Background
The United Nations has country teams in 131 countries, covering the 165 countries and territories where the UN is present. United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) encompass all UN entities that carry out operational activities for development in programme countries.
As part of the joint communication and advocacy strategy of many UN country offices, UNCT websites - the public facing websites of UN Country teams - serve as a common channel to communicate to development partners and the public at large their work on delivering results. UNCT websites are also instrumental for raising the visibility of the UN and increase its transparency in their account to supporting Member States in promoting sustainable development.
UNCT websites disseminate news and information about UN coordination at the country level, updates related to on-going local development programmes supported by local UN agencies, as well as publications and knowledge products developed by UNCTs.
Following the recommendations of an assessment of UNCTs online presence, UNDOCO is planning the harmonization of all UNCTs websites in order to improve the functionality and usability of UNCT websites. The scope of this consultancy is to support UNCTs in their migration process to the new websites as well as to advise them on content strategy development to enhance their online presence using web and social media channels.
Duties and Responsibilities
1) Support the management of UNDG portals:
- Conduct spot checks to ensure data pulls correctly and clearly from internal databases to public UNDG websites – Throughout contract
- Develop standards for data labels, images and other content management related components for public portals as part of UN Info – May 2018
- Ensure updates and correct data pulls on open.undg.org – Throughout contract
- Provide support to oversee the development of the global UN Info portal and dashboards – May – June 2018
2) Support UN Country teams to manage public portals
- Support and advise the integration of UN Info data portals into UNCT websites – June 2018
- Conduct spot checks to ensure data pulls correctly and clearly from internal databases to UNCT websites – June 2018- April 2019
- Develop a migration toolkit to support UNCTs in their migration process – May 2018
- Develop mechanism to identify potential new upgrades to UNCT websites – August – September 2018
- Support communication officers in the field migrating to new website environment – Throughout contract
- Train communication officers in the field in Drupal CMS to manager the new UNCT websites – Throughout contract
- Develop set of videos to train communication officers in the new Drupal system – June - July 2018
- Provide on-site support and guidance for display of public UNCT data – Throughout contract
- Develop and sustain an open data stakeholder peer-to-peer network among RC offices and UNCTs - Throughout contract
3) Monitor and promote use of open data platforms
- Conduct analytics to monitor visits and data downloads on country and global portals to inform open data strategy development - Throughout contract
- Develop strategies and tools to improve the use of data provided in open data platforms - Throughout contract
- Collect, review and curate good practices from UNDG agencies and others on the use of open data for decision making and public accountability - Throughout contract
- Design global and create tools for country level outreach efforts such as data visualization partnerships, contests and hackathons to ensure the use of data - Throughout contract
- Develop media and social media tools to promote the use of public data - Throughout contract
Competencies
- Strong oral and written communication skills;
- Strong computer skills, web management and social media;
- Ability to translate and communicate UN terms, language and style into clear and concise language and messaging for external audiences;
- Understanding of the UN, development issues and UN reform;
- Ability to be flexible and respond to changes to text as part of the review and feedback process;
- Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and work with diverse people;
- Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
Required Skills and Experience
Duration of Work: Twelve (12) months: 1 May 2018 – 30 April 2019
Duty Station: Office-based, HQ New York
Payment: A daily rate based on an all-inclusive daily fee. All-inclusive implies that all costs incurred by the Contractor are factored into the final amount submitted in the proposal. Payments will be made following certification by UNDP of the satisfactory delivery of the products and the appropriate management of associated processes needed to achieve the above-mentioned tasks and objectives; supervisor will confirm arrangements.
DOCO reserves the right to rescind this agreement due to unsatisfactory performance by the contractor.
Institutional arrangements: The consultant will be working under the direct supervision of the Communications Specialist and with overall guidance of the Knowledge and Innovation Team Leader in UNDOCO.
Travel to the UNDOCO HQ in New York is the responsibility of the consultant. Office space and computer will be provided at UNDOCO HQ NY.
Travel: No outside mission travel is envisaged for this consultancy
QUALIFICATIONS:
Education: A Master’s degree Journalism, Communications, Public Relations or related field is required.
Experience:
- A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional work experience in communications on development issues
- A minimum of three (3) years of relevant professional work experience writing for web (i.e., blogging, human interest stories, etc.)
- Experience of at least two (2) years in managing web-platforms -- Drupal and Wordpress is required
- Working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (minimum 1-2 years)
- Experience working with open data platforms is highly desired (minimum 1-2 years)
Language:
Excellent command of written English is required with an emphasis on clear and concise language use. Working Knowledge of French or Spanish will be an advantage.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
- CV or P11 indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the consultant; short-listed candidates will be asked to submit their P11 and at least three (3) professional references;
- Brief description (cover letter) of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for this assignment, which addresses the required qualifications and evaluation criteria;
Short-listed candidates will be asked to submit the following:
- Financial proposal - Duly completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using template provided by UNDP which includes the financial proposal which includes “all-inclusive (*)” daily fee;
- A minimum of three (3) to five (5) written samples of previous work published (please submit URLs)
(*) “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (excluding mission travel) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal
Interviews may be conducted; Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.
EVALUATION:
Individual consultants will be evaluated using the cumulative analysis methodology
When using this weighted scoring method, 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 (100 points):
- Relevant background in terms of educational and professional experience: 10 points
- A minimum of three (3) years of relevant professional work experience writing for web: 25 points;
- Experience of at least two (2) years in managing web-platforms, using Drupal and Wordpress is required: 25 points
- Working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator: 15 points
- Experience working with open data platforms is highly desired: 10 points
- Communications experience working within the UN system or similar organization: 5 points
- Working knowledge of French or Spanish: 10 points
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of 100 points in the Technical Evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
- Technical Criteria weight overall: 70%;
- Financial Criteria weight overall: 30%.
OTHER:
ANNEX 1- GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS_ INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT (IC)