurture existing partnerships;
• Liaise with advocacy partners and undertake outreach to civil society organizations, governments, and other groups to ensure that newsworthy information reaches the public and donors;
• Guide and collaborate closely with communication colleagues in other offices to ensure consistency with corporate policies, messaging and initiatives;
• Submit packages for programme initiatives for donor review.
5. Oversee the CO’s web/ online presence:
• Oversee and maintain websites, including developing design and content;
• Coordinate COs’ web-presence in the line with corporate web policy;
• Oversee and manage social media accounts in line with corporate social media policy.
6. Facilitate knowledge building and sharing:
• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned from CO directly linked to programme country goals and activities and ensure exchange of information;
• Provide training and workshops on communication and advocacy as appropriate;
7. Manage the people and financial resources of the communications unit·
• Manage the communication unit budget;
• Supervise Communications Analyst and Consultants;
• Mentor and coach personnel and conduct performance assessments; ·
• Oversee recruitment processes, as necessary.
8. Perform any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor ·
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.