Individual Consultant: International Communications Consultant under “EU 4 Gender Equality

The Position:

The Communications Consultant will work under direct supervision of the EU4GE Regional Project Manager. The Consultant will collaborate closely with the teams at UNFPA and UN Women at the regional and country levels to ensure the communication and visibility plan is efficiently implemented and reported. S/he will support outreach campaigns and other communication and visibility related actions as well as special events organized within the programme.

How You Can Make a Difference

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose

The second phase of the “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender-stereotypes and gender-based violence” project [1] , funded by the European Union. Starts on 1 January 2024 and will continue until 30 June 2026. The project will work in countries of Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) and will have a regional component. The overall objective of the programme’s phase II remains – to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men of the Eastern Partnership Countries in family and public life. The programme will aim to reduce gender discriminatory attitudes and practices between women and men in institutional and community spheres, including unpaid domestic and care work, by continuing and upscaling successful initiatives and interventions from the phase I, including but not limited to building evidence and knowledge on social norms change, implementing innovative communication and advocacy campaigns and continuing with subgrants to successful interventions by civil society organizations (CSOs). Furthermore, by creating new and upscaling previously created Fathers’ Schools, building capacity of facilitators and gender advocates, advocating for equal sharing of care work and domestic responsibilities by promoting family-friendly policies in the national legislation and among the non-state actors, etc. The prevention of gender-based violence will be an integral component under the objective.

The second phase of the joint programme will continue prioritizing strategic communication that was proved to be most effective during the first programme phase. The programme will continue focusing on creative communication around gender norms and stereotypes, developing regional communication products and campaigns to be adjusted and further implemented at the country level. The programme will also focus on disseminating findings of the desk review and the follow-up assessment on gender norms and stereotypes in creative and engaging ways, including through social media platforms. This work will build on methods/communication practices that proved to be most efficient well during the first programme phase, e.g. sharing human stories of the Programme’s impact on its beneficiaries.

The programme has an established communication protocol from the first phase and adheres by the current EU and UN visibility and communication guidelines, the Communication and Visibility Requirements for EU External Actions published by the European Commission and the UN Women and UNFPA communications and visibility policies and guidelines. UN Women and UNFPA maintain regular communication with the European Commission in Brussels and with the EU Delegations in target countries.

[1] https://eeca.unfpa.org/en/eu-4-gender-equality-programme

You Would Be Responsible For

• Design, develop, and implement communication and outreach/advocacy activities.
• Develop inspirational stories highlighting project results at the regional level in the format of web stories as well as in multi-media formats (photos, quote cards, videos etc.).
• Develop and produce communication and advocacy instruments and materials, including briefing materials, press releases, and articles and coordinate its dissemination through effective channels.
• Provide visibility for successful programmatic initiatives, results, events, campaigns etc. on UN Women’s and UNFPA’s national, regional, and global platforms.
• Coordinate the production of effective multimedia content, including infographics, videos, photos etc. to be disseminated on digital platforms.
• Monitor and analyze print and social media and prepare reports related to the project.
• Support the programme team to launch the project-related campaigns and special events.
• Provide advice and guidance to the country colleagues and partners with regards to the correct application of the project visual identity, as requested.
• Support with the hiring of communications-related consultants if needed (such as designers, editors, illustrators, videographers etc.) and support with the payment processes.
• Lead the engagement and supervision of video producers and other communication specialists to produce the related audio/ visual material.
• Identify and launch information opportunities, activities, approaches and platforms.
• Develop a concept for regional events related to communications and advocacy, oversee implementation of the event.
• Facilitate interviews with partners and personnel of the project.
• Develop talking points.
• Guide and collaborate closely with UN Women and UNFPA communication colleagues in the country offices to ensure consistency with corporate policies, messaging and initiatives.
• Provide support to identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned from COs and directly linked to project’s country goals and activities and ensure exchange of information.
• Provide training and workshops on communication, visibility and advocacy as appropriate.
• Collect communication and visibility inputs of country offices for the annual and final donor reports.

Education

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in communications, journalism, public relations, social sciences, international relations, or a relevant field.

Knowledge And Experience

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in the field of communications, advocacy and/or public relations.
• Experience in working on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Outstanding oral and written communications and editorial skills, with proven ability to produce communications products and content for online platforms and social media.
• Experience within the UN system, especially with UN Women/UNFPA is an asset.
• Experience in developing high quality text for online and traditional communications materials required.
• Experience in providing communications support for on and offline events an asset.
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Languages

• Fluency in English required (written and oral), Russian is an asset.

UNFPA Work Environment

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA’s workforce – click here to learn more.

Disclaimer

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements.

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.