Global Advocacy and Communications Specialist (BTCA) – IPSA11, Home-Based
Remote Work
JOB DETAIL
Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
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.
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: inclusive digital economies, connecting individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; local development finance, that capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and investment finance, that provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) impact and domestic resource mobilization. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to Sustainable Development Goal-SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a broad diversity of SDGs.
The United Nations Capital Development Programme (UNCDF) is a UN organization focused on reducing poverty and achieving the SDGs in the least developed countries (“LDC”s). To support the realization of UNCDF’s Business Plan and drive the rapid expansion of the organization’s capacity to respond to LDC demand for its services and increase its geographical coverage of and average investment size in LDCs, UNCDF aims to develop a comprehensive business development strategy. This strategy would encompass specific, but interlinked, strategies for partnerships, branding and communications, and resource mobilization, which would capitalize on specific business development opportunities.
About the Better Than Cash Alliance:
Hosted by UNCDF, the Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to responsible digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Alliance has over 80 members which are committed to digitizing payments in order to boost efficiency, transparency, women’s economic participation and financial inclusion, helping build economies that are digital and inclusive.
The Alliance Secretariat works with members on their journey to digitize payments by:
- Providing advisory services based on their priorities.
- Sharing action-oriented research and fostering peer learning on responsible practices.
- Conducting advocacy at national, regional and global level.
The values of the Better Than Cash Alliance Secretariat Team are:
- Achieving together.
- Striving for excellence.
- Service oriented.
- Results oriented.
Duties and Responsibilities
1. Advocacy and Communications Strategy Development and Implementation Leadership.
1.1. Strategy Formulation & Implementation
- Under the supervision of the Managing Director, and in partnership with the Regional Leads, across Africa, Asia and Latin America, and Thematic Global Leads, develop a refreshed Alliance Advocacy & Communications Strategy. This refreshed strategy will deliver on the needs of the evolving Alliance strategy across global, regional and national level. The strategy will amplify achievements from the launch of digitization initiatives in a manner that supports scale across countries, companies and sectors to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Working with Regional and Country Leads, and regional Advocacy and Communications Specialists, develop and implement tailored regional and national advocacy and communications plans that support strategic goals at the regional and national levels, and are sensitive to cultural contexts, time zones and national realities.
1.2. Digital Communications & Branding
- Implement a continuously evolving innovative and engaging digital communications presence for the Alliance, particularly on social media, that maintains its high profile and status as go-to organization for responsible digital payments, while ensuring quality and pertinence of messages. This includes expanding the collaboration with Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) champions and other influencers and opinion leaders.
- Manage website evolution and ensure content strongly and effectively reflects the Alliance priorities, messages and branding, working closely with the Alliance’s Website & Business Application Services Project Manager.
- Manage the Alliance branding platform.
1.3. External Outreach & Engagement
- Proactively identify and secure key external opportunities for the Alliance Secretariat, members and partners, including events. Train speakers to ensure presentations, and media interviews, are compelling and on-message.
- Proactively pitch to traditional media and other relevant platforms, ideas for coverage of the Alliance work, including members-created communications products and initiatives.
- Contribute to Alliance Secretariat contact database efforts to better segment our audiences.
1.4 Resource mobilization
- In partnership with the Managing and Deputy Managing Director co-develop fundraising proposals.
- Lead the end-to-end production of the Alliance Secretariat annual report, in close partnership with the Monitoring & Evaluation Lead, Regional and Thematic Leads.
2. Management of the Advocacy and Communications Team, under Matrix Management:
- Manage the globally-distributed Advocacy & Communications Team, in matrix management with the relevant Regional Leads.
- Manage vendors, including designers, editors, writers, translators, media firms, photographers, videographers.
- Manage the Alliance Secretariat global advocacy and communications budget in partnership with the Managing Director, to ensure yearly delivery targets are met and that advocacy and communications activities have a high ROI in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Advice on regional and national advocacy and communications budget.
3. Strategic Advocacy and Communications Input & Quality Assurance:
3.1 Strategic Advice & Project Management
- Provide strategic advocacy and communications input on all initiatives at global, regional and national level, in partnership with relevant colleagues, as part of the Alliance Secretariat co-creation process.
