Communication Advisor

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Millions of people continue experiencing untold misery and suffering, as the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelms health, education, and economic systems and takes human development gains back, for the first time since 1990. While the summer of 2020 brought some relief, and the international pharmaceutical scientific community has worked miracles by offering first COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year for (uneven) rollout worldwide, the pandemic is very far from over. As such, humanity is experiencing only the pandemic’s initial impacts, since the consequences of the measures we are taking in response will be far-reaching for years to come. Economies and social ties will face aftershocks for decades, as the world only begins to return to “normalcy” in 2021. The trajectory of that return is obscure, shadowed by slower-than-anticipated vaccine rollout, new virus strains, economic troubles and political turmoil worldwide.

Against this backdrop, Ukraine has benefitted from a holistic UN assistance package from spring to fall of 2020. Yet, with the numbers growing drastically in the autumn-winter season of 2020 – 2021 , on some days registering over 16 000 new cases , absence of robust forecasting , the growing threat of new COVID-19 strains (variants), widespread societal fatigue over quarantine measures, uncertainty over vaccination rollout plans, continued macroeconomic challenges and lack of significant progress with resolving the conflict in the east of the country or regaining control over the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine is still far from being on the trajectory for surfacing from the country-wide epidemic or stabilizing the environment in which the country’s governance machinery currently operates.

The RESURFACE Project is a mix of rapid response to the highly volatile situation and a longer-term resilience-driven transformation of Ukraine’s crisis decision-making and adaptation to extraordinary circumstances. The project will be implemented for 12 months starting from March 2021 and has incorporated lessons learned from its predecessor Crisis Coordination and Management in Ukraine (CCMU) Project. Apart from practical results achieved between April and October 2020 under the small-scale and agile CCMU intervention, UNDP has taken note of ideas and proposals mentioned throughout the high-level policy dialogue meeting between the UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. As the CCMU initiative drew to a close, Ukrainian government counterparts reiterated to UNDP Ukraine their satisfaction with results of the smaller engagement and contributed to the design of the RESURFACE Project by proposing activities, areas for collaboration and making sure that the submission is fully aligned with national priorities and needs including those, based on Ukraine’s Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 Assessment (SEIA) and the resulting national COVID-recovery plans.

Given the above, the proposed RESURFACE Project takes catalytic assistance to Ukraine’s government authorities to a new level than CCMU by deploying a mechanism that aims at not only delivering on the urgent needs of today but programming for more resilient Ukraine’s governance systems in two aspects (1) coordination and (2) institutional adaptability, as the country starts to emerge from the COVID-related crisis.

In this context, the United Nations Development Programme is recruiting an Communication Advisor to the Policy Advisory Unit under Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine with relevant experience and track record.

Communication Advisor will be directly responsible for supporting the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine through the Policy Advisory Unit with technical advice and subject-matter expertise. The incumbent will promote UNDP’s mandate as a gender-responsive organization with zero tolerance to any kind of discriminatory and abusive behavior, including sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The incumbent will provide advice to Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine on intra-governmental and external coordination machinery for ongoing COVID-19 response with an eye towards being applied as other crises inevitably appear or intensify.

The incumbent will report primarily to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, with a reporting line to the UNDP Ukraine and the Project Manager as a part of a Democratic Governance team. The Strategic Advisor will work closely with the other members of the Policy Advisory Units.

S/he will provide support to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and its respective staffs through the following functions:

• Strengthen the institutional capacities of the beneficiary institution to design, manage and monitor communications’ policy, and introduce new practices in the Ministry’s communications, with a focus on timely, clear and thematically-structured information.
• Support Ministry in their activities on countering disinformation in media while protecting freedom of media/expression.
• Develop capacities of the of Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine staff on best practices of citizen engagement and outreach.
• Develop capacities of the Ministry’s staff on best practices of implementation of the information campaign against disinformation and fake news.
• Provide analysis and recommendations on how to enhance internal communication within the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and its state-owned enterprises.
• Provide support to the Ministry in its activities on decentralization reform in the context of communication strategy for development and support of cultural services.
• Assist the Ministry in strengthening of the media sector and developing its capacity.
• Contribute to the development of the content of thematic communication products in line with the agreed communication policies and help to establish the cooperation with opinion leaders and media assets for their effective channeling to the target audiences.
• Support development of communications plan for activitiesevents of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
• Ensure digital transformation, gender equality, human rights, SDG and other important aspects are integral part of the communication strategy of the Ministry.
• Ensure creative industries, information policy and Conduct public relations for the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine (media publications, social media management, press events organisation, etc.)
• Ensure visibility of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine in conferences, meetings, seminars, working groups, interaction with public authorities, non-governmental organisations and other international technical assistance projects
• Provide news coverage, support with publication of interviews, columns, articles, reports regarding the achievements of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine
• Produce engaging visual, audio and text content to raise awareness about Ukrainian culture
• Support the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine team, build effective interaction with its stakeholders in communications
• Ensure that UNDP’s visibility in this field of work is adequately visible as agreed between UNDP and the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine
• Liaise with other government institutions in terms of communications work at the Ministry to ensure synergy, to promote the effective downstream implementation of the policies and to avoid overlap and duplication, where appropriate and when requested by the Ministry.
• Provide sectoral advice and report to UNDP, whenever requested.
• Assist the beneficiary to prepare an exit strategy on how the advice will be mainstreamed and consolidated once this technical support is exhausted.

PAYMENTS SCHEDULE

• Communication protocols, guidelines, content plans, campaigns, instructions developed in cooperation with the press-office of the MCIP – based on number of certified worked days;
• Advisory service on the above-mentioned issues provided — based on number of certified worked days;
• Progress reports are provided to UNDP – based on number of certified worked days.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR EVALUATION OF RESULTS

• Number of communications products, developed in cooperation with the Ministry representatives, with proper reference to the SDGs.
• Timely submission of the regular performance reports.

MONITORING / REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Work-progress reporting/monitoring meetings will be held with the consultant on a weekly basis. UNDP will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the work. No reports or documents should be published or distributed to third parties without approval of UNDP.

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Project Manager as a part of Democratic Governance Team and will interact with UNDP to receive any clarifications and guidance that may be needed.

Monthly reports capturing the list of deliverables and progress made, timesheets and the plan for next month should be submitted at the end of each month in the format agreed with UNDP. The satisfactory completion of each of the deliverables shall be subject to endorsement of the Project Manager.

Final report covering the whole assignment, followed with recommendations and all relevant Annexes by the end of December 2021.

The Consultant will duly inform UNDP of any problems, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

All reports and results are to be submitted to the UNDP in electronic format (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, and *.pdf or other formats accepted by UNDP).

CORPORATE COMPETENCIES

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in media relations, journalism, international relations, social sciences or related field.

Experience: