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Consultancy - NOB

Communication, Social Media and Website Consultant

28 April 2016
Johannesburg, South Africa
Microsoft Office document icon P11 Personal history form.doc

Purpose of consultancy:

The Southern Africa regional office of the British Department for International Development (DFID) (DFIDSA) agreed to make funding available to support the implementation of the “Preventing Maternal Deaths in East and Southern Africa” (PreMDESA) programme over the period from 9 November, 2015, to 8 November, 2017.

As part of the overall support to the UNFPA ESA Regional Programme, DFID’s funds will also serve to expand the youth engagement platform called TuneMe, already developed under the auspices of the Safeguard Young People Programme. TuneMe.org is a youth engagement platform to be used by adolescents and young people to receive information on sexual and reproductive health. TuneMe.org has a clinic finder component and a feedback system for quality of services in-built. The youth engagement platform can be accessed using any type of phone, not necessarily smart phones. The marketing strategy applied to TuneMe will aim to ensure that the platform is popularised and reaches as many as possible adolescents and young people in order to reach the set target. Such strategy will be operationalized by a dedicated person that will be recruited to strengthen the communication, social media and website based marketing of the youth engagement platform including collaborating on the M&E component using Google analytics and other tools. 

The Communication, Social Media and Website Consultant will support all communication and media related aspects of the Safeguard Young People Programme. He/She will have responsibility for continuously updating and improving the Safeguard Young People website, support the content improvement and design of the TuneMe Mobisite and popularize the Safeguard Young People Programme and the Music Project. He/she will ensure the SYP website content updating is

·       accurate, appropriate, timely, and engaging;

·       conforms to journalistic standards and UNFPA style and branding;

·       provides balance between regional and national level programmes;

·       linked to the other social media and SYP products such as Facebook, Twitter, TuneMe and the music album.

The Social Media and Website Consultant will also ensure that quality content will be regularly created and monitored on the SYP Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Also, the Social Media and Website Consultant will support the popularization of the music album as well as any marketing strategy that will be implemented by both the youth and the communication units.

 Major Activities/Expected Results

 The Social Media and Website Consultant will:

 1. Enhance and populate with content the SYP regional website and support linkages with social media platforms:

·       Ensure that the SYP regional website is operational at all times and accessible from different countries and browsers;

·       Maintain and/or redesign (if needed) the SYP website;

·       Ensure that the SYP website remains attractive and user and young people friendly, with a strategic concept of the placement of content;

·       Develop and implement periodic social media campaigns to attract new regional and global visitors to the website, especially young people;

·       Ensure contribution of SYP countries to the stories of change to be uploaded on the website; 

·      Generate and post news articles from the SYP Programme, other UNFPA Programme activities as well as adolescents and youth-related regional or global news.

2. Coordinate TuneMe Mobisite for UNFPA ESARO

·       Coordinate with Praekelt and Ford Foundations and UNFPA Country Teams;

·       Coordinate technical input into the Mobisite;

·       Provide youth generated and youth-friendly content for TuneMe;

·       Popularize TuneMe through Social Media, SYP Website and other fora;

·       Co-monitor TuneMe with Praekelt Foundation and generate presentations about its reach and effectiveness;

·       Popularize SYP Music Album in TuneME and Website;

·       Write periodic narrative reports on the social media component of the SYP to be integrated in the main Reports submitted by the Regional Coordinator for the donors.

3. Manage Web Projects and Meet Deadlines

·       Establish performance indicators when creating new projects;

·       Ensure that projects meet deadlines, budgets, and standards of technical quality; 

·       Support documentation efforts of the SYP programme both at regional and country level;

·       Contribute to a transparent culture and communicate successes and challenges.

4. Ensure consistent creative and content direction

  • Ensure SYP website is a dynamic, attractive, interactive communications environment making full use of available web and online strategies to attract, broaden and engage the audience;
  • Ensure maximum use of adolescents and youth-generated content;
  • Ensure coverage of important youth events and initiatives on www. safeguardyoungpeople.org;
  • Ensure that all stories and sites on UNFPA’s website are packaged in a compelling format that can be shared across social media platforms;
  • Webcast events;

 5. Reinforce UNFPA’s branding

  • Enhance UNFPA and SYP’s branding;
  • Contribute to a consistent visual image, including uniform fonts, formatting, icons, images, layout techniques, and modularization;
  • Apply consistent graphic design, page layout, templates, banners and logos.

 6. Regional digital presence

·       Develop a social media strategy for SYP including strategies to increase unique users and to increase time spent on the site;

·       Facilitate the integration of all digital media use: website, Facebook, Twitter, TuneMe, etc, in line with the social media strategy; 

·       Ensure coordination of digital media with other UNFPA offices;

·       Support integration of content and platforms for internal communications, in collaboration with other colleagues from both regional and country levels.

 7. Website analytics 

·               Track SYP mention in the digital media and report on trends;

·               Regularly review user metrics to guide decisions about content or structure.

Duration and working schedule:

The contract will be in place from the time of awarding to the 31 of December 2016. It could be renewable based on availability of funds.  

Place where services are to be delivered: 

The Communications, Social Media and Website/Digital Consultant position (CoSM in short) is located within the SRH Unit – Youth Team of East and Southern Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:

The consultant at the beginning of the assignment will have to develop and agree with the SYP team and communication team a road map with clear timelines on how to deliver the proposed tasks in a systematic manner.

The consultant will have to submit a monthly report on all the tasks fulfilled integrating a clear evaluation of all task finalised as we as the one in the process of been concluded or yet to be initiated. The assessment will have to include recommendation and suggestions on how to maintain or improve the communication/social media and website systems/strategies in place. The consultant is expected to highlight lessons learnt and good or promising practices.

Supervisory arrangements: 

The Communications, Social Media and Website/Digital Consultant works under the guidance of the ASRH Policy Advisor and the SYP Regional Coordinator. He/she will collaborate with and align his/her work with the Regional Communications Unit and Advisor.

Expected travel: 

The consultant might be required to travel in the countries implementing TuneMe or in the process of launching the youth engagement platform to support the social media and monitoring evaluation component of it. The number of travels will depend on the requests that ESARO will receive from the countries.

Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements: 

Functional Competencies

·               Ability to produce (write or edit) fresh, accurate, jargon-free copy on deadline;

·               Creating visibility for the organization and the SYP programme;

·               Understanding of adolescents and young people’s sexual and reproductive health and meaningful involvement of young people;

·               Ability to engage adolescents and young people and ensure user generated content;

·               Job Knowledge/Technical expertise;

·               Familiarity with the creation of info-graphics.

Job Requirements:

·       Advanced university degree in multimedia, digital media, communications, or strategic journalism;

·       At least 3 years of relevant professional experience in communication and/or multimedia;

·       Experience with United Nations or an international organization an asset;

·       A track record in managing projects; 

·       Expertise in website maintenance and understanding of modern website standards, communication principles and social media platforms;

·       Knowledge of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health an asset;

·       Initiative and sound judgment, demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with persons of different cultural and national backgrounds;

·       Fluency in English required; knowledge of another UN working language an asset.

All applications should be addressed to The International Operations Manager and sent to the following e-mail address, jobs.esaro@unfpa.org on or before the closing date of 28 April 2016. Please note that completion of the attached P11 form is mandatory. Alternatively, applications can be hand delivered to the following physical address:

UNFPA – ESARO
Sunninghill Place
Block A
9 Simba Road
Sunninghill
Johannesburg