1. 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.

UN Women maintains a large presence throughout Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region, covering 12 countries, with programme presence in Kosovo, Serbia, Tajikistan and North Macedonia; and country offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (the “ECARO”) has positioned GRB as one of the priority areas in which the ECARO has unique technical expertise grounded in the combined technical skills that has been cultivated with respect to budgetary processes including GRB and the overarching expertise and credibility the Office has with respect to GEWE. Furthermore, this work is in line with global Strategic Plan 2018–2021 under Outcome 2: Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems.

Over the past years, through the technical and financial support UN Women different initiatives have been carried out in Western Balkans’ countries with the goal of strengthening democratic governance and advance women’s rights aiming at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. As result, gender responsive budgeting has increasingly been recognized as important tool for advancing de facto gender equality, support the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda and other global goals as well as contribute to the achievements of the commitments of the Western Balkans under the Gender Action Plan in the EU External Relations 2016-2020.

In order to deepen the work previously done, initiate new initiatives and ensure sustainability of the interventions on GRB, UN Women initiated a regional programme with participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Serbia and North Macedonia “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024). The main programme approach will be transformative financing as an enabler factor for policy and financing actions to accelerate implementation of existing national and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the in Western Balkans.

The programme is structured around two outcomes:

• By 2024, national and local governments apply gender responsive budgeting to integrate gender equality principles in public financing processes
• By 2024 public oversight bodies  CSOs, women including the disadvantaged, demand transparency and accountability of public policies and budgets to gender equality processes.

The programme includes activities focused on enhancing the institutionalization of GRB at central level and local level.

2. Scope of work:

UN Women ECA RO seeks to recruit a national communication expert to undertake all regional communications and visibility related activities; and provide support for Knowledge Building and Management of the Regional Project. The Expert is expected to provide support and guidance, where necessary, to countries where GRB Regional Project is implemented.

3. Tasks and Responsibilities:

Under the supervision of the Regional GRB Project Manager the Expert will prepare and implement monthly work-plans in accordance with the following:

a. Development and Implementation of Communication and Outreach Plan:

• Develop Communication and Outreach plan
• Advise in terms of message formulation and identification of effective communication channels for reaching the target groups;
• Provide advice on communication and outreach strategies into programme implementation;
• Maintain close contact with the media representatives in the region, provide support to building partnership with the media;
• Provide advice and guidance to and coordinate with Country Offices and Programme Presences in the region for a harmonious implementation of communication and outreach plans;  
• Provide support for the implementation of regional events and report them accordingly.
• Prepare media advisories to announce events to the media and draft media releases to send out after/right at the end of the events.
• Prepare drafts of texts about project activities and achievements for the project website.
• Provide support in preparing short video clips containing statements from project beneficiaries, experts, stakeholders, partners, and board members, dedicated to important topics and events, and help in distribution of such video materials through media, social media and other channels.
• Develop and organize regional social media and other campaigns.

b.  Contributing to Knowledge Building and Management:

• Contribute to the identification best-practices. Draft success stories (at least 12 human interest stories, testimonials per year by project partners and beneficiaries, communications assets) and other communications products (infographics etc.) for distribution. Conduct simple interviews where necessary.
• Seek, follow-up on and provide content for any information campaign and outreach opportunity especially for reaching most excluded groups of women.

c. Maintaining Web/ Online Presence:

• Develop content for websites and social media accounts.
• Improving ways on how information, statistics and results are organised so that high-quality data and statistics support project’s key messages, and that information and communication is organised in an appealing manner, through the upgrade of the project sub-website page.
• Coordinate with COs for a unified web and social media presence.

d. Ensure Programme Visibility:

• Provide support in presenting important project results –success stories, using as many communication channels as possible.
• Draft two Newsletters (in June, and in November 2021). Provide support for the dissemination.
• Ensure a unified visual identity for all program activities, materials, and events. Oversee the qualitative aspects of production, (e.g., quality control, translations, reviews of layout and graphic design)
• Ensure that all communication activities are implemented in line with UN Women Regional Communications Strategy, the Regional Communications Action Plan and donor guidelines on communication and visibility.
• Seek and follow-up on opportunities to enhance visibility of programme results; Provide contributions to donor reporting in terms developing simple designs for project outputs.

4. Expected deliverables.

The schedule and/or nature of the deliverables may be modified by the Regional Project Manager, in agreement with the consultant.

5. Reporting

Under the overall supervision of the GRB Regional Project Manager, and in collaboration with Regional GRB Programme Coordinators, the national Communication Expert will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe. All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the UN Women and in languages as specified above.

6. Competencies 

Core Values/ Guiding Principles:

• Integrity - Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism - Demonstrate professional competence and Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.
• Inclusive Collaboration, Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks, and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637  

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Good knowledge of gender and human rights issues           
• Excellent oral and written communication and editing skills
• Ability to communicate sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Ability to provide advice and be strategic and analytical
• Strong teamwork spirit and interpersonal skills
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Strong knowledge of social media platforms and experience in social media outreach
• Strong communication, networking and advocacy skills
• Knowledge of regional media landscape is desirable
• Knowledge of managing web-based knowledge management systems is desirable

Leadership and Self-Management

•     Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
•     Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
•     Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
•     Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
•     Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

7. Required Qualifications and Experience

Qualifications Education:

• University degree in Communications, Journalism or an area related to the requirements of the TOR.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of professional work experience at national or international level in media, communications or advocacy, including in media relations;
• Excellent writing skills in English;
• Editing and copywriting skills, including articles, reports and press releases;
• Content writing experience for media platforms is a strong asset;
• Experience in development of visual materials is an asset.

Languages and other skills: 

• Proficient in written and oral English;
• Strong writing and communication skills

8. Evaluation of Applicants

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

S - score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F - financial offer under the consideration.

9. Duration and remuneration

The national consultant will be engaged for a total of 92 working days during the period of 22 March 2021 until 22 March 2022. Deliverables from the consultant will be reviewed and approved by UN Women before they are considered final. UN Women will process the payment of consultancy fee in two instalments:

• I instalment - 80% upon submission and approval of deliverables 1,2,3
• II instalment - 20% upon submission and approval of deliverable 4

Travels and DSAs will be disbursed in case of Training of Trainers event will be conducted as a face-to-face.

10. Application:

Interested individual consultants are requested to apply electronically through the following link: http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm  no later than 1 March 2021 and to submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Short Letter of interest, including financial proposal in USD, indicating a total lump sum for the delivery as per above description. The letter of interest shall include any links (URLs) for the previous published articles, press releases (and any other relevant) informative notes written by the applicant. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (consultancy fee, travel and any other possible costs).
• Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.
• UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.
• Candidates should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further steps.