Background

Those who previously applied need not re-apply.

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.

Jordan has managed to attain its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the areas of education and health. Specifically, Jordan has managed to close the gender gaps in education, where female enrollment rates match and at some levels, exceed that of males. In the health sector, improved access to health services has ensured the delivery of healthcare to all segments of the Jordanian society. This has had a positive impact on the decline of infant mortality and improvement in maternal mortality health. Despite these achievements, gender gaps persist particularly in the areas of political and economic participation and leadership. Women continue to suffer from gender discrimination in penal, nationality and citizenship laws and violence against women in all its forms, the latter represents one of the greatest challenges to Jordanian women and society. Politically women remain underrepresented in political parties, professional organizations, and decision making positions in the government and legislature, but they have been increasing their political civic participation in recent years. Economically despite the recent improvements, women’s rates of economic participation remain low. The economic status of women has been trailing behind most countries at the same socioeconomic level regionally and globally. One of the main reasons for this low participation is the insistence on preserving traditional gender roles among Jordanian families. The economic transformation in Jordan during the last two decades was not reflected equally in all segments of the society, women still suffer from low participation in the different sectors of the economy. Against this background and in accordance with its Strategic Note and Annual Work Plan (2014-2017) the UN WOMEN Office in Jordan is engaged in a number of programmatic initiatives namely on:

• Women’s increased participation in politics, both at national and local levels;
• Women’s equal employment opportunities, access to training and education, and
• Advocacy for equal protection under national labor laws;
• End violence against women;
• Assist the local authorities in the formulation of gender responsive budgeting;
• Support the UN Country Team through cooperation and coordination that can strengthen the impact of other agencies interventions on achieving greater gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Communication Specialist will ensure the visibility of the CO in local and international media outlets through the development of work plans, the implementation of activities, and the development of reports, articles, and press-releases/statements.

Duties and Responsibilities

•  Participate in the formulation and implementation of a communications and outreach strategy in support of CO visibility and resource mobilization efforts, with strong focus on quality written materials and clear messaging including through use of all social media;
• Elaboration and implementation of the CO publications strategy and plan;
• Supervision of the design and maintenance of the UNWOMEN CO website and social media;
• Support CO projects and events to boost visibility;
• Management of digital media monitoring, archiving and dissemination system.

Participates in the formulation and implementation of communications and outreach strategy focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Analysis of requirements, synthesis of proposals and provision of information by conducting communications needs assessments for elaboration of the CO communications and outreach strategy based on the corporate and CO communications strategy;
• Drafting/editing of communications and outreach strategy based on corporate communications strategy and in strong support of resource mobilization efforts to accompany the CO Strategic Note (2014-2017);
• Assisting in the preparation of CO communication and advocacy instruments including presentations, briefing material for dissemination to different audiences as needed in coordination with supervisor. These include, for instance, bulletins, a brochure on the Country Office, updated information leaflets per programme and project, etc;
•  Synthesis of proposals for project formulations to integrate advocacy and communication strategies into all aspects of UNWOMEN’s development programme.

• Identification and development of storylines for publications and substantive articles contributing to debates on key development and humanitarian issues;
• Coordination and management of all CO events, publications and web activities, including content management, norms for photography, video production, publishing, design, liaison with printers and other suppliers to oversee production and supervision of publications dissemination.

Supervises the design and maintenance of the UNWOMEN CO website and social media channels  focusing on the achievement of the following results:

• Design and maintenance of the office website based on corporate requirements in cooperation with ICT team and relevant staff members;
• Generation, preparation and editing of content for the web sites to ensure material is consistent and up to date.
• Supervise and provide strategic guidance for the preparation of content for UN Women social media channels.

• Promotion and dissemination of corporate advocacy materials for launching flagship initiatives and publications;
• Development of communication materials, including briefing materials and press releases, for CO events in coordination with relevant staff members;
• Writing, editing and supervising translation of speeches and public statements for senior management and programme staff.

• Preparation and dissemination of CO newsletter to donors, and other relevant partners to support projects;
• Maintenance of increased coverage and understanding of the UNWOMEN work in the country or practice area through regular media contacts, press conferences, articles, interviews, media alerts, and launches.
• Design and dissemination of communication materials and media mobilization through a regularly updated and populated contact database;
• Provide support to corporate and donor reporting requirements.

• Timely and effective responses to inquiries to media as well as for public information materials.

• Identification of storylines for publications and articles contributing to debates on key development issues and addressing problematic coverage;
• Technical supervision of translation/adaptation/rewriting of information received, and dissemination of press clippings and translated synopses to within, CO and to HQ;
•  Maintaining and populating organized and searchable digital databases for text and images;
• Compiling specialized media coverage press packages for projects/events as deemed necessary and planning dissemination to strategic target audiences.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:      

• Creates effective advocacy strategies for a variety of audiences to effectlyvely advocate for the UN Women mandate;
• Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work.

• Establishes and maintains a network of contacts for general information sharing;
• Sensitizes UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to the UN Women’s strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts;
• Promotes UN Women’s agenda in inter-agency meetings.

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies creative approaches, best practises and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
• Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the units;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Possess excellent English writing and editing skills and a demonstrated ability to clearly communicate development ideas and experiences.

• Develops promotional activities based on monitoring/evaluation information identifying areas requiring higher visibility;
• Develops messages for use by UN Women staff when working with partners, internationally and nationally;
• Reviews documents and materials intended for use within and outside the organization in order to ensure consistency and validity of messages.

• Creates and communicates effective global advocacy messages/strategies to a variety of audiences;
• Contributes to the elaboration of a global, regional and local advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and message.

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams, facilitating team work;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UN Women & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Reporting back in a timely manner, priotitizing his/her work to meet deadlines;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University's degree in communications development, media relations, journalism, social science or related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant experience at the national or international level in public relations, communications or advocacy.
• At least one year previous experience with a multilateral or international organization is highly desirable;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, good knowledge and experience in handling of web-based management systems and designing web content;
• Experience in conceptualizing, designing and managing the production of printed materials, including detailed reports, is an advantage;
• Experience in developing video and photographic materials in-house and in commissioning films is an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing communication and/or media outreach plans in support of overall corporate goals is desirable;
• Demonstrated experience in developing content that clearly communicates development ideas for media, web, social media, print production, and audio-visual productions;
• Experience in overseeing translation work is an asset

Language:

• Excellent knowledge of written and oral Arabic and English is required.