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. Placing women's rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

In this context, the Communications section at UN Women Headquarters in New York, supports the positioning of women’s empowerment and gender equality as key issues on the international agenda and establishes UN Women’s role as the global authority. This entails developing high-quality visual, interactive and digital content and campaigns that communicates about UN Women’s work, its brand and gender equality across digital platforms (web, social and pro bono ad spaces) as well as developing communications partnerships to reach new audiences.

Due to the increasing demand to better engage audiences across multiple distribution platforms, the Communications section seeks to enlist the services of a Digital Communications Consultant specifically to support communications advocacy efforts around key thematic areas and priorities, including but not limited to UN International Days, UN Women events and campaigns, COVID-19, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence and brand awareness. The consultant will support the Digital and Interactive Communications Manager in the coordination and production of visual and interactive communications assets and campaigns (infographics, web interactive sites, brand ads, etc) on women’s rights and gender equality. The consultant will also support the Digital and Interactive Communications Manager and the wider communications team in communications partnerships and research to inform digital strategy.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of functional competencies:

  • Project and production management/coordination for digital communications products, campaigns, communications partnerships
  • Digital Innovation and Creativity
  • Teamwork, professionalism and communication skills

Under the supervision of the Digital and Interactive Communications Manager, the Digital Media Consultant will be responsible for the following:

Project coordination

Undertakes and/or supports the development, project coordination, production and design of interactive, visual communications, and digital products on gender equality across multiple external advocacy channels (web, social, print, pro bono ad spaces). Advocacy products can include infographics, data visualizations, animations, illustrations, audio, videos, websites, web and mobile applications, campaigns, brands ads, etc, in close coordination with communications team and policy experts. This includes:

  • Assess project scope, objectives and budget; engage contractors as required including preparation of ToRs, procurement procedures, and other necessary documentation.
  • Coordinate translations, primarily in English, Spanish and French
  • Engage with creative professionals (creative directors, illustrators, photographers, video producers, web designers etc) 
  • Tracks production schedules among producers in-house and externally to ensure timely delivery of content    
  • Support production coordination of communications partnerships, in close coordination with communications team and policy experts.

Visual, Interactive and Digital Communications Production

Produce external visual, interactive and digital communications products for UN Women digital platforms for key international days, events or campaigns, specifically on COVID, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence and brand awareness. This includes:

  • Pitch visual, digital and web interactive content for public mobilization, advocacy campaigns and international days (simple and complex)
  • Support all stages of a production workflow, including by not limited to creating project briefs, concepting, creative feedback, research (content, photos, video), fact checking, scripting creative copy, user testing, coordinating with policy experts, etc)
  • Occasionally prototype, wireframe, design and update existing visual communications materials, in-house (e.g. infographics, evergreen ads, etc); and create templates of visual and digital assets (primarily in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop) for wider adaptation and use by other communications professionals.

Digital Strategy & Guidance

  • Supports digital communication strategy by conducting user and audience research, including on industry standard tools such as Google Analytics
  • Supports the production of visual data reports showcasing communications results annually and for key moments/campaigns
  • Supports trainings on digital communications standards, tools, and trends and responds to enquiries on visual and interactive communications

Digital Innovation and partnerships

  • Supports communications partnerships through coordination of campaigns and/or research tasks
  • Actively seeks new opportunities and communications partnerships to raise brand awareness and mobilize public around key UN Women priority issues
  • Researches latest digital trends in communications space and conceptualize creative opportunities for digital innovation, audience growth, brand visibility and advocacy messaging

 

Competencies

Integrity:

Demonstrates consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct. 

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: 

Demonstrates an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies: 

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrates / Safeguards Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrates corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

Self-development, initiative-taking.

Working in Teams:

Team player and facilitates team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Facilitates and encourages open communication in the team, communicates effectively.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

Creating synergies through self-control. Conflict Management / Negotiates and Resolves Disagreement.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Required Skills and Experience

  • MA degree in Digital Communications, Journalism, Advertising, Marketing or related field. An undergraduate degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of a master’s degree.
  • Fluent in English; Spanish and/or French are a plus.
  • At least 3-4 years of experience in digital communications, campaign management, visual communications, website and interactive content coordination, project management, marketing, communications partnerships and/or journalism
  • Experience in project management and production coordination for a range of external communications products of varying complexity, include campaign websites, brand ads, experiential design, infographics, videos, etc
  • Proficient in creative conceptualization and direction, copy writing, fact-checking for visual communications and advocacy campaigns
  • Ability to work in a multicultural environment
  • Experience with women’s rights and/or social causes
  • Knowledge of advertising, marketing, and digital analytics preferred
  • Fluency with Adobe Creative Suite, especially Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, strongly preferred
  • Self-starter; organized; able to multitask, balance multiple responsibilities, and adapt new skills in evolving communication landscape
  • Familiar with the United Nations and/or International Affairs

 

Additional Application Requirement

All applicants are required to submit a link to a portfolio of work demonstrating their expertise in visual communications.