Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
The Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBLAC) consists of its presence across 26 Country Offices over 42 countries (and territories), the Panama Regional Hub, and its Headquarters in New York. RBLAC New York is responsible for the overall strategic vision and direction, strategic, substantive, and operational support to Country Offices, including with regard to partnerships and communications, and oversight of performance. The Bureau delivers on average $1 billion annually in development assistance through Country Offices and regional initiatives.
The Communications Team is responsible for the development and implementation of the communications strategy and, in coordination with the Partnership Team, serves as the focal point to UNDP’s Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy (BERA). It directs and advises on strategic communications, advocacy, and outreach efforts and ensures coherence with partnerships and substantive engagement. It contributes to internal communications and is responsible for the preparation of content, presentations and speeches delivered by the Regional Director and the Deputy Regional Director.
Position Purpose
Under the guidance of the Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director, the Strategic Communications Advisor will lead the communication team, enhancing the visibility and impact of UNDP LAC by planning and executing effective communication and outreach strategies, identifying, and analyzing relevant political and development trends and opportunities to position UNDP LAC narrative and solutions, and creating high-quality content that supports organizational objectives and promotes sustainable development in the region.
Through a decisive collaborative arrangement, the Advisor will work closely with all the RBLAC teams located in HQ, the Panama Regional Hub, UN Agencies, and Country Offices.
The incumbent will develop and implement the global communications strategy and regional communication plans, focusing on key regional bureau products. The Strategic Communications Advisor will substantively advise and support bureau-wide strategic communications and advocacy, in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan and UNDP’s support to the Sustainable Development Goals in the LAC region. S/he/they will lead and guide RBLAC’s innovative approach to strategic communication, with a strong emphasis on media and public relations, social media, and digital and visual communications to elevate messaging, and visibility of partnerships, issues, and results.
S/he/they will work closely with BERA communications, to ensure RBLAC contributions to the corporate Engagement Plan and to coordinate with the BERA communications function for RBLAC to ensure high-quality, effective, and timely support communications support to RBLAC Country Offices. The incumbent will advise on communication and advocacy opportunities, innovative approaches, and risks. S/he/they works in a spirit of teamwork and collaboration, to provide high-quality, results-oriented, strategic and solutions-oriented strategic communications advice and support as a critical function of the Regional Bureau. S/he/they should have strong teambuilding, interpersonal, and communications skills, be client-oriented, and able to look at issues from different angles and find creative solutions.
UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration
Duties and Responsibilities
Strategic External Communications and Advocacy
- Leads and/or advises RBLAC senior management on strategic communications and advocacy, in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan and regional priorities.
- Advises RBLAC senior management on its presence on social networks, the web, and digital engagement in general.
- Leads new and innovative digital partnerships for RBLAC, including on results and data, to elevate the visibility of RBLAC results, knowledge products, regional initiatives, and development messaging.
- Closely liaises with other RBLAC teams in New York, the Panama Regional Hub, and Country Offices to identify opportunities for communications and advocacy engagement and development in and for the LAC region.
- Liaises with BERA to coordinate and align RBLAC regional communications and advocacy priorities and strategies with the corporate Engagement Plan, joint RBLAC-BERA workplans, and other frameworks.
- Leads the development of the communications elements of the RBLAC Partnerships and Communications Strategy and its implementation.
- Leads the development of communication and advocacy products and communication material that contribute to illustrating RBLAC’s work, results, and impact in the LAC region.
- Supports RBLAC senior management’s communication needs and engagements, and identifies opportunities for increased communication on development issues, UNDP/RBLAC results, and partnerships.
- Advises the RBLAC senior management on strategic communications, reputational risks, and crisis management, including advising on solutions and risk mitigation/management.
- Forges, maintains and nourishes strong relations with key communication and advocacy partners related to the LAC region, including international and regional media outlets.
- Contributes to RBLAC’s integrated, coherent approach to partnerships, communications, and advocacy, in line with the global UNDP Strategic Plan, and the effort to increase the visibility of UNDP results and contributions to development messaging and knowledge
Elaboration and Implementation of RBLAC Communication Strategies, Plans and Products
- Identifies and develops storylines for publications and substantive articles contributing to debates on key development issues.
- Coordinates and manages RBLAC communications activities, including content management, messaging, storytelling, brand awareness, norms for publishing and design, and liaison with graphic designers and other publication service providers, to oversee the production and supervision of products and publication dissemination.
- Ensures RBLAC alignment with corporate policies and procedures, whenever applicable, on communications initiatives and approaches in the RBLAC region.
- Leads and supervises the preparation of content for RBLAC websites and social media platforms ensuring consistency and relevance of the materials.
- Represents the Communications Team in corporate communications and outreach events and activities as required. Establishes and manages effective relations with global, regional, and sub-regional counterparts in the communications area.
- Creates and promotes campaigns that position UNDP/RBLAC with local and international media, and influence the agenda based on the current programme and new initiatives.
- Manages, promotes, and disseminates RBLAC advocacy materials for launching flagship initiatives and publications such as the RBLAC Human Development Report and other reports.
- Creates, promotes, and maintains public information campaigns on RBLAC priorities aligned with the Strategic Plan, in collaboration with Country Offices, RBLAC/New York teams, and the Panama Regional Hub.
- Ensures timely, high-quality support to Country Offices in RBLAC on communications, including as related to advocacy and partnerships.
- Increases coverage and understanding of RBLAC through the development and maintenance of media contacts and providing newsworthy information to donors, partners, and media.