- Ensure end-to-end project management of all advocacy and communications aspects of the research from inception to launch of all research products. This includes agreeing key themes at inception, creating key messages from draft reports, technical editing of final drafts, proofreading, design, developing a dissemination strategy through the kick-off of the launch via media, social media, events and targeted workshops.
- Identify and develop a dissemination strategy for learning products that meets the needs of members and ensures they receive information in the most useful way.
- Provide training to governments looking to communicate results from their digitization journeys in partnership with the relevant Regional Team.
3.2 Quality Assurance
- In close partnership with the relevant content leads, assure quality and excellence in the delivery of all external products for the Alliance Secretariat.
- Ensure all content creation complies with content creation processes.
- Provide team members with training on public speaking, presentations and moderating panels. Provide ad-hoc trainings and dry-runs ahead of major conferences, speaking engagements and media interviews.
- Develop systems to closely monitor traditional and social media to watch out for risks that may affect the organizational brand reputation and suggest mitigating actions on an ongoing basis.
4. Develop and Consolidate an Advocacy & Communications Partners Network:
- Build on the Alliance Secretariat’s strong network of partners to develop a global network of influencing partners, in partnership with relevant colleagues. Continue to actively seek and strengthen partnerships within the digital payments, digital financial inclusion and digital public infrastructure practice communities and around the Sustainable Development Goals, to amplify the Alliance messages on the benefits of digitizing payments and good practices on how to digitize payments.
- Maintain close relationships with advocacy and communications teams at members, funders and partners organizations. Ensure close partnership with UN communications teams, particularly around important dates, international days or members’ announcement moments.
- Use digital communications channels including social media, newsletter and new innovative methods to amplify Alliance messages and success stories from members beyond the financial inclusion and development communities.
5. Ensure facilitation of knowledge building, sharing and management:
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Competencies:
Core Competencies:
Achieve Results:
LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
Think Innovatively:
LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
Learn Continuously:
LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
Adapt with Agility:
LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
Act with Determination:
LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
Engage and Partner:
LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
Enable Diversity and Inclusion:
LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Direction & Strategy: System Thinking
- Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
Business Direction & Strategy: Strategic Thinking
- Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with organizational objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.
- Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for the organization.
Business Management: Communication
- Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
- Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
Business Management: Project Management
- Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
Partnership management: Strategic engagement
- Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives.
Digital & Innovation Story telling
- Ability to empathize with people’s perceptions, motivations, feelings and mental models and craft narratives to build an emotive argument for change accordingly.
- Ability to present data, insights or information in compelling ways to mobilize resources, talent or action.
- Ability to choose media and channels that is fit for purpose to reach specific target audiences.
Communications: Advocacy strategy and implementation
- Ability to create and implement advocacy strategies which lead to impactful change.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent ) in communications, journalism, international relations, public policy, public relations or related field. OR
- First level university degree (Bachelors’ degree) in the above areas with two additional years of relevant work experience will be given due consideration in lieu of advanced university degree.
Experience:
- Minimum 7 years(with Master’s degree) or 9 years ( of successful professional experience in an international setting in public and/or private sector advocacy and communications, public relations and/or journalism, is required.
Required Skills:
- Proven track-record of effective team management and leadership, particularly in a multi-cultural environmental, is required. This includes excellent project management and robust results measurement.
- Proven track-record of successfully developing and executing advocacy and communications strategies, is required.
- Proven track-record of delivering results in digital communications, particularly social media, is required.
Desired Skills:
- Good understanding/experience of the power of digital payments to help achieve women financial equality and the Sustainable Development Goals, is desirable.
- Experience in successful media relations is highly desirable.
- Demonstrable experience working with international organizations, emerging economies governments, donor agencies, and/or NGOs and other civil society groups engaged in digitization of payments, financial inclusion, or related topics, is desirable.
- International experience effectively working with communication of senior private sector (C-level) and/or government counterparts, is highly desirable.
- Experience training colleagues on advocacy and communications is highly valuable.
Language:
- Excellent verbal, writing and editing skills in English, is required.
- Professional level fluency in one other UN official language, particularly French or Spanish, is highly desirable.
Disclaimer
Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.
UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
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.
Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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