Background

UN Women Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) is implementing a regional programme which aims to respond to new challenges and opportunities raised by the Arab uprisings regarding Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE). It seeks to understand the root causes of gender inequalities and to address them through an innovative bottom-up approach.

With the overall goal to enhance gender equality in the region, the programme intends more specifically to contribute to the following:

• Understand the root causes of gender inequality in order to develop tools and conduct evidence-based advocacy for policy change;
• Strengthen the capacities and networks of GEWE civil society organizations, with a particular focus on the sustainability of new and emerging movements including youth groups;
• Develop community-based solutions to promote gender equality based on innovative approaches and South-South exchanges.

The programme is being implemented by the UN Women in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine. It is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida).

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the programme manager and working closely with the programme’s communications team, the creative writer/storyteller will be responsible for developing and executing communication materials based audience research, message framework, and core content to increase the visibility, knowledge and impact of the Men and Women for Gender Equality Programme. He/she will capture and share stories with a humorous or educational tone to promote gender equality by offering a new way of looking at gender roles/ norms, fatherhood, household tasks etc and by challenging the audience’s belief system.  He/she should finally be able to intrigue, educate, clarify key messages and motivate the audience in order to inspire the audience and make them want to be the story of change and to be engaged in gender equality.

Scope of the Assignment:

1. Capture engaging and compelling stories from the programme across the 4 countries and present them in a manner consistent with UN Women branding and editing guidelines;
2. Contextualize and design visual, audio, and text-based content as well as tailor and package key messages to be communicated to suit a wider audience(s);
3. Develop a range of content that clearly communicates the programme’s message and ensure content and message are consistent and accurate across all social media while maintaining UN Women standards;
4. Write one op-ed and any other creative writing needs as deemed necessary during the consultancy period;
5. Provide a final report with the stories captured.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

 Functional Competencies

• Excellent writing and communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different consistencies;
• Demonstrated ability to create content that caters to adults and youth, weaving together visual, audio, and written media;
• Knowledge of the UN system an asset;
• Experience in areas related to gender issues;
• Proven networking skills, and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate;
• Strong initiative-taker;
• Very effective at multi-tasking;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work under time constraints.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in Journalism, Marketing, Design, or a related discipline or a related field of study or equivalent combination of education or experience.

Experience:

• At least five years of content writing experience in a marketing capacity, working in creative teams and writing for different types of media, both online and off;
• A background in video journalism and broadcast is an asset;
• Traceable record of work on similar projects;
• Communication literacy, electronic networks and software used for communication purposes;
• Familiar with gender issues, and preferable on engaging youth/ boys and men for gender equality;
• Familiar with UN Women and UN system is an asset;
• Familiar with the Middle East and North Africa is an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English and knowledge of Arabic is required;
• Knowledge of French is an asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 out of the 70 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria Weight: 70%

• Criteria 1: Experience in knowledge management and in producing knowledge products (35 points);
• Criteria 2: Experience and understanding relating to gender equality, including on the engagement of men and boys in gender equality (25 points);
• Criteria 3: Experience in developing persuasive communication products (10 points).

Financial: Lowest financial proposal: 30%

Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combines score (financial and technical). The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

(Lowest Bid Offered*)/(Bid of the Consultant) x 30*"Lowest Bid Offered" refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in technical evaluation.

Applications

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed lumpsum amount for undertaking this consultancy (in US dollars) including participation in a three days learning meeting in Jordan (travel, DSA);
• Relevant products the consultant has developed should be attached.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

UN Women is applying fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.