Background

Addressing climate and disaster risks in a coherent manner across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. Capitalizing on the complementarity of UN agencies’ expertise across various social, economic and environmental sectors, the UN System can demonstrate its value-added supports in responding to country demand for integrated and coherent solutions.

The Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI) is a global partnership composed of 20 UN and non-UN organizations that works towards strengthening countries’ capacities to pursue integrated and coherent solutions to reduce disaster and climate risks to achieve the 2030 agenda and its commitment to leave no one behind. By pooling its member agencies’ resources, expertise and knowledge, the CADRI Partnership promotes the effectiveness of the UN System to optimally use its assets and expertise.

Over the past decade, the CADRI Partnership has been active in supporting capacity development in disaster risk reduction (DRR), including preparedness for response, in 32 countries. The CADRI Partners have jointly developed an assessment and planning methodology covering ten sectors and areas: agriculture and food security; environment, infrastructure; cultural heritage; health; WASH, education, nutrition; human mobility and climate services. Under the CADRI Joint Programme (2019-2023), the CADRI Partnership is broadening its offer of capacity development services and scaling up its services in the regions to respond to increasing country demand for capacity development support.

Effectively communicating CADRI’s offer of services and achievements internally and externally to client countries and partners is a pre-condition to expand CADRI offer of services and geographical coverage. The CADRI Partnership is implementing a communication strategy with the view to highlight the unique strengths of the CADRI Partnership as a “partner of choice” to deliver capacity development services in DRR/CCA at country level; and to document and disseminate stories about country level impact.

Under the new CADRI Partnership Joint Programme 2019-2023, the CADRI Secretariat has initiated a rebranding process consisting of new logo and graphical chart applied to all internal and external communication products.

In support of the implementation of the new CADRI Partnership Joint Programme, the CADRI Partnership Secretariat is seeking to recruit a communication expert consultant to develop and implement the CADRI Communication Strategy and develop and regularly update communication and knowledge products such as:

  • The CADRI website www.cadri.net
  • CADRI annual report
  • Quarterly CADRI Bulletin
  • Country cases studies
  • Videos

Duties and Responsibilities

The communication expert consultant will perform the following duties, working closely with the communication interns:

1. Develop and implement an internal communication strategy, including for social media, for dissemination of information within the CADRI Partnership constituency of 20 agencies:

1.1. Develop regular communication products to share information with the CADRI Partner agencies including:

  • CADRI Partnership 2020 Annual report;
  • One CADRI highlight in 5 Executive Agencies 2020 Global Annual Report;
  • CADRI Partnership Quarterly Bulletin Q1, W2, Q3;
  • Monthly country updates to send to CADRI PAG;
  • One monthly agency specific story (including at least one country story for the UNDP Monthly Communication Bulletin);
  • Two contributions to UNDP Disaster Resilience Team “community of practice”.

1.2. Establish and manage communication experts’ network

  • Establish a CADRI Partners Agencies communication experts’ network (HQ/regions);
  • Share monthly updates & tweets on CADRI work with the communication experts to disseminate through their respective agency channels;
  • Source high quality photographs from CADRI Partner agencies communication experts.

1.3. Develop & implement communication plan for every CADRI country mission with agency communication experts at HQ, Regional Hubs and Country Offices

  • Establish country-specific communication experts mailing list;
  • Develop content in coordination with the CADRI Mission team leader;
  • Source high quality photographs from the UNCTs where CADRI is engaged;
  • Support in-country communication experts with rolling our communications activities related to CADRI missions and outputs (i.e. press releases, tweeting and re-tweeting, country stories, etc.);
  • Design, coordinate and conduct interviews with UNRCs, UNCT members and government representatives in the aftermath of CADRI missions, or coordinate with in-country communication experts the delivery of the interviews.

2. Develop and implement an external communication strategy, including for social media, to increase visibility with client countries and external partners:

2.1. Lead the development of the new CADRI website (www.cadri.net) in collaboration with the webmaster (IT support) including:

  • New website architecture;
  • New content in reader friendly language.

2.2. Develop regular external communication products:

  • Quarterly Bulletin (same as above;
  • Country impact stories and other country-specific communications products from CADRI missions (same as above);
  • Micro-fiction stories for website and Twitter.

