Consultant, Communications and Outreach for the 20th Anniversary of UNSCR 1325, 2020

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.

The Peace and Security Section leads on UN system-wide coordination on Women, Peace and Security, provides technical and financial support to the peace and security work of UN Women field offices, and implements a number of global initiatives that range from training women on mediation, peacekeepers on preventing and responding to sexual violence, and experts on investigation and documentation of international crimes, to rapidly deploying gender advisors to commissions of inquiry, peace talks, and post-conflict planning and financing processes, supporting gender-responsive public service delivery, and linking women in the community and grassroots organizations to police and other actors to ensure better protection.

 The 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 provides us with a valuable opportunity to re-energize existing  supporters of the WPS agenda, but also and importantly to raise awareness of the WPS agenda with new audiences outside the usual sphere of people engaged on this issue. It is critical to engage new supporters and champions, including young people, who can play an important role in advocating with their governments about the importance of implementing the WPS agenda. Without garnering broader support—support from new, energized champions from all over the world—we are unlikely to realize broad implementation of the WPS agenda.

 The overall objective for the one-year period from October 2019 to the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in October 2020, is to raise awareness around the WPS agenda broadly, and elevate commitment to—and accountability for—the full implementation of the WPS agenda by key partners, including national policy makers, regional bodies, Member States, UN entities and other key stakeholders.   

 The specific objectives for this period are to raise the profile of the women, peace and security agenda globally, to increase accountability and commitments from UN Member States especially UN Security Council Members to the WPS agenda, and to pursue media coverage that prioritizes the role of women in peacebuilding.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Design, with input from the coordination specialist and other team members, an overall outreach strategy and implementation plan for the upcoming 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, including tools and strategies for monitoring the reach and impact of these efforts:

• Work with coordination specialist to develop a strategic outreach plan and timeline, including calendar mapping strategic outreach opportunities.
• Work closely with the Peace & Security team to develop content and creative direction for the WPS year-long campaign (October 2019 – October 2020)
• Conduct a mapping exercise to identify a broad and diverse list of global target audiences, including advice on media outlet to engage with on key messages and other assets developed for the 2020 anniversary, feminist activists/groups, gender studies programs at universities, academics, professional groups, organizations dealing with gender, etc.;
• Identify avenues for publicizing WPS key messages and content, including through media interviews, blogs, podcasts, Op-Eds, alignment with UN International Days, engagement with WPS Champions,  etc., as well as interaction with the UN Women website and social media;
• as well as a brief information package for external/internal webpage and UN women’s offices on WPS in 2020 with suggested messages and actions;
• Identify potential areas of controversy and work with the team to develop ways to prepare for them.

Develop key messages drawing on the annual Secretary-General’s reports to the Security Council on Women, Peace and Security, new research and analysis

• Produce a set of key messages to share with UN Women’s regional and country offices and to launch and disseminate widely during WPS week (drawing on previous work and the Secretary-General’s 2019 report)
  • Global Key Messages
  • 6 Priority Area Key Messages
  • Including messaging at major milestone events (i.e. WPS Open Debates, CSW, Paris/Mexico forums and other major 2020 events – see Calendar)

 Contribute to development of content and communications assets for outreach efforts, including stories of women peacebuilders, young women and others, infographics, data stories and other features:

• In partnership with Country and Regional Offices, outreach and coordinate with women peacebuilders and young women, as well as other key stakeholders, for interviews, quotes, editorial features and/or other assets;
• Contribute to outreach around the 2020 anniversary by writing or editing content, such as short blog pieces, Op-Eds attributed to WPS champions or others, related to the WPS agenda and 2019 SG’s report, editorial content, web features and the WPS In Focus, etc.
• With the coordination specialist, collaborate with UN Women’s social media team and design consultants around the development of messaging for diverse and innovative multimedia/social media assets, including developing a social media “toolkit” that the UN Women offices, UN partner agencies, and the general public may use to share the key WPS messages;
• Input into branding development;
• Prepare, as needed, materials for the milestone events and ongoing advocacy.

  Media engagement support

• Advise on strategic proactive and reactive media relations opportunities and work closely with the communications team to pursue these; 
• Support, as needed, with preparation and engagement around six milestone events, including the 2020 Open Debate on WPS in October 2020; may include additional outreach.

 Other activities

• Support, as needed, with preparation for other communications assets around six identified milestone events, including any additional initiatives and events, pending availability.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies

• Excellent external and strategic communications skills

• Strong knowledge of media outlets, social media platforms and journalism
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations
• Strong analytical skills
• Familiarity with women, peace and security and humanitarian issues
• Good knowledge of women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment issues
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to advocacy, communications and outreach messages
•  

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Post-graduate degree in media/communications, dKey Performance Indicators:
• Timely and quality substantive inputs to communications and outreach strategies and activities;
• Timely and quality substantive inputs to workplans and strategies;
• Monitoring and timely responsiveness to emerging communications and outreach opportunities;
• Collaborative relationships with staff, vendors and key stakeholders;
• Timely development of communications messaging and contribution to assets;
• Quality of communications and advocacy messages;
• Adherence to UN Women standards and rules;
• evelopment studies, gender, international relations, or a related field
• 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:

• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience combined at national and/or international levels in advocacy, outreach and communications;
• Previous experience coordinating strategic outreach on gender advocacy products and/or major institutional reports required;
• Excellent writing and editing skills, including for diverse assets targeting a broad range of audiences;
• Experience working with media outlets, journalists and social media tools.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language, especially French or Spanish, is an asset.