Background

Overview:

Across Southeast Asia, violent extremism poses a direct threat to peace and security and inclusive development by fueling intolerance, forcibly displacing communities, exacerbating cycles of insecurity and armed conflict, exploiting existing inequalities, obstructing human rights, and challenging the rule of law. The access that social media provides to individuals and groups to express opinions, share ideas, and news online has led to new social pressures. Across the world, evidence points towards a link between violent extremism and the online world. Radical groups such as IS and Al-Qaeda are known to leverage online spaces and networks to promote their violent worldviews and recruit people across borders. Factors that contribute towards conditions that lead to radicalization include a lack of knowledge and understanding between communities of different socio-economic and cultural background, as well as a lack of tools to build the resilience of communities to violent extremism, especially youth.

The concept of creating counter-narratives in order to push back against extremist messages and propaganda has become well established in recent years. According to the London-based Institute of Strategic Dialogue, “A small amount of funding and guidance for counter-narrative campaigners, in terms of deploying social media advertising tools to reach ‘target audiences’ could dramatically improve the awareness, engagement, and impact of counter-narratives and NGOs working in this space.” The Asia Pacific region is estimated to have 1.7 billion active Facebook users which makes Facebook (including Instagram and WhatsApp which were both acquired by Facebook in recent years) one of the most important private sector partners when it comes to tackling harmful online cultures and messages.

UNDP is currently implementing a new project in the Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding Division, funded by the European Union: Preventing Violent Extremism and Promoting Tolerance and Respect for Diversity, Phase II. The overall objective of this project is to support Southeast Asian government (and other key stakeholders) in understanding and preventing violent extremism, building community resilience, and promoting peace and tolerance.

One of the key outputs is ExtremeLives. This is a project supported by Facebook and the EU that focuses on digital storytelling: uncovering the personal insights and stories of people who have been affected by violent extremism, violent conflict, and related issues. The project uses creative means – predominantly video - to disseminate positive narratives on social media and provide youth and local-level communities in Asia with knowledge and relatable information on violent extremism. The project’s signature products are video documentaries of around 5-10 minutes in length. To accompany these videos, the project provides guidance for local CSOs, NGOs, and youth groups in the form of toolkits that hope to encourage constructive conversations and promote understanding. Finally, the project also collaborates with online influencers to develop creative content for their YouTube channels.

The UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub is looking for the support of a Graphic Design and Social Media Consultant to support with the production and implementation of an ambitious social media campaign to raise awareness of the UNDP-EU funded PVE projects, support in providing visibility for the UNDP-EU partnership to prevent violent extremism, help build online audiences and engagement for the ExtremeLives project, and support with the production of ExtremeLives documentary videos.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

Under the overall guidance of the PVE Communications Specialist, the Social Media Junior Consultant will work with the Preventing Violent Extremism team and the Regional Communications team to provide support as follows;

Graphic Design (40%)

• Design creative graphics, GIFs and animations for ExtremeLives’ compatible with social media in alignment with an existing communications strategy to support building awareness of the drivers of extremism and its impacts
• Coordinating and designing a monthly newsletter to inform partners and stakeholders of programmatic progress

Social Media (40%)

• Manage social media platforms and content dissemination for ExtremeLives, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and actively engaging with audiences
• Collect and analyze social media data to discover trends and adapt social media strategies accordingly
• Conduct weekly media monitoring and reactively post about relevant topical issues on appropriate social media channels

Communications (20%)

• ExtremeLives
  • Research and establish news/media, CSO/NGO partnerships, and secure opportunities at festivals and events for offline video dissemination
  • Supporting with national and regional events relating to ExtremeLives
• Regional Project
  • Support in the implementation of the UNDP-EU Communications and Visibility Plan for projects in South East Asia
  • Promote the Bangkok Regional Hub’s PVE work through social media
  • Support in writing concept notes, media briefings, blogs, op-eds, and other material
  • Working with others to manage and implement online events brown bags /webinars / workshops
  • Linking the Bangkok Regional Hub’s communication work to PVE work conducted at the national level, and UNDP more broadly, working on joint campaigns as appropriate.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The consultant will be responsible for the following:

• High quality graphic content is developed for ExtremeLives
• Strengthen the public perception and reputation of UNDP, and more specifically UNDP’s joint EU projects in Southeast Asia
• ExtremeLives social media engagement is increased
• Impact in both online and offline spheres are measured and assessed for ExtremeLives
• Detailed reporting on footprint in social media and other communication channels established.
• Partnerships are maintained and developed to further both the Regional PVE project and ExtremeLives’ objectives
• Provide support to other RBAP regional program activities, as requested by PVE Project Manager, regional Program Coordinator, and BRH Senior Management.

Institutional Arrangement:

Under the overall guidance of the PVE Communications Specialist, the Junior Social Media Consultant will work with the Preventing Violent Extremism team and the Regional Communications team.

Due to the long timeframe of the consultancy and the sensitive nature of the project, especially since they would be creating assets that are public-facing, the consultant will be required to work in-person with PVE Communications Specialist.  We are therefore open to this being an international consultant currently ‘home-based’ but in Thailand.

The successful candidate will ensure that all deliverables follow UNDP relevant communications guidelines.

Duration of the Assignment:

This assignment is expected to be 30 September 2020 – 31 March 2021 (6 months, maximum of 120 days)

Duty Station and Expected Places of Travel:

Bangkok-based, no travel expected.

Competencies

Corporate/Functional Competencies

• Ability to work independently and take initiative, while also collaborating as part of a team.
• Proven track record of meeting deadlines.
• Creative flair and lateral problem-solving skills.
• Excellent verbal communications skills
• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Art, Design, Journalism, Communications, English, Media Studies, Social Documentation, or another closely related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of professional experience in graphic design with proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience managing social media platforms is desirable
• Previous knowledge, skills and experience in working with UN Agencies, NGOs/CSOs or other organizations in the development sector will be an advantage.
• Experience writing persuasive copy for a range of audiences, including press releases, articles, blogs, newsletters.
• Experience in events coordination and management.
• Knowledge of creative content for social media with a youth target audience.
• Obtain or have residence in Thailand would be a key advantage.

Language requirements

• Excellent English language skills is required.

Payment Terms:

Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period in Thai Baht. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal.

Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the Technical Evaluation. The Technical Evaluation will include a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates.

The selection of the offer, from the shortlisted candidates, will be based on a Combined Scoring method where the technical evaluation (qualification review, written exam, and interview where applicable) will be weighted a maximum of 70 percent and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30 percent. The 70 percent rating shall be based on how well the Offer meets the minimum qualifications/competencies described above.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation

• Criteria 1: Relevance of Education (max 10 points)
• Criteria 2: 2-years’ experience creating digital content designed for different audiences, including videos, GIFs, graphics based on the strength of submitted portfolio (30 points)
• Criteria 3: Excellent English language skills, with assessment based on strength of written assessment (max 10 points)
• Criteria 4: Verbal interview (max. 20 points

An interview and written assessment will be conducted as part of this recruitment process. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) during the desk review/interview are acceptable would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP in Annex II;
• Digital portfolio, including examples of creative content for social media developed by the candidate.
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Financial proposal that indicates the fee of the candidate in THB In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additional include a breakdown of this daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted for interview and the successful candidate will be notified.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR Social Media Junior Consultant
Annex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_Consultants
Annex III - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal
Annex_IV_P11 Form_for_ICs_optional
Annex V - Procurement Notice

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=69832

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.th@undp.org under subject: JobAds 93852- Social Media Junior Consultant