Media Consultant

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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

The Communications & 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. This entails building relationships with the traditional and online press globally to amplify and highlight UN Women key messages via mainstream media platforms and engage key influencers in the journalistic world, and their audiences.

The Communications & Advocacy Section seeks to enlist the services of a Media Consultant to support several key priority activities of the organization during the next few months including the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the anniversary of the 1325 UNSCR resolution on Women, Peace and Security, International Women’s Day and Commission on the Status of Women, for which expert media support is critical.

S/he will bring expertise on media relations and communications campaigns planning, design and implementation, as well as experience in drafting of communication materials and media monitoring. S/he will also assist in identifying and implementing of key interventions undertaken by the Media Unit, amplifying and enhancing media attention and coverage in international media spaces. She will also support in providing field communication colleagues with advice and materials on media outreach at the local and regional level.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Senior Communications & Media Specialist and working closely with the Media Unit and the Communications and Advocacy Section colleagues, the Media Consultant will be responsible for the following:

Undertake daily media monitoring on UN Women’s activities and on news related to gender equality, and alert the wider team of anything that requires the attention of the organisation.
Support the media team in the contracting process and onboarding of a media monitoring vendor.
Liaise with regional offices regularly to ensure they are contributing to the media monitoring reports with the local/regional media clippings.
Produce at least two analytical media reports on media coverage of UN Women activities, for International Women’s Day and the Commission on the Status of Women and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Support engagement of members of the UN Women Media Compact partners to increase women’s visibility in the media, including the organization of specific media events exclusive for them and tailoring of UN Women information products.
Support in fact-checking, drafting and disseminating through Mailchimp media materials for amplifying UN Women activities, including media advisories, factsheets and press releases.
Support in responding to media inquiries and proactive outreach to media, including researching and drafting media briefings for senior management media opportunities.
Support the media team in other administrative tasks including the recruitment and onboarding of the media team intern if needed.
Updating the team’s guidelines archive and media requests records, on Mailchimp and other platforms.
Support the media team in increasing its media contacts database by undertaking regular searches of journalists on specific areas or regions and ensuring they all get captured in the corporate media database.
Support the communication activities of UN Women country offices as needed, including providing them with access to UN Women’s media monitoring and media database tools, and participating in the regularly conducted media relations training.
Undertake other communications activities, as needed.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Master's Degree in Communications, Journalism, International Affairs, or similar

Fluent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required. Working knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.
2+ years of experience in international media relations, media partnerships.
2+ years of experience in journalistic writing and editing is desirable
2+ years of experience in the strategic use of news media and monitoring
Proficient in using new technologies and web-based platforms, including media databases and media monitoring tools
Familiar with United Nations, UN Women and women’s rights issues and international standards
Self-starter; organized; able to multitask and balance multiple responsibilities