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, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnership Bureau leads the work to develop, and implement UN Women’s strategy for interaction with External Partners, including for advocacy, communications and for mobilization of support both in terms of political will, and financial resources, using effective partnerships with multi-lateral organizations and the staff work together in close collaboration with the staff in the rest of UNW. Civil society, as well as with the media and private sector.
 
The Communications Section within the Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Bureau is responsible for proactively driving the strategic positioning of UN Women through effective communications. Under the supervision of and guidance by the Chief, Communications and Advocacy, the Advocacy and Communications Analyst will plan and implement a transition strategy for UN Women’s global advocacy initiative, Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women, which serves as a social mobilization platform for the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, and serve as a Youth Focal Point for UN Women’s emerging work on youth.

Launched in 2009 as a multi-year initiative, Say NO – UNiTE engages diverse constituencies towards ending violence against women and girls through an interactive internet-based platform and contributes towards the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign by triggering and showcasing advocacy and awareness raising initiatives on the issue. Say NO – UNiTE builds strategic advocacy and programmatic partnerships and manages social media platforms to engage online audiences on the issue.
 
The Advocacy and Communications Analyst will manage the overall coordination and implementation of the initiative, and assist in the development and implementation of the transition strategy for the Say NO – UNiTE initiative whose web platform will be closed by December 2013 to be continued on social media. S/he will manage and conclude UN Women’s government outreach through a commitment drive that initiated in 2012.
 
Furthermore, s/he will assist with resource mobilization and roll out of a flagship project involving young people for prevention of violence against girls and women through the roll out of an international non-formal education curriculum in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. As a UN Women youth focal point, the candidate will also provide technical inputs to the coordination and implementation of the UN System Wide Action Plan on Youth (Youth SWAP) and represent UN Women at inter-agency meetings and other forums on youth development, including the Inter Agency Network on Youth Development. S/he will support UN Women’s communications and advocacy work that advances youth participation and development.
 
The incumbent liaises with focal points for the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign to support and showcase regional/sub-regional/national advocacy and awareness raising efforts in the context of the Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign and the work on ending violence against women and girls, since the Say NO platform serves as the communications and social mobilization platform of the UNiTE campaign.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

  • Assist in transition strategy development and implementation of Say NO – UniTE;
  • Support social media maintenance, outreach and expansion;
  • Support UN Women’s advocacy and programmatic work on youth.

Under the supervision of the Chief of Communications and Advocacy, the specific responsibilities of the Advocacy and Communications Analyst include:

  • Assist in transition  strategy development and implementation of Say NO – UNiTE;
  • Assist the Chief of Advocacy and Communications in developing an  advocacy and communications transition strategy for the Say NO – UNiTE initiative and implementation of the same, in collaboration with the Communications team;
  • Coordinate the initiative, including providing editorial and technical support, content management and user support
  • Liaise with Web Developer to develop a dedicated section on UN Women website to host requisite content following the closing of the Say NO platform;
  • Coordinate and conclude targeted outreach to governments under the COMMIT initiative which gathers and showcases national commitments on ending violence against girls and women;
  • Provide regular updates, news and reports as needed to UN Women colleagues;
Support social media maintenance, outreach and expansion
  • Assist in the development and implementation of a social media strategy as part of the transition strategy, to maintain and expand social media outreach;
  • In liaison with UNiTE Campaign global team and the Social Media Analyst, ensure continuation and expansion of social mobilization towards the UNiTE Campaign through social media networks.
Support for UN Women’s advocacy and programmatic work on youth
  • Support the global implementation and promotion of the international non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against girls and women in partnership with multiple stakeholders;
  • Support resource mobilization efforts and partnership development for the youth-led curriculum programme;
  • Coordinate the online promotion and presentation of the curriculum;
  • Support UN Women’s expanding work on youth, particularly towards the implementation of the UN System-Wide Action Plan on Youth (Youth SWAP);
  • Represent UN Women in inter-agency meetings and other forums as the UN Women focal point on youth to advance gender equality and youth empowerment;
  • Assist in developing briefing notes and reports of UN Women’s work on youth.

Impact of Results:

  • The key results have a major impact on the advocacy of UN Women in the context of the UN Secretary-General’s campaign on ending violence against women, leading to enhanced awareness and action on the issue and also enhancing the visibility and reputation of the organization.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:
  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:
  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
  • Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. 
Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:
  • Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.
Organizational Awareness:
  • Building support and political acumen.
Working in Teams:
  • Building and promoting effective teams.
Communicating Information and Ideas:
  • Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.
Self-management and Emotional intelligence:
  • Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.
Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:
  • Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
Functional Competencies:
  • Proven experience to manage advocacy campaigns;
  • Sound knowledge and experience related to women’s issues, with a particular focus on ending violence against women and girls;
  • Proven experience in partnership development and working with youth;
  • Strong communications skills, with proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing outreach and advocacy material;
  • Good understanding of IT tools and online media in the context of advocacy initiatives;  
  • Understanding and knowledge in programme development and implementation;
  • Excellent planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills;
  • Effectiveness orientation and pro-activity;
  • Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in one or more of the following disciplines: International development, social studies, communications and other related fields.
Experience:
  • At least two years of progressively responsible experience in a large international and/or corporate organization;
  • Experience in advocacy and communications a must. Strong knowledge on ending violence against women highly desirable. 
Language Requirements:
  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
  • Knowledge of the other UN working knowledge is an asset.
Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.