- Provides substantive support to the RBLAC/New York Teams on the formatting, packaging, assembly, and submission of programme and project initiatives for partnership/donor consideration.
- Develops and maintains close contacts with UN/UN Agency counterparts, donor/partner/government officials, multilateral and bilateral entities, civil society, and the private sector, for implementation of the communication and advocacy elements of the RBLAC Partnership and Communication Strategy, including through organization of roundtable discussions, press conferences, project visits, briefing sessions, interviews, launches, as relevant.
- Ensures access for journalists to RBLAC subject matter experts and other UNDP spokespeople.
- Offer innovative and creative solutions to sensitive or regional strategic public communications issues.
Knowledge Management and Advocacy
- Identifies, synthesizes, and disseminates best practices and lessons learned related to RBLAC strategic communications and advocacy, including from Country Offices, the Panama Regional Hub, RBLAC/NY, and other UN/UNDP teams. Ensures the continuous collation of lessons learned and best practices in the areas of partnerships and communications for development.
- Monitors practices, programme-specific news, and developments to ensure communications guidance that reflects accurate and timely available information, for RBLAC senior management.
- Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice at both corporate and regional levels, and offers sound contributions to knowledge networks, and communities of practice, including corporate communications repositories.
- Leads and/or contributes to the organization and provision of training and consultative advice to RBLAC staff, as well as Communications Officers in COs on external strategic communications, and the linkages with strengthened, integrated approaches to partnership and advocacy.
- Instills a strong culture of knowledge management and knowledge sharing in the Partnerships and Communication Team, to foster and support collaborative, quality approaches to partnerships and communications.
- Stimulates the use of blogs, social media, and community of practice to ensure wide dissemination of positions, events, and debates on the topics covered by RBLAC.
- As requested, contributes to RBLAC/Directorate-led internal communication
Communications and quality assurance
- Develops, implements, and monitors regional external communications strategy.
- Markets and positions UNDP in the region.
- Leads media outreach in the region, working closely with international and regional media.
- Coordinates strategic partnerships with key international media organizations and other constituencies in the region.
- In liaison with BERA, supports UNDP’s strategic communications capacity and Communications Officers in COs, and shares information within RBLAC in support of content management efforts.
- Systematically updates RBLAC’s website with the latest information on the implementation of the RBLAC strategy and highlights significant results.
- Ensures quality assurance of communications, publications, and other materials with significant policy content in cooperation with other relevant units.
- Prepares comprehensive talking points, presentations, and speeches for the Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director, after requesting thematic inputs to other RBLAC teams.
- Manages the “branding” of UNDP in LAC within existing corporate norms in this area.
- Provides strategic support to the Directorate on substantive and organizational issues for the region, including communications support.
- External representation and advocacy with UN partners, permanent missions, and others for the region.
- Supports/organizes positioning activities in the LAC region and in New York
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: Yes, non-staff capacity contracted on a non-continuous basis
Competencies
Core
- Achieve Results:
LEVEL 4: Prioritize team workflow, mobilize resources, drive scalable results/strategic impact - Think Innovatively:
LEVEL 4: Easily navigate complexity, encourage/enable radical innovation, has foresight - Learn Continuously
LEVEL 4: Create systems and processes that enable learning and development for all - Adapt with Agility
LEVEL 4: Proactively initiate/lead organizational change, champion new systems/processes - Act with Determination
LEVEL 4: Able to make difficult decisions in challenging situations, inspire confidence - Engage and Partner
LEVEL 4: Construct strategic multi-partner alliances in high stake situations, foster co-creation - Enable Diversity and Inclusion
LEVEL 4: Create ethical culture, identify/address barriers to inclusion
People Management
UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.
Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies
Business Direction & Strategy
System Thinking
- Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
Business Development
Knowledge Generation
- Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context or responsive to a stated need.
Business Management
Communication
- Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and other appropriate channels.
Business Management
Portfolio Management
- Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.
Communications
Campaign Management
- Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns with lead to impactful change.
Communications
Creative Direction and Copywriting
- Ability to creatively communicate concepts in an engaging and simple way.
Communications
Media Relations
- Ability to develop media relations across all aspects of media work including relationships with media and preparing media materials such as messages.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Communications, Journalism, Social Sciences, or any communication-related field is required, or a first-level university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of Master´s degree.
Experience:
- Minimum 10 years (with Master´s degree) or 12 years (with Bachelor´s degree) in communications, media relations, or journalism, including in progressively responsible management roles.
- Proven experience in developing and implementing communications strategies in a development context is desired.
- Extensive international-level experience in communications is desired, including communications related to development, the Sustainable Development Goals, and crisis/protracted crisis development-related issues.
- Proven experience in initiating and using innovative approaches to develop, including but not limited to social media and digital and visual approaches to communication is desired.
- Proven experience in overseeing and developing communications and advocacy initiatives is desired.
- Demonstrated capacity to manage communications-related sensitivities and reputational risk issues is desired.
- Demonstrated experience in integrating communications, partnerships, and advocacy strategies, planning, and implementation is desired.
- Previous experience working in a UN/UNDP Country Office or HQ Unit or equivalent, to provide strategic communications advice and support, is highly desired.
- Experience in the communications field in Latin America and the Caribbean is highly desired.
- Demonstrated knowledge of and experience with the usage of computers and MS Office packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and web-based management systems is required.
Language requirements:
- Required: Fluency in English and Spanish is required, as well as writing, presentation, and communication skills.
- Desired: Working knowledge of French.
Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.
Disclaimer
Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.
UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
Applicant information about UNDP rosters
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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