Advocacy and Communications Support, Individual Contractor, Home-based

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is recruiting a Contractor as Advocacy and Communications Support within the Partnership and Coordination Service in the Division of External Relations.

UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

Title: Advocacy and Communications Support
Duty Station: Home-based
Duration: to start ASAP until end of the year (with possible extension until 31 March 2023)
Contract Type: UNHCR Individual Contractor
Closing date: Friday, 29 April 2022

Organisational context

The contractor will operate within the Partnership and Coordination Service (PCS) in the Division of External Relations (DER).

In the context of the Ukraine situation – which has produced the largest forced displacement in Europe since the second world war – there is intense pressure on UNHCR to effectively communicate with, mobilise and coordinate the efforts of multiple partners.

Within the wider strategy of UNHCR’s Division of External Relations (DER), the Partnership and Coordination Service (PCS), is responsible for contributing to the following outcomes[1]:

Outcome 1: By 2024, priority partners (UN, NGOs, private sector, development actors and others) are leveraged in support of strategic directions.

Outcome 2: By 2024, local organizations, including those led by displaced or stateless people, are capacitated to meaningfully participate in policy discussions and responses

Outcome 3: By 2024 protection and solutions are streamlined in the wider UN system, making it better equipped to systematically serve refugees, IDPs, stateless people and People on the Move

Outcome 4: By 2024, advocacy with partners will have achieved key policy changes in support of protection and solutions

Contributing effectively to these outcomes, in a way that supports and facilitates the refugee response in Europe, will require communications capacity, particularly in relation to:

• Strengthening strategic partnerships with priority INGOs, local NGOs and other local actors, especially organisations-led by refugees and other Persons of Concern (PoCs) as well as sport partners, with a focus on raising the voices of marginalised groups and localisation; and

• Advocacy with key partners, including sister UN agencies, UN leadership at country and regional level, UN member states, and donors, in support of protection and solutions.

The purpose of this consultancy is to develop, iteratively adapt, and implement a communications workplan to underpin the above elements of the DER strategy in the context of the Europe crisis, working across PCS, with other HQ teams, especially the Divisions on Global Communication and with the regional bureaux.

Duties and responsibilities

The Contractor is required to bring strategic communications experience, leadership and capacity to PCS’s work with partners on the Ukraine situation and related issues. S/He will not only work closely with the three teams in PCS (Inter-Agency, Sport and NGOs) but will also maintain synergies with the work of GCS.

More specifically, the Contractor will take the lead to develop and implement a communications workplan which supports PCS’s advocacy and communications outputs. They will be critical in building and maintaining excellent relationships both internally, with a core group of stakeholders, as well as a broad range of high-level external partners.

The Contractor will be expected to consult with relevant internal stakeholders, including the Europe bureau, and with external sport, NGOs, PoC-led organisations, local partners and UN partners’ communications focal points to identify key advocacy priorities and develop an agreed approach to communications in support of relevant outcomes that PCS leads on under the DER workplan. In coordination with these stakeholders, she / he will develop and implement a dedicated PCS communications workplan; and will ndertake and maintain regular communications functions in support of PCS generally, including e.g. maintaining the PCS twitter account and developing content for regular internal bulletins.

Key tasks:

1. Develop and implement advocacy objectives, approach and workplan as described above.

2. Liaise with Europe Bureau and other internal teams and in close coordination with GCS, to achieve agreed objectives in the PCS communications plan.

3. Coordinate the development of authoritative content to lead the narrative on Sport, NGO enagagement, localisation, refugee response plans (RRP)/refugee coordination model (RCM) and other PCS advocacy objectives, in the context of the Ukraine situation.

4. Project manage existing or new creative communications partners, so that they deliver around key moments as set out in the PCS communications plan.

5. Produce social media and other communication products as requested by UNHCR and partners, e.g. NGOs, such as videos, in collaboration with GCS and external partners.

6. Revise PCS social media strategy, implement it and manage the coordination of communications on these platforms in line with agreed objectives in plan (including Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn), with guidance from GCS and collaboration from the NGOs, Sports and Inter-Agency teams.

7. Lead or support others across PCS on the development of creative concepts, tactics and messaging for communications related to Sport, NGOs, the localisation agenda, RRP/RCM, PCS advocacy objectives and the Ukraine situation.

8. As needed, act as the GCS focal point on crisis communications around PCS-led partnerships.

9. Serve as primary PCS liaison and interface for communications with sport partners, NGOs, local partners, UN partners, the Europe Bureau and GCS. For example, lead on communications from UNHCR side for the Sport for Refugees coalition, Blueprint for Joint Action with UNICEF, WLO Innovation Award, NGO consultations and localisation.

10. In coordination with key internal stakeholders, support the ongoing work of identification, management, storage and distribution of content gathered on sports, NGOs, localisation and UN partners internally (including UNHCR Broadcasts, PCS bi-weeklies, the intranet, Yammer, the Community of Practice, and other internal messaging) and externally (unhcr.org website, press releases, social media, emails to partners, etc).

Expected outputs by end 2022:

• An agreed workplan for 1 year with clear objectives (including the agreed advocacy objectives) which contribute to PCS’s communications related outcomes and which includes actions to be taken by different in-house teams and partners.

• A list of 3-4 specific advocacy objectives (e.g. policy changes) outlined in the workplan relevant to PCS’s work in response to the Ukraine situation and related issues, in line with the High Commissioner’s Strategic Directions.

• A list of priority messages for NGO, Sport and UN partners’ use on key themes related to agreed advocacy objectives and in relation to the Ukraine situation.

• Various products as set out in the workplan (schedule determined by agreed workplan).

• Regular, high-quality content shared 1. externally via PCS social media platforms, and 2. Internally via PCS regular bulletin

• Regular updates on progress against the workplan.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

a. Education (Level and area of required and/or preferred education)

· Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications or other related field.

b. Work Experience

Required:

a. Years of experience / Degree level: 7 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 5 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 4 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree.

b. Field(s) of Education Journalism; International Relations; Political Science; Communications; Public Information; Media; Film / Video; or other relevant field.

c. Relevant Job Experience Essential: Minimum 4years of professional experience in journalism and/or communications, mainly at international level.

Desirable:

· Experience developing and implementing communications strategies and workplans.

· Experience working on multistakeholder communications initiatives.

· Experience with brand strengthening.

· Experience with social media engagement and development of respective products.

· Experience with developing and editing videos.

· Experience reporting, writing, editing for magazines, newspapers and websites.

· Experience using digital asset management systems.

· Experience with digital analytics and performance reporting.

Key Competencies

· Accountability

· Communication

· Organizational Awareness

· Teamwork & Collaboration

· Commitment to Continuous Learning

· Empowering and Building Trust

· Judgement and Decision Making

· Leadership

· Analytical Thinking

· Innovation and Creativity

· Political Awareness

Location

The role will be home-based.

Conditions

This position is initially up to the end of the year with possibility of extension. It is a full-time role starting from 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday (40 hours per week).

[1][1] These outcomes are currently in draft form and wording may change. A workplan will be built to articulate specific outputs and actions envisaged under each outcome.