2.3. Manage external communication for global events

Deliverables

  • CADRI 2020 annual report;
  • New CADRI website revamped and populated with new/updated content;
  • CADRI 2020-2023 Internal & external communications strategy developed, including social media, with targets, impact measurement indicators and budget, roles and responsibilities, timeline, and annual workplan;
  • 2020 Quarterly Bulletin Q1 & Q2; Monthly country updates; Monthly agency specific story;
  • Three Country impact stories;
  • Press releases/tweets when relevant (after / during country missions, after / during events) Twitter micro-fiction stories / CADRI Visual Account stories;
  • CADRI partners communication experts’ network established and 2 virtual meetings convened;
  • Video Interviews with UNRCs, UNCT members and government representatives;
  • Two blog stories for UNDP community of practice;
  • One story for UNDP Monthly Bulletin;
  • Engagement strategy for 2020 Humanitarian Partnership Network Week (February) and Regional DRR platforms as well as other events when relevant.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work as part of the CADRI Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, under the direct supervision of the CADRI Coordinator and in collaboration with the members of the CADRI Secretariat including an expert in design/lay out. No travel is foreseen for the assignment.

The expected duration of the assignment is 160 working days between 6th January 2020 and 31st October 2020. The consultant will be paid based on the satisfactory completion of agreed-upon deliverables and time sheet grouped in multiple installments counting from the start date of the assignment.

Competencies

Communication

  • Excellent communication and presentation skills;
  • Excellent proven drafting skills in English;
  • Strong analytical skills, and a proven ability to process large amount of information.

Teamwork

  • Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to work in teams;
  • Initiative taking and ability to work with minimum supervision;
  • Ability to work in a multicultural environment.

Technical Competencies

  • Proficient knowledge and experience using the Adobe Creative Suite including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign; Bridge, Acrobat, Illustrator, Flash, Avid, Final Cut Pro and other graphic design software;
  • Proficient knowledge and experience using Word Press and the MS Office suite.

Required Skills and Experience

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in communication, media, marketing, public relations, creative writing, journalism, graphic design, or similar field.

Experience

  • Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in designing and managing communications strategies in various settings and organizations;
  • Proven expertise in developing content on development cooperation / humanitarian assistance work for external audience such as human-interest stories;
  • Professional experience in international development organizations, international or national NGOs, private sector entities, at HQ or in the field is an asset;
  • Previous experience in working in/with developing country settings an advantage.

Languages

  • Full Proficiency in English, both written and oral, is required;
  • Proficiency in another UN language (French, Spanish, Arabic) is an advantage.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

The application is a two-step process requiring the submission of several documents as outlined below. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applicants.

Step 1: Online application

Interested candidates must include the following documents when submitting the applications through the UNDP Jobs Site (https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm). Please note that only one (1) file can be uploaded therefore please include all documents in one file.

  1. Personal CV or P11 http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc, indicating all your past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) references;
  2. Letter of Motivation describing why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  3. Sample of communications product developed by the candidate (i.e. website content; human interest story; media content; brochure; flyer; report).

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal

Applicants are requested to submit A Financial Proposal in US Dollars by email addressed to Mahmood Zahir mahmood.zahir@undp.org, using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780. The proposals should be sent with the subject heading: “88741 - Communications Specialist, CADRI Partnership” by the deadline of this vacancy.

The Financial Proposal should indicate the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The term ‘all-inclusive fee’ implies that all costs (professional fees, transport related expenses, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) are included. Please refer to local costs in Geneva, Switzerland.

If the candidate is employed by an organization/ company/ institution, and the candidate expects their employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing the candidate to UNDP under the Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the candidate must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Criteria for the selection of the best offer

Candidates will be evaluated using a combined scoring method with the qualifications and methodology weighted at 70% and the financial offer weighted at 30%.  Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (out of 100%) points on each of the below criteria will be considered for the next level evaluation. The candidates will be required to provide three references which may be contacted to ascertain the skills and qualifications of the candidates.

Criteria for evaluation of qualifications (70 points)

  • Review of CV for the above mentioned required qualifications and professional experience (Max. 20 points); candidate with qual or over 14 points will be invited for written test;
  • The purpose is to test the shortlisted candidates’ ability to develop reader-friendly, impact-oriented communications outputs based on technical content (Max. 20 points); candidate with qual or over 14 points will be invited for interview;
  • Interview developed by a 3-member interview panel. The interview should be conducted in English (Max. 30 points); combined score of above 70% will be considered by financial evaluation.

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: p = y (µ/z), where:

  • p=points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
  • y=maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
  • µ=price of the lowest priced proposal;
  • z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Annexes to the TOR