Job: UN WOMEN: SPEECHWRITER AND COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Application Deadline :

04-Dec-13

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Post Level :

P-5

Languages Required :

English

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

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 centre 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. UN is expected to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Speechwriter and Communications Advisor position is located centrally in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General / Executive Director, UN Women. The incumbent reports to the Executive Director and works in close collaboration with the Chief of Staff. The Office of the Executive Director, UN Women is responsible for managing and ensuring the provision of substantive support to intergovernmental processes on gender equality and the empowerment of women on a global level. The Office of the Executive Director is responsible for providing vision, strategic planning and establishing priorities, leading the senior management team, leading advocacy as a global voice for women, ensuring coordination in the UN Common System, providing overall management and oversight and ensuring accountability to governance bodies.

The Speechwriter maintains a close working relationship with the Communications and Advocacy team to ensure consistent messaging and coherence in similar areas of work.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

The Speechwriter and Communications Advisor to the Executive Director, UN Women, will ensure the Executive Director is effectively supported to play her role as the 'global voice' for women, including developing communications products and managing public relations so as to most effectively convey the desired information/message to the targeted audiences and promote public understanding of UN Women operations and activities. S/he will have a proven ability to think strategically work and act under pressure with discretion in a sensitive and challenging environment. S/he has to have excellent communication and organization skills to manage the substantive and normative agenda. S/he will also advise and support the Executive Director in internal communications. Within the relevant delegated authority and in close coordination with the Communications and Advocacy team , the Speechwriter, and Communications Advisor will be responsible for the following duties:

• Prepare key messages, speeches, talking points and thematic briefings for presentation by the Executive Director in support of external events and the strategic positioning of her leadership and that of UN Women;
• Support the Executive Director, UN Women, in the management of external and internal communication by ensuring high quality information on priority issues and/or for major UN Women events, including drafting information strategies, messages, op-eds and statements;
• Collaborate with the Communications and Advocacy team in selecting the information transmitted to key constituencies. Develop and maintain up-to-date analysis of the external context and stakeholders relevant to UN Women's mission and objections. Initiate and sustain professional relationships with key constituencies.
• Undertake research as required and draft plans and strategies for the strategic positioning of the Executive Director's leadership reflecting the direction and vision of UN Women;
• Undertake daily review of HQ and regional events with implications for the strategic positioning of the UN Women, in consultation with the Executive Director;
• Prepare key messages, speeches, talking points and thematic briefings for presentation by the Executive Director in support of external events and the strategic positioning of her leadership and that of UN Women.
• Review drafts and manuscripts for adherence to corporate policy, consistency with UN policy, and provide analysis and recommendations;
• Ensure the development of an up-to-date archive of briefing materials on the work of UN Women including key policy positions on gender equality and the empowerment of women;
• Undertake research as required and draft strategic inputs for papers and analytical studies on selected policy issues pertaining to gender equality and women's empowerment to support the Executive Director's external engagement and role, and undertake other writing as required by the Executive Director and the Chief of Staff;
• Act as focal point in the Executive Director's office on specific issues, monitoring and reporting on developments, responding to inquiries, etc.;
• Perform other official duties and special assignments which may be requested by the Executive Director and/or the Chief of Staff.

The Key Results have an impact on the overall efficiency and success of the Office of the Executive Director UN Women. In particular, the key results will ensure communication products and public relations that most effectively convey the desired information/message to the targeted audiences and promote public understanding of UN Women operations and activities.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating 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:

• Demonstrating 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:

• Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

• Building support and political acumen;
• Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams:

• Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated excellent understanding of strategic communications (including branding), advocacy and outreach at the international level;
• Outstanding written and oral communications and editing skills;
• Proven ability to address issues effectively, both orally and in writing;
• Proven ability to conceptualize, plan and implement international communications and advocacy campaigns including key external partners;
• Excellent knowledge of media and media relations, including new online media;
• Excellent knowledge of and proven ability to work with various media to effectively enhance communications -- print, audio-visual, online;
• Excellent understanding of design, production and distribution processes;
• Proven ability to meet tight deadlines and work well under pressure;
• Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Familiarity with UN WOMEN and the UN system;
• Familiarity with gender issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's degree or equivalent in one or more of the following disciplines: public administration, communications, international relations, social sciences, journalism or other related fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in public information, journalism, international relations, public administration or related area.

Languages requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Proficiency in another UN official language is highly desirable.

Important Application Information:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.

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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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