Background

The United Nations Millennium Campaign was established by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2002 to work with a wide range of partners to foster a global citizen movement for the realization of the MDGs. It was designed to disseminate data and analysis emerging from UN reports, promote partnership among key actors, especially from civil society, link with other UN campaigns and coordinate campaign strategies and messages.

Over the past 10 years the Millennium Campaign has built an impressive array of partnerships with civil society on MDG advocacy and supported the creation of strong coalitions to create accountability for commitments at global, regional and country levels. The Millennium Campaign works to maintain visibility of the MDGs in this period leading to the 2015 deadline, and to actively engage citizens and civil society partners in the post-2015 debates through the MY World initiative. MY World is the UN global survey for citizens. Working with partners, it aims to capture people’s voices, priorities and views, so world leaders can be informed as they begin the process of defining the next set of global goals to end poverty. With this, UNMC has partnered with UN DESA to increase and improve civil society and Major Groups participation in developing the sustainable development agenda through Rio+20 follow up processes and the post-2015 agenda.
 
With enhanced outreach and integration of Major Groups in SDGs and the post-2015 agenda being central to the follow up processes to Rio+20, this consultancy serves to provide capacity for collaboration between UN-DESA’s Major Groups Programme and UNMC. Such support will involve outreach and remote engagement through social media and the creation of an enhanced social media strategy, technical support to Major Groups, coordination and analysis of Major Groups and Other Stakeholders in Rio+20 processes, and the convergence of the SDGs and post-2015 major groups processes. The consultant will work to coordinate with UN-DESA and UNMC to produce outputs of all the aforementioned tasks as determined by the provisions of the European Commission Grant.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Director of United Nations Millennium Campaign.
 
Major Duties:
  • Ensure visibility on social media, through constant, focused and innovative communication;
  • Provide overall communication support to UNMC related to SDGs and Major Groups projects;
  • Support the convergence of the sustainable development processes and the post-2015 agenda.
The specific deliverables of the consultant will be as follows:
 
Implementation of social media strategy for follow up activities of Rio +20:
  • Vibrant and dynamic social media accounts that provide relevant and timely information on sustainable development and processes related to Rio +20;
  • Comprehensive social media strategy relevant to Rio+20 follow up, with appropriate linkages to post-2015 development planning;
  • Collaborate with other UN bodies to coordinate outreach with the post-2015 agenda;
  • Monitor analytics of social media platforms of the UNMC and make recommendations for traffic and performance enhancement based on gathered reports;
  • Organize and manage social media discussion groups and forums for Major Groups and other Stakeholders (MGoS) for engaging with the Open Working Groups on SDGs, High Level Political Forum and other Rio+20 follow up processes.
Improved technical support and facilitation of Major Groups Participation in follow up activities of Rio+20:
  • Clear, specific and transparent modalities developed in a participatory way for future engagement of MGoS in the newly established HLPF
  • Organization of nation, regional and international meetings to bring various constituencies together to develop joint advocacy and policy positions
  • Organization of Multistakeholder meetings with Co-Chairs of the OWG, SD Financing and SIDS to enhance direct contribution of MGoS to the OWG and advance development of the SDGs
  • Strengthen remote and in-person participation of practitioners and experts from the developing world
  • Implementation of new and enhanced internal governance of Major Groups
 Coordination with Post-2015 Processes:  
  • Set up dedicated consultations on-line between the Rio+20 MGoS and the Post-2015 civil society groups to promote convergence of views and approached, particularly on the Post-2015 development agenda;
  • Conduct on-line and face-to-face briefings and capacity building for MGoS on the Rio+20 follow up and Post-2015 preparatory processes;
  • Provide support to partners, as needed.

Competencies

Core competences:
  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP and UN-DESA;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
Functional competences:
  • Demonstrated ability to interact with individuals of different national and cultural backgrounds and beliefs, which includes the willingness to understand different views and opinions;
  • Ability to work under pressure, to prioritize and to show a spirit of initiative and a capacity to work in an independent way with limited supervision;
  • Self-management and emotional intelligence;
  • Excellent communication skills;
  • Strong spoken, analytical, and writing skills;
  • Demonstrates excellent ability to write and communicate orally with accuracy and professionalism, often on short deadlines;
  • Self-starter with both energy and creativity;
  • Team player interested in being part of a highly functioning, fast-paced group of international development professionals;
  • Focuses on impact and results;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a flexible, constructive attitude;
  • Ability to develop, maintain effective working relationships with people from a variety of organizations and with a wide variety of functional expertise;
  • Personal commitment to the UN’s missions and demonstrated knowledge of global issues and the UN Millennium Campaign’s programs and goals;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree in political science or another related field;
  • BS or BA required in communications, journalism, public relations, international relations, or a related field.
Experience:
  • A minimum of 2 years of experience in communications and outreach projects;
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively manage communication projects, with a strong focus on online and multimedia communication;
  • Experience in managing communications across countries and for diverse constituencies;
  • Project management experience;
  • UN experience, a plus;
Desirable qualifications:
  • A creative thinker with solid experience and understanding of how to most effectively harness the web social media, multimedia and online technologies to communicate, mobilize and engage;
  • The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator with a strong understanding of strategic communications approaches for Major Groups and other Stakeholders;  
  • Previous experience in working with Major Groups and other Stakeholders.
Language:
  • Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in English a must.
Evaluation of applicants:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
 
The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as responsive/compliant/acceptable, and having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
 
Technical criteria – 70 per cent of total evaluation – maximum of 35 points:
  • A creative thinker with solid experience and understanding of how to most effectively harness the web social media, multimedia and online technologies to communicate, mobilize and engage;
  • The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator with a strong understanding of strategic communications approaches for Major Groups and other Stakeholders;
  • Previous experience in working with Major Groups and other Stakeholders.

Financial criteria – 30 per cent of evaluation – maximum 15 points:

  • Financial Proposal - specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services).
Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:
  • A cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
  • Filled UNDP Personal History form (P11) including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees;
    (blank form can be downloaded from http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc); please upload the P11 instead of your CV; ); please upload the P11 instead of your CV;
  • Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
Important Note:
Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.
 
Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.