Communication Specialist (Open to South Africa Nationals Only)

The UNDP country office in South Africa supports the government of South Africa in achieving its development goals outlined in the National Development Plan 2030 as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The UNDP country office’s activities are guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2020 -2025), the South African National Development Plan 2030, the UNDP Strategic Plan (2022-2025), The UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025 and the UNDP South Africa Country Programme Document (2020-2025). 

The Country Programme Document also envisions gender and social inclusion as cross-cutting themes and has therefore employed a gender and social inclusion mainstreaming approach in all its key priority programmes: i) Inclusive growth, ii) Nature, Climate and Environment and ii) Democratic Governance and Public Service Delivery as well as in its innovation, monitoring and evaluation approaches. However, gender is also considered as a goal in its own right and there are also dedicated gender stand-alone projects. The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and social inclusion are central to the mandate of UNDP and intrinsic to its development approach and are vital to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring that no one is left behind. 

The role of the Country Office Communications Unit is to adopt UNDP’s global communication strategy to a local context and the Country Office development priorities. Through the production of high-quality communication materials and innovative use of relevantly targeted communication channels (internal and external), the communications team works collaboratively to position UNDP as a leader in the development arena, promote visibility of UNDP program outcomes/development results, mobilize support for Sustainable Development Goals in the country, including through communication for behavior change, and practice delivery as one UN. Gender equality and mainstreaming can largely be achieved through effective communication of its objectives and good practices that will contribute to change.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Resident Representative (RR), the Communication Specialist implements the corporate communications strategy, designs, manages and facilitates the implementation of the Country Office communications and publication strategies with a view to influence the development agenda, promote public and media outreach and mobilize political and financial support for UNDP. Additionally, the Communication Specialist will use communication methods and tools to integrate UNDP’s policies and programmes on gender, social inclusion with a focus on strategic partnerships and knowledge management. 

The Communications Specialist supervises and leads the communications staff of the country office and has a strong regular working relationship with the Regional Communications and Gender Advisers. The Communications Specialist works in close collaboration with the CO Programme, Operations and project teams, staff of other UN Agencies, UNDP Communications staff in the Region and HQ, government officials, international and local media, subject matter experts, donors, and civil society to ensure successful implementation of UNDP’s communication strategy.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration
 

• Plan and elaborate communication needs assessments for the country office (projects, country programme and corporate change initiatives);
• Lead communication program in the country office and work closely with country office senior management to ensure communication strategies support achievement of CPD targets. Develop a yearly communications action plan in line with the overarching strategy;
• Provide constructive and timely advice on inclusion of communications components in programme and projects formulations to integrate advocacy and communication strategies into all aspects of UNDP’s development programmes;
• Promote and facilitate increased coverage and understanding of the UNDP’s work in the country or practice area through local and global media stories as guided by the UNDP External Communications Action Plan.

• Identify and develop storylines for publications and substantive articles that contribute to and generate conversations on key development issues, with particular emphasis on gender;
• Coordinate and manage all CO publication activities, including content management in line with corporate guidelines, ensuring that are gender sensitive;
• Liaison with journalists and other communication counterparts for better UNDP visibility.

3.) Lead UNDP digital communications in country office for wider reach through social media, web site, intranet, and CO web-based knowledge management system.

• Design the country office strategy for digital communications; 
• Maintain close contact with the global web management team to ensure the design of the country office’s website is in line with corporate requirements;
• Supervise the content for different digital platforms that includes the country office website and social media to ensure consistency of materials and gender sensitiveness; 
• Monitor public engagement on different social media platforms.

• Manage and promote advocacy activities and disseminate corporate advocacy materials to publicize UNDP mandate/mission, flagship initiatives, and key publications to position UNDP as a thought leader and leading development agency in the country; 
• Create, promote, and maintain public information campaigns on issues including UNDP activities, Sustainable Development Goals, and UN Reform in association with other staff from Business Development Team to increase the visibility of UNDP’s work, mobilize resources, and influence support from stakeholders in achievement of UNDP goals;
• Develop and maintain close contacts with government officials, donors, civil society, and private sector as part of the country office communication strategy;
• Push UNDP’s Campaign and Advocacy Agenda in country office’s UN Communications Group to make sure this is part of “One UN” agenda.

• Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to programme country goals and activities; 
• Provide substantive and sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice including corporate communications repositories;
• Organize and provide training, consultancy, and advice to UNDP staff on internal and external knowledge management; 
• Oversee maintenance of UNDP’s Intranet on country office activities for internal knowledge sharing, and the sharing of relevant knowledge products with external stakeholders through the corporate website; 
• Work with the Programme teams to ensure all knowledge products are captured, updated, readily available and in the right order, as and when necessary;
• Support the development and dissemination of high-quality knowledge products, evidence-based good practices, among others, including by providing technical guidance and quality assurance to content development

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 Management: Portfolio Management   

• Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment

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.

General (across the functions): Event Planning and Execution       

• Ability to plan, manage and execute public and private events to ensure that they support and amplify individual communications and advocacy initiatives, as well as UNDP’s overall brand and mandate.

Communications: Advocacy Strategy and Implementation             

• Ability to create and implement advocacy strategies which lead to impactful change

Communications: Brand & Quality Management 

• Ability to position a UNDP brand and uphold it to a high level of quality

Communications: Campaign Management           

• Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns which lead to impactful change.