Young Professional Officer (YPO), Islamabad - United Nations Pakistan

Organizational Context

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is an important partner of the Government of Pakistan for achieving national development goals and international commitments including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). UNDP's works with the Government, civil society and development partners in four broad programmatic areas; Poverty Reduction and Gender, Democratic Governance, Environment and Climate Change and Crisis Prevention and Recovery.

Raising awareness about UNDP’s role in the country, positioning the organization as a trusted and credible development partner and mobilizing resources are important priorities for the Country Office.

Under the supervision of the Communications Analyst and in close collaboration with programme unit heads, the Communications Associate develops and implements the CO’s Communications Strategy in line with the CO’s vision, priorities and plans.

He/she also maintains close contact with sub-regional and project communications focal points for a coherent UNDP communications strategy.

The Communications Associate works as part of the Communications team to achieve the results outlined below.
Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Communications Analyst, implements the corporate communications strategy, as well as provides inputs to the design, management and implementation of the Country Office communications and publication strategies which are geared to influence the development agenda, promote public and media outreach and mobilize political and financial support for UNDP.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Communication Planning: Assist the communications analyst in the preparation and conduct of communications needs assessments for CO (projects, country programme and corporate change initiatives, etc) and drafting/editing of CO communications and outreach strategy based on the corporate communications strategy. Also assist in analysis of requirements and synthesis of proposals on ways to integrate advocacy and communication strategies into all aspects of UNDP’s development programme during programme formulations.

Public Affairs: Assist in organizing and coordinating press conferences, press launches, field visits, interviews, and media briefings for Resident Representative and other staff. Manage media campaigns and events related to all relevant UNDP activities. Prepare press kits for use by staff and media.

Public Information: Draft, edit and design UNDP public information materials. Responsible for timely issuance of UNDP press releases and for the production and update of brochures, booklets and reports aimed at ensuring the visibility of UNDP and its projects. Ensures that public information material released by the Office and the projects are in line with UNDP style, branding and other standards.

Publications: Responsible for designing and producing fact sheets, updates and briefing material. Ensures that publications released by the Office are in line with UNDP style, branding and other standards. Maintains a system of classification and record for incoming UNDP publications. Also ensure the implementation of the CO publications strategy and plan, based on the corporate publications policy.
Coordinate CO publication activities, such as content management, norms for publishing, design, etc.
Contact with printers and other suppliers to ensure production and ensure publications dissemination.

Coordination of Projects’ Communication Staff: Assist in providing guidance to and organizing regular contact with projects’ communication specialists. Assist in developing the communications components for UNDP projects and provide assistance to projects in organizing media events. Identify potential stories from projects and collect photographs for the country office database.

Relations with the Media: Establish and maintain contacts with print and electronic media nationally and internationally, particularly with those covering UNDP activities. Establish and maintain contacts with UN publications and UN agencies’ communication staff.

Outreach: Assist in developing and implementing activities and programmes to promote public awareness/knowledge of and access to UNDP’s services, information and materials.

Design and maintain the office web sites based on corporate requirements in cooperation with the ICT staff. Preparation of the content for the web sites to ensure consistency of the materials.

Produce in-house videos and/or commissions films for capturing project results/issues for UNDP and other websites like YouTube. Also mentors programme staff to produce project videos for the website.

Develop and maintain a photo database that contains images expressive of the issues, actions and results UNDP is working on in the country.

Media Monitoring: Review and record media coverage of UNDP and circulate to relevant authorities.

Competencies

Functional competencies

Understanding of development issues and ability to work across the range of issues covered by UNDP. Ability to hold high-level meetings and speak on behalf of the organization on issues relevant to development in the country.

Ability to draft concise and informative documentation in English/French for a range of uses from detailed progress reports to media releases.

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

Ability to work with minimum supervision to identify information and knowledge sharing opportunities and to engage a wide range of colleagues in realizing these opportunities.

Planning and organizing ability to develop clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; uses time efficiently.

Desire to learn new creative kills like using a Flipcam for developing video blogs and using social media effectively.

Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource.

Behavioral competencies

Communication skills and ability to speak and write clearly and effectively; listens to others, tailors language, tone, style and format to match the audience; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Demonstrates integrity and discretion in all actions of the work. Uses good judgment in applying expertise to complex and/or sensitive issues.

Conceptual and creative thinking to focus on impact and results and to develop practical approaches to overcome challenging situations.

Teamwork: Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; builds and sustains relationships with key constituents.

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.

0-1 Years of experience
Experience in developing video materials in house and in commissioning films.
Demonstrated experience in developing content that clearly communicates development ideas and experience for media, web, print production and audio visual productions.
Experience in overseeing translations work.
Competent with office software packages, including power-point, excel, video editing, adobe Photoshop, adobe in-design for desktop publishing.
Should be less than 30years of age

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