Communications Officer (Home-based) - IPSA 8

Background

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.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Most commodity sectors in developing countries are afflicted by poor production practices that lead to increasing pressure on ecosystems and fail to improve the livelihoods of rural communities. Poor production practices lead to negative environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, carbon emissions, soil erosion, depletion of water resources and contamination from chemicals. In fact, the largest driver of deforestation is the production of agricultural commodities. On the social side, working conditions in commodity production are often not in line with basic labour rights. Despite recent commodity booms, small producers are held in poverty, mostly due to low productivity and product quality.

Despite the progress made through standards and supply-chain initiatives, weaknesses in the underlying enabling environment limit change at a larger scale. An effective enabling environment consists of elements such as clear public policies, a well-functioning legal framework, clarity regarding land-use planning, effective enforcement mechanisms, accessible credit structures, and effective farmer extension services. As a result of the absence of these elements, work on commodity sustainability remains less effective than it could be, and costlier and more time-consuming than it should be. Improving the enabling environments will increase the chances of sector-wide change to sustainable production practices.

UNDP established the Green Commodities Programme (GCP) in 2009 in recognition of the importance of global agricultural commodities and how they contribute to economic, social, and environmental sustainability and the need to strengthen UNDP’s support and leadership in the field.  GCP was initiated with seed funding from the UNDP and was tasked to evolve into a global programme supporting UNDP’s Strategic Plan, building on almost a decade of GEF supported projects mainstreaming ecosystem services into productive landscapes.  GCP’s global targets, objectives and delivery strategies are based on inclusive and sustainable growth and development – combining governments and markets in agriculture through public private partnerships and democratic dialogue processes. GCP’s focus on strengthening the livelihoods of smallholder producers within commodity supply chains and reducing environmental footprints, particularly deforestation, through public private partnerships can be key for UNDP’s ambitions to reduce poverty, reduce deforestation and engage the private sector in SDGs.

The Green Commodities Programme (GCP) exists to improve the national economic, social, and environmental performance of agricultural commodity sectors. GCP works within agricultural commodity production in countries of UNDP operation where the programme can have significant impact on rural livelihoods, mitigate climate change, and maintain the ecosystem services and resilience of landscapes and seascapes.

The GCP has pioneered the concept of National Commodity Platforms to help governments facilitate shared visions and actions for sustainable commodity production among key stakeholders. GCP operates in over 18 countries globally.

GCP is supporting the World Bank with the implementation of the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program (IP), financed under GEF-7. The Programme is designed to promote sustainable integrated landscapes and efficient food value chains at scale. The FOLUR IP aims to encourage transformation to more environmentally sustainable production practices and more resilient landscapes. The FOLUR IP has two main elements – a Global Knowledge to Action Platform and 27 Country Projects (CPs) - designed to tackle the dual challenges of achieving a global food system built on sustainable land use practices and productive, resilient landscapes, using both top-down and bottom-up strategies. The GCP support will be focused on the global platform with the objective of contribute to transformational shifts in the use of environmentally sustainable practices and policies for priority global value chains

Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the GCP Communications Lead, the UNDP GCP Communications Officer will support with:

• Drafting, designing, and updating communications content for the UNDP GCP and the GGP websites and social media.
• Managing liaison and deliverables with external design agencies
• Coordinate the production of deliverables set in the GCP and GGP editorial calendars
• Manage communications needs of the Green Commodities Community
• Supporting UNDP GCP and Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS) engagement campaigns and strategies.
• Lead GCP Dissemination strategies
• Leading on GCP/GGP digital channels, including websites, online platforms, and social media. Preparation of presentations, briefing notes, meeting minutes, knowledge products and reports.
• Responding to media outreach and exposure requests from content partners.
• Act as GCP Communications Focal point for the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA)Initiative and the Green Commodities Community.
• Act as focal point for FOLUR and LAC HUB Communications.
• Lead Communications relationship with Country Offices in Peru and Paraguay
• Maintaining internal filing system up to date (One Drive, SharePoint, Flickr, etc.).
• Production and dissemination of the GCP Newsletter
• Managing mailing lists and photo assets.
• Conducting research and updating the knowledge database.
• Providing support on internal communications reporting.
• Data collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation in flowcharts, tables, or slides.
• Preparation and organization of webinars, knowledge management tools, product, and activities such as workshops, Community of Practice platform and events.
• Translation, proof Reading, formatting, and editing of documents.
• Other related tasks and ad hoc support.

Institutional Arrangement
The Communications Officer will be supervised by the GCP Communications Lead and the FACS Global Head The Officer will be based home based. The Officer will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment.


Competencies

CORE COMPETENCIES

• ACHIEVE RESULTS - LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• THINK INNOVATEVELY - LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
• LEARN CONTINUOUSLY - LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• ADAPT WITH AGILITY - LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
• ACT WITH DETERMINATION - LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• ENGAGE AND PARTNER - LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• ENABLE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION - LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

CROSS FUNCTIONAL & TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

• EXTERNAL RELATIONS / COMMUNICATIONS
  • Campaign Management: Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns which lead to impactful change.
  • Media Relations: Ability to develop media relations across all aspects of media work including relationships with media and preparing media materials such as messages.
  • Web and social media analytics: Ability to analyze and interpret data and statistics to measure web and social media performance.
  • Writing and editing: Ability to create and/or edit written content in different UN languages.
• BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
  • Knowledge Facilitation: Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally.
  • Knowledge Generation: Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism or related fields, or
• Bachelor’s degree in above disciplines with two years of relevant professional work experience.

Experience

• Master’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism or related fields with no experience or Bachelor’s degree in above disciplines with at least two years of relevant professional work experience at the national or international level.

Required skills and competencies

• Experience in graphic design and editing. Master in Adobe Creative package, including InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Experience in video production.
• Experience in social media management and content creation.
• Experience managing CMS Websites.
• Experience producing Newsletters directed to big audiences.

Desired skills

• Additional studies related to development, sustainability or international relations will be an advantage.
• Experience working with Global and multi partners projects is an advantage.
• Experience organising online global events.
• Experience working for the UN.
• Demonstrated integrity and ethical standards.

Required languages

• Fluency in Spanish and English, both oral and written is required.

Disclaimer

Important applicant information
All posts in the NPSA categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity
UNDP is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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