Consultancy 12 months: Communication Specialist (Giga), Barcelona, Spain

UNICEF seeks a Communication Specialist to join Giga, a UNICEF-ITU initiative to connect every school worldwide to the Internet. The successful candidate will be based at our Tech Centre in Barcelona, Spain and will work with the product and communication teams to tell the Giga story focusing on Barcelona, Spain.
They will work across the entire communication mix anchored in increasing Giga’s brand visibility and communication, ensuring that Giga’s message is consistent and executed in an integrated manner.

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…Innovate

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

About Giga

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet.  Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality. 

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%. 

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://giga.global/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaglobal

How can you make a difference? 

As a Communication Specialist at Giga, you will play a pivotal role in supporting the Communication Lead in crafting and executing communication strategies. Your primary responsibility will be the localisation of Giga in the Barcelona ecosystem. You will be a part of a communication team responsible for various tasks, including product communication, community building, media relations, and coordinating communication initiatives, supported by a social media and content team. The ideal candidate is a skilled communicator with a keen eye for detail and the ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced environment, familiar with the Barcelona, and Spanish ecosystem.

Key responsibilities include:

1. Strategy and Plan: localisation of Giga’s communication strategy for activation in Spain.
2. Brand compliance: monitor and enforce brand standards and guidelines across all communication materials, ensuring consistency and brand integrity.
3. Tech Centre: partner with the product team to showcase the product offering and establish a visible positioning within the Barcelona ecosystem.
4. Media Management: assist in developing and implementing media relationship in Spain, working in a coordinated effort with various internal Giga stakeholders.
5. Campaign Coordination: implement the planning, execution and measurement of Giga campaigns, including product launches, promotions and brand awareness initiatives.
6. Editing and Proofreading: Reviewing and editing communication materials to ensure clarity, consistency, and adherence to brand guidelines, including translation of material into Spanish.
7. Social Media Management: Support the social media and content team by ensuring that the social media content is on brand and integrated with other communication themes per plan.
8. Internal Communication: Partner with HR in developing and distributing internal communications to keep everyone in GIGA informed and engaged.
9. Event Support: Support organising and promoting events, including creating promotional materials, managing RSVPs, and assisting with logistics.
10. Analytics and Reporting: Monitor and analyse the performance of communication efforts using metrics such as engagement rates, website traffic, and audience demographics. Prepare regular reports to evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies.
11. Product communication: Support the Tech team with crafting compelling product messaging and content to communicate product features, benefits, and value propositions to target audiences.

Please access the full Term of Reference (ToRs) and read a more detailed description of the assignment in this file in order to prepare your financial proposal and know more about the role:  Communication Specialist ToRs.pdf

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

• A Master’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism, or related field for this role. *An undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline combined with an additional 2 years of professional experience may substitute the Master’s degree.
• A minimum of 5 years relevant professional experience in a communication role, preferably in a corporate or agency setting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a solid attention to detail.
• Proficiency in using communication tools and platforms such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and social media management tools.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Knowledge of communication best practices, including SEO principles.
• Experience with analytics tools and data-driven decision-making.
• Flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and requirements in a dynamic work environment.
• Familiarity with content management systems (CMS) and email marketing platforms.
• Experienced project management abilities, capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously, prioritising tasks, and meeting deadlines effectively.
• Superior brand management skills, understanding of brand principles and experience in maintaining brand consistency across all communication channels and materials.
• Fluency in English and Spanish is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian) is an asset.

Travel:

• The consultant is expected to travel to Geneva four times (4 trips), for a stay of 4-5 nights.
• The consultant is responsible for arranging his/her own travel, including visa and travel insurance.

Payment details and further considerations:

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
• Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.

How to apply:

• Interested applicants are required to submit a financial proposal with an all-inclusive fee.  Please see the financial proposal template here: Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

 UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.