Communications Officer

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) strives to promote gender equality and women’s human rights, strengthen implementation of gender sensitive policy and legislation, and eliminate all forms of violence against women as well as to protect women’s human rights. Attention is given to issues of excluded groups and their capacity to lobby so that these become part of mainstream decision making and planning. It provides technical advisory and services on women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls, women’s leadership and participation, including in disaster risk reduction and management and gender integration in planning and budgeting. UN Women works towards ensuring an effective UN response by strengthening the effectiveness, coordination, and quality of outputs on gender equality amongst the various stakeholders.

Reporting to the Head of Partnerships and Communications, the Communications Officer is responsible for assisting in the planning and implementation of the Office communications and advocacy strategies to increase the standing and awareness of UN Women with partners, the media and the public.

The Communications Officer works in close collaboration with the Programme, Operations and technical teams in the CO/MCO/RO, HQ/Regional communications teams, staff of other UN Agencies, Government officials, media, multilateral and bilateral donors and civil society.

Duties:

1. Provides support to the planning and design of internal and external strategies for communications and outreach

• Conduct of communications needs assessments for CO (projects, country programme and corporate change initiatives, etc)

• Analysis of requirements and synthesis of proposals for elaboration of the CO communications and outreach strategy based on the corporate communications strategy.

• Development/production of communication and advocacy instruments and materials for

• marketing and awareness-raising campaigns, including briefing materials and press releases in coordination with the supervisor.

• Synthesis of proposals for project formulations to integrate advocacy and communication strategies into all aspects of UN Women’s development programme.

2. Ensures the implementation of the CO communications and partnerships strategy and plan Support effective implementation of the CO communications and partnerships strategy and plan.

• Manage some CO publication activities, such as drafting articles, content management, norms for publishing, design, maintenance of regular contact with printers and other suppliers to ensure production and publications dissemination.

• Support partnerships building with multilateral and bilateral donors, private sector, research institutes and non-traditional partners for implementation of the communications strategy, organization of roundtable discussions, press conferences, project visits, briefing sessions, interviews, launches, etc.

3. Provides contributions to the UN Women Regional web-site, intranet, CO web-based knowledge management system

• Support the Country Representative and programme staff with preparation of articles, Op-eds and other materials for uploading on the web-sites

• Regular contribution to social media (Facebook, twitter, blogs etc.) and other UN online boards.

• Support updates and content management of the website to ensure consistency of the materials

• Maintaining electronic filing of articles, print materials and photos for office use

4. Supports the business development of CO

Launches and campaigns

• Promote and disseminate corporate advocacy materials for launching flagship initiatives and publications.

• Promote and maintain public information campaigns on UN Women activities, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 16-Days Campaigns of Activism against Gender-based Violence, International Women’s Day, UN Day etc.

Outreach

• Prepare and disseminate press-releases, talking points, media walls, comic series and media kits, reports, civic education and community awareness to government, civil society and other partners where appropriate, to support projects

• Develop IEC materials including, but not limited to, preparation and sharing of reports, project briefs, human stories, infographics, and advocacy material under the programme pillar.

• Develop innovative ways of presenting project results (infographics, visuals, videos, etc.) and success stories on a variety of media and platforms.

• Prepare all creative work required by the Unit, such as banners for events, posters, logos, invitation cards, and other publicity/ promotional material.

• Strengthen partnership with media representatives/ journalists, media houses/ outlets, including print and electronic media (newspapers, TV, radio, web, photography, creative animation and designing).

• Ensure media presence in related project/ advocacy events.

• Organize, develop, monitor and share analysis pertinent to press conferences, media talks, media briefs, press releases, talking points feature stories, comic series and media kits.

• Timely and effective respond to inquiries for public information materials.

Support UN Women in partnership building and joint advocacy efforts of the UN Country Team, with a focus on gender equality and women empowerment

• Contribute to the UN Communications Working Group and the Gender Theme Group (GTG) Coordinator on GEWE related issues;

• Support the Portfolio Managers in consolidating inputs for the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) outcomes;

• Represent and advocate for UN Women in organizational, regional, global, public information/ relations events and key meetings, as delegated.

5. Ensures facilitation of knowledge building and management, and innovation Identify and synthesise best practices and lessons learned directly linked to programme country goals and activities.

• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice including corporate communications repositories.

• Provide capacity building training activities, to UN Women staff on communications for development and gender responsive communications

• Classify and maintain CO knowledge products

Education:

Master’s degree in Communications, media relations, journalism, publishing or related discipline.

Experience:

• At least 3 years’ experience and successful track record in the field of communication for development.

• Experience in planning, designing, and implementing communication products and strategy.

• Experience with strategic communication, media, social media, advertising, public relations, political campaigns, digital campaigns, social marketing, and related activities.

• Proven expertise in the design and implementation of advocacy campaigns.

• Proven ability in dealing with media, civil society, and advocacy groups at the local and national levels.

Language:

• Fluency in English and Urdu (with excellent written proficiency and ability to translate) is mandatory.

Mobility:

• The incumbent will be required to travel frequently to field locations in Pakistan.

Please note:

HEC Attested degrees are a prerequisite for employment at UN. During the recruitment process candidates may be required to present HEC attested degrees.

Foreign Qualified Candidates: Foreign degree holders shall be required to (i) Present a verification/certification letter from the university verifying the degree & student enrollment, or (ii) Foreign degree Equivalence Letter from HEC.

UN provides the Equal Opportunity for all equally qualified male & female including the physically challenged candidates.