National Communications Consultant

Background

UN Women – the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to speed up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. As a part of the UN reform agenda, it brings together resources and mandates which will subsequently have a lasting impact on the whole community. 

The programming of UN Women Programme Office in Tajikistan includes support to the Government, civil society organizations, and other partners in the development and implementation of innovative approaches aimed at achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. In Tajikistan, UN Women supports efforts of the national partners and UN agencies in the implementation of gender equality commitments in compliance with international standards, the UN human rights conventions, resolutions, and agreements ratified by the Republic of Tajikistan. It provides strong and coherent expert and technical support to the implementation of gender equality’s priorities in national and UN efforts and building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. It strengthens coordination on gender equality and women’s empowerment programming, enhancing cooperation in a framework of the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030.

Focusing on five strategic priorities, UN Women Programme Office in Tajikistan is implementing a wide range of projects focused on strengthening global norms and standards, increasing women’s leadership and political participation, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, engagement of women in all aspects of peace and security processes and Humanitarian Action.

For the purpose of supporting the UN Women extensive portfolio in making visible the multitude of actions implemented in partnership with government and CSOs counterparts, as well as communicating clearly and actively about all the results achieved for women and girls, UN Women in Tajikistan is seeking to engage a National Communications Consultant to support the implementation of visibility and communications activities, including events, campaigns and development of knowledge products in the area covered by UN Women in Tajikistan.

Goals and objectives

The main goal of this assignment is to support the UN Women Office in the development and implementation of communications strategy to proactively advance the strategic positioning of UN Women and its mandate through effective outreach, to raise awareness of the key stakeholders, target audience and donor community on the mandate, strategic goals, and activities of UN Women in Tajikistan. Consultant will work in close collaboration with programme staff to exchange information and ensure consistent service delivery.

The objective is to facilitate smooth information sharing between UN Women and target audience through:

• Identifying target audiences, crafting key messages, selecting appropriate communication channels, and planning effective communication activities.
• Building and maintaining relations between UN Women Programme Office in Tajikistan, media and public.
• Increasing visibility on UN Women leadership in advancing gender equality and women empowerment (GEWE) and attract attention to the continuous support provided by the Office to the Republic of Tajikistan in this field.
• Coordinating and implementing in-country UN Women/ UN system corporate, global, regional, and local campaigns and special events ensuring their compliance with the corporate identity and priorities.
• Developing partnerships for communications & advocacy with all relevant partners (UN agencies, INGOs, GoT, CSOs, communities)

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Head of UN Women Programme Office in Tajikistan and in coordination with the Programme Coordinators, the National Communications Consultant will be responsible for the following, but not limited to:

• Development and implementation of communication strategy that includes media outreach and social media content creation (FB, Instagram and optional twitter, Tik-Tok).
• Act as a liaison between Tajikistan Programme Office and Communication team of UN Women Regional Office and in-country communication group.
• Arrange, coordinate and plan both separate and joint events within organization with other UN agencies and partners.
• Support in implementation of communication campaigns with the team, plan and develop on time reports.
• Planning, implementation, coordination of all UN Women Programme Office programme activities, events, campaigns, including “16 Days of activism against gender-based violence” and EXPO-2023, etc.

• Develop and publish press releases, content for the entity website, infographics, blogs and take photos.
• Get familiarized with detailed knowledge on the organization policies, principles, and communication strategies, and keep up to date with relevant developments.
• Work and build good relationship with key internal role-players to brainstorm content ideas in line with the organization communication strategy.
• Create the photo-bank and submit it for approval to UN Women Tajikistan Office.
• Writing, editing and posting success stories of the UN Women projects in Tajikistan.
• Facilitate dissemination of GTG (Gender Thematic Group) correspondences.

The job performance of the National Communications Consultant will be monitored and evaluated by the Head of Office of UN Women Tajikistan.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Possesses the ability to work independently and meet deadlines;
• Proven excellent communication and facilitation skills;

• Good knowledge of technical area and good organizational skills;

• Works well under pressure and meets tight deadlines;
• Highly computer literate with capability in email, MS Office, and related business and communication tools;
• Experience in using Canva application for creating infographics and video reels;
• Content writing experience for all media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, FB, Tik-Tok);
• Strategic and creative mindset and meticulous attention to detail;
• Outstanding written and oral communications and editing skills; proven ability to position issues effectively, both orally and in writing;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University degree in the areas of Communications, journalism, graphic design, or other area relevant to this ToR;

Working Experience:

• At least 3 years of professional work experience at the national or international level in public relations, journalism, communications or advocacy and international relations.
• At least 2 years of experience in the creation of official websites and production of multimedia materials for social media (portfolio of work to be available for review).
• Experience in working with UN agencies, other international organizations, government agencies, partners and/or donors is an advantage.
• Experience in coordination and coverage events, writing success stories and reports is an asset.
• Experience in usage of PC and MS Office software packages (MS Word, Excel, PPT, etc.)

Knowledge of languages:

• Proficiency in written and oral Tajik, Russian and English languages.