UN Women: Temporary Appointment – Communication Specialist, P-3

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

This position will support the work of the UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section and the work of the Global Communications & Advocacy in the context of the ACT to end violence against women programme.

The work of UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section is focused on a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women that addresses legislation and policies, prevention, services for survivors, research and data, creating safe public spaces in different settings and strengthening women’s rights movements to end violence against women. The Generation Equality Action Coalition on GBV has galvanized governments, CSOs, international organizations, philanthropies and the private sector to deliver transformational progress towards the elimination and prevention of GBV through four concrete actions: (1) Creating enabling policy, legal and resource environments; (2) Scaling up evidence driven prevention programming; (3) Scaling up comprehensive, accessible and quality services for survivors; and (4) Enabling and empowering autonomous girl-led & women’s rights organizations to exercise their expertise. In this context UN Women is partnering with the EU and the UN Trust Fund to implement a new programme to strengthen women’s rights movements funded by the European Union called ACT to end violence against women (Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action to end violence against women and girls).

The Strategic Partnerships Division (SPD) works to strengthen UN Women’s position as a partner of choice for gender equality and the empowerment of women (GEWE) among governments and private sector actors around the world. The Division does this by positioning GEWE in the intergovernmental and multilateral fora, and engaging with governments and private sector corporations, foundations and individuals as policy, programme and resource partners.

The Communications and Advocacy Section at UN Women Headquarters in New York supports the positioning of women’s empowerment and gender equality as key issues on the international agenda and establishes UN Women’s role as the global authority in this context. The Communications and Advocacy team’s key focus is to position UN Women as a visible thought and action leader in both development and humanitarian settings, to secure global support for its issues and to build the UN Women brand.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Deputy Chief, Communications & Advocacy and the Policy and Programme Management Specialist for Ending Violence Against Women, the Communication Specialist is responsible for:

• Developing and implementing the ACT communications strategy in collaboration with the global communication and advocacy team, the ACT programme team and the regional office communications specialists.
• Designing and implementing global and regional multi-stakeholder campaigns amplify advocacy priorities of the ACT programme and to maximize visibility of the ACT programme and its results.
• Developing of strong narrative and engaging communication materials for a variety of channels and target audiences.

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

Lead the development and implementation of strategic communication and outreach/advocacy strategies and plans:

• Finalize and implement ACT communications strategy to ensure robust, strategic communications, ongoing visibility and amplification of results.
• Lead communications planning and delivery of the ACT programme ensuring that ACT voice is positioned and maintained throughout the programme with both internal and external audiences.
• Manage day-to-day ACT communications and coordination with ACT global programme team, HQ and regional communication teams.
• Work with Comms team and ACT programme team to define communications monitoring and evaluation in line with the expected results of the ACT programme. Monitor and report on the results of communication and advocacy activities.

Lead the development and dissemination of  communication materials:

• Work with ACT programme team, global and regional communication team and project partners to develop compelling narratives on the results of the ACT programme as well as on key issues related to the advocacy priorities of ACT, the key findings of research including the Violence Against Women Index and other key research and knowledge products developed under ACT.
• Develop impact stories, including compelling stories from the ground, testimonials, and impact narratives that demonstrate the progress made and the importance of sustained efforts in ending violence against women and girls.
• Collaborate with the global communication team and external vendors to develop innovative, impactful communication materials for a large range of channels targeting a variety of stakeholders.

Manage Campaigns Development:

• Design global and regional campaigns in collaboration with the EVAW and communication teams to amplify the global imperative for accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls VAWG and other advocacy priorities under the ACT initiative.
• Ensure consistency of brand identity and positioning through providing all stakeholders, partners and networks with brand guidance – using  “ACT” visual identity guidance and templates.
• Identify, synthesize and disseminate best practices and lessons learned through ACT including through the innovative campaigns and strategic communication activities to inform future programming on Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW).
• Work closely with regional comms specialists in the regions where ACT is being implemented to co-create and adapt advocacy campaigns and messages to regional contexts and to ensure amplification and dissemination through regional communications channels.
• Leverage key communications moments (16 days of action, IWD, CSW) as well as events in the global calendar (e.g. UNGA COP) to amplify ACT messaging by providing tailored communication content.

Build and maintain partnership and engagement with stakeholders

• Develop and leverage organizational resources including through multistakeholder partnerships e.g. Generation Equality, Spotlight, UN Trust Fund, ACT civil society networks and wider civil society networks of UN Women to position ACT programme.
• Collaborate with external partners, such as advertising agencies and/or specialist communications experts to tab into new audience markets and explore synergies.
• Work with partners to create a social mobilization campaign to generate greater public support to shift social norms around violence against women and girls working with implementing partners, network of influencers, goodwill ambassadors and other key figures to generate greater support for the EVAW agenda across society at large.
• Work with partners to leverage behavioral insights and evidence-based innovative approaches in the development of campaign and communications messaging on EVAW.

Oversee the social media presence 

• Guide and collaborate with the UN HQ Social Media Team, draft engaging and informative content for global and regional channels, ensuring content is optimized for social media and tailored by platform and target audience.
• Coordinate creation of high-quality visual assets and social media first videos.
• Analyse and report on content performance and proactively suggest ways to improve performance.
• Support the social media team in planning and coordinating EVAW-related content to ensure it is aligned and complementary.

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: The incumbent will supervise external vendors and temporary personnel as required.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated stakeholder engagement and networking skills with internal and external audiences.
• Demonstrated experience in the development and implementation of global communication and advocacy campaigns.
• Strong writing and editing skills for a variety of communication materials.
• In-depth understanding of different communication channels and platforms.

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree in communications, media, journalism, public relations, international relations, or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience: 

• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in communications, public information, journalism, international relations, public administration or related area at the international level is required.
• Experience in developing and implementing global and regional communication and advocacy campaigns is required.
• Experience developing communication products for diverse platforms within a multi-stakeholder partnership is required.
• Experience developing content for global social media channels is required.
• Experience in effective stakeholder management including at the global and regional is required.
• Experience working on development issues, especially related to gender equality is highly desirable.

Language: 

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of Spanish or French is desirable.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.)