Closing date: 01 Sep 2015
Purpose of the Position
The Communication Specialist is accountable for developing, managing, co-ordinating, implementing and monitoring an advocacy and communication strategy, with the objective of promoting awareness, understanding, support and respect for children's and women's rights, and support for UNICEF's mission, priorities and programmes in the country office and at a regional/global level as well as the UN Country Team.
Key Expected Results
- Ensure that the Country Office has a clear communication strategy and associated work plan to support the programme objectives and get children's issues into the public domain, strengthen political will in support of UNICEF's mission and objectives, and enhance the organization's orcredibility and brand.
- Manage country communication team to maintain and develop effective relations with journalists and media outlets covering all media (i.e. print, TV, radio, web, photo etc.) and a successful process of communicating and maintaining regular contact and close collaboration with the media to communicate the story of UNICEF's cooperation.
- Maintain and continually develop a contact list and network of individuals, groups, organizations and fora whose support is essential to achieve the advocacy and communication objectives. Strengthen the collaboration in the UN Country Team, UN communication counterparts, and high-level counterparts in key partner organizations.
- Ensure that the Country Office has a well-organized and focused communications team that maintains and continually develops effective relations with appropriate, nationally-known personalities who have been identified, engaged and support UNICEF's effort and who actively participate in special events and activities.
- Lead establishment of an effective process for integrating and taking action on UNICEF's global communications priorities, campaigns and partnerships, disseminating these elements in a locally-appropriate way.
- Support global and country activities in fund-raising and leveraging resources for children by effective advocacy and communication strategy that uses evidence-generation and system strengthening results achieved at the policy and field levels by the programme team.
- Establish communication baselines against which the objectives of the communication strategy are regularly monitored and evaluated; undertake analysis to continuously improve the effectiveness of communication strategy, approach and activities; prepare and share results and reports on a timely basis.
- Ensure that the country programme team are provided with professional expertise and advice on all aspects of external relations communication as required.
Qualifications of Successful Candidate
- An Advanced university degree in Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Social Science, Business Administration, Management.
- Five years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience in communication, print, broadcast, and/or new media.
- Background/familiarity with Emergency situations is considered an asset.
- Proficiency (C1/C2) in English and Russian is required.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
-Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
-Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment; demonstrates awareness of own strengths and limitations and how these may impact on own work.
-Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.
-Has good leadership skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
-Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
-Gains agreement and commitment from others by persuading, convincing and negotiating.
-Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.
-Demonstrates and shares detailed technical knowledge and expertise.
-Keeps up to date with trends in own work area; demonstrates financial awareness and a concern for cost-effectiveness.
Remarks
The New and Emerging Talent Initiative (NETI) is an entry point for dynamic professionals interested in an international career with UNICEF. Aside from the qualifications indicated in the job description for this post, all NETI programme applicants must also meet the following minimum requirements:
- Completion of an advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) at the time of application;
- Proficiency in English and another official language of the United Nations;
- Readiness to be assigned to any UNICEF office worldwide, including hardship duty stations;
- At least 2 years of relevant work experience for functions at the P-2 level, and at least 5 years of relevant work experience for functions at the P-3 level. Relevant experience should include work in developing countries and in multicultural environments.
All applicants will be required to complete a technical test questionnaire at the time of application. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified and will therefore advance to the next stage of the competitive selection process, which involves various additional assessments including a language proficiency test.
For more information on the NETI Programme, please visit the UNICEF website: www.unicef.org/neti*
How to apply:
Link for External Candidates:
https://careers.unicef.org/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/hrrcf_a_posting_apply?PARAM=cG9zdF9pbnN0X2d1aWQ9NTVDM0MyMUI2NjNENzM2REUxMDAwMDAwOUU3MTBGMEYmY2FuZF90eXBlPUVYVA%3d%3d&sap-client=100&sap-language=EN&sap-accessibility=X
Link for Internal Candidates: