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.

UN Women Malawi Office, based in Lilongwe, works with partners, including the Malawi Government, civil society organisations, the private sector, influencers, media, and other UN agencies in promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls in Malawi. Through our programmes, thought leadership for GEWE and advocacy, we are working to achieve the following strategic results:

• Women and girls live free from all forms of violence including early marriage.
• Women have income security, better access to decent work, control over resources and economic autonomy, and young women most in need are reached.
• Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems.
• Women and girls benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action and influence building peace and security.

UN Women Malawi operates as a cohesive program with strategic priorities aligned to its mission. We recognize that women's economic empowerment generates short- medium and long-term social dividends and enhances women's participation in leadership and decision-making, therefore we empower women to ensure women have the ability to succeed and advance economically, have increased capacity to participate in leadership roles, peace building, humanitarian action and decision-making processes at national and local levels. Additionally, we are also working tirelessly to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Our contributions extend to shaping global norms for gender equality.

As part of its mission, UN Women seeks to develop a comprehensive communications, visibility, and advocacy strategy to enhance its outreach, engagement, and impact over the next five years. The output will be a Communications, Visibility and Advocacy Strategy for UN Women covering the period 2024 to 2028 that would serve as a tool for resource mobilization as well as to develop an implementation plan for the strategy.

The primary objective of this consultancy is to develop a robust communications, visibility and advocacy strategy for UN Women, aligned with its mandate, objectives, and key priorities. The strategy should aim to:

• Enhance visibility and awareness of UN Women's work and impact in Malawi
• Support the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment in Malawi
• Significantly contribute towards mobilizing support and resources for UN Women's initiatives towards GEWE
• Leverage innovative and creative communication tools to effectively reach and engage target audiences
• Help influence policy, attitudes, and behaviors towards GEWE through well-defined tactics and strategies
• Help promote positive social norms through strategic and, where applicable, evidence-based messaging that aligns with UN Women’s mandate and priorities

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Consultant will report to the Head of Programmes while working closely with the Communications, M&E, and ICT units.

• Conducting a situational analysis to understand the organization's current communication, visibility and advocacy landscape, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis).
• Identifying key stakeholders within and outside UN Women, including decision-makers, influencers, allies, and opponents, and mapping their interests, positions, and levels of influence to gather insights and perspectives.
• Assessing the political, social, and cultural context to identify relevant issues, trends, and opportunities for advocacy.
• Undertake key audience analysis for UN Women Malawi.
• Developing a comprehensive communications, visibility and advocacy strategy incorporating innovative and creative tools and tactics for UN Women for the next five years that are relevant to the implementation context. This will include goals, target audiences, key messages, channels, activities, and indicators of success (aligned to the country office strategic note communications objectives)
• Developing clear messaging aligned with the organization's goals and values, tailored to different target audiences and communication channels and incorporating the use of gender statistics as a cross cutting and integral element of UN Women’s work ad mandate
• Generation of creative tools that can be applied, replicated, and modified as needed by communications as well as non-communications personnel where applicable.
• Recommending suitable communication, visibility and advocacy strategies and tactics notably for effective media engagement, digital campaigns including website products and social media, grassroots mobilization, coalition building, and lobbying efforts. These strategies should incorporate guidance and recommendations on visuals and visualization including data visualization while also articulating opportunities for conventional (e.g., stories and briefs) and contemporary and multi-media products (animations, video, infographics, GIFs, photography, and others) based on the messages and target audiences.
• Developing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track and assess the reach and impact of communication, visibility and advocacy efforts and make necessary adjustments.
• Providing recommendations for resource allocation, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to support the effective implementation of the strategy and achieve the envisaged outcomes.
• Develop detailed implementation plan of the strategy for the Country Office
• Finalization of the Communications, Visibility, and Advocacy strategy based on the CO comments of draft submitted by consultant.
• Submission of final Communications, Visibility, and Advocacy Strategy, related annexes and implementation plan

Deliverables

• Inception report and Work plan
• Report of first consultation meetings
• First draft of Communications, Visibility and Advocacy Strategy
• First draft of Implementation plan
• Second draft of Communications, Visibility and Advocay Strategy and implementation plan
• Approved Communications, Visibility and Advocacy Strategy and implementation plan

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively with government representatives of Member States (donor and programme);
• Proven networking skills, and ability to mobilize support on behalf of UN Women;
• Excellent negotiating skills;
• Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes;
• Some understanding of gender data and statistics and their use in effective communications;
• Excellent IT skills, including databases, extranet and office software packages;
• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills;
• Familiarity with relevant tools and methodologies in communication planning and evaluation.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, or any related field is required
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in communications, advocacy or business development is required
• Proven experience in developing communication strategies for similar organizations or projects
• Experience in gender equality and women's empowerment
• Experience working on similar assignment with civil society organizations, international institutions and donors.
• Experience working on a similar assignment in the UN system is an asset.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).