Communications Specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children. UNICEF insists that the survival, protection and development of children are universal development imperatives that are integral to human progress.

Context

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. UNICEF has a 75-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships, technologies, and ways of financing and working are key to building a better world for children, today and coming generations. UNICEF’s Office of Innovation helps discover, co-create, and scale bold solutions and technologies to deliver for children today and set a new pace of social impact for coming generations. We do this in a collective movement with innovative minds globally, across industries and generations. The volunteer will support the Partnerships and Communication Team of the UNICEF Office of Innovation (OOI) with the implementation of communications plans and strategies across multiple projects and initiatives.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Communications Manager or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Communications will: • Support the development and implementation of communication strategies to advance UNICEF's goals and priorities. • Create compelling content, including articles, social media posts, and multimedia materials, to raise awareness and support for UNICEF's initiatives. • Assist in managing UNICEF's digital platforms, including websites and social media channels, to ensure consistent and engaging communication with the target audience. • Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to identify storytelling opportunities and develop impactful narratives that highlight UNICEF's work. • Monitor media coverage and public discourse related to children's issues, and provide timely analysis and recommendations to enhance UNICEF's communication efforts. • Support the organization of events, campaigns, and advocacy initiatives to promote UNICEF's mission and mobilize support for children's rights. • Provide logistical and administrative support as needed to ensure the smooth functioning of the communication team. • Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities. • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/expected outputs: • As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: o Write compelling social media copy, create graphic design assets, and maintain a calendar of content for the Director’s social media channels. o Write web articles, create web pages, and develop engaging photo essays. o Support the comms manager with project coordination across OOI teams and within the comms team. o Support the Lead Editor with content curation for the Weekly News Roundup and follow-up correspondence with relevant colleagues featured in newsletter. Compile and send Weekly News Roundup once a month. Support with development of special issues of Spark Newsletter. o Develop and maintain asset management system and process to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the comms unit. This involves working across teams to compile a comprehensive database of OOI records including articles, presentation decks, multimedia files, contact lists. o Develop and manage contact database including comms counterparts in partner organizations, country offices and other UNICEF networks. o Manage list of vendors and external collaborators. Support the Program Associate with procurement process. o Support with the development of a comms network including but not limited to outreach, event planning, and ongoing correspondence via newsletter/intranet. o Support with database management of the OOI newsletter. o Support with updating and archiving digital assets on OOI intranet and external website. o Support with the administration and logistics of event comms including but not limited to captioning and recording photo and video assets, updating OOI events page on external website, and P&C intranet page, scheduled correspondence with stakeholders including invites and gratitude emails. o Support with staff engagement comms including prompts for social media amplification, content generations and activations. • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment. • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.