The Strategic Partnerships Division (SPD) works to strengthen UN Women’s position as a partner of choice for gender equality and the empowerment of women (GEWE) among governments and private sector actors around the world. The Division does this by positioning GEWE in the intergovernmental and multilateral fora, and engaging with governments and private sector corporations, foundations and individuals as policy, programme and resource partners.

The Communications and Advocacy Section at UN Women Headquarters in New York supports the positioning of women’s empowerment and gender equality as key issues on the international agenda and establishes UN Women’s role as the global authority in this context. The Communications and Advocacy team’s key focus is to position UN Women as a visible thought and action leader in both development and humanitarian settings, to secure global support for its issues and to build the UN Women brand.

The purpose of this post is to contribute to that goal by:

• Strategically engaging media and other partners to amplify the voice, results, leadership and messages of UN Women among target audiences
• Improving the capacity of UN Women to scale up media relations at national, regional and global levels, ensuring consistency between the levels
• Systematically communicating compelling stories and data to media and other audiences
• Ensuring that messages on key issues are aligned and duplication of communication efforts is minimized.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Deputy Chief, Communications & Advocacy, the Media Relations Specialist is responsible for developing, managing, implementing and monitoring global media strategies with a focus on UN Women’s portfolio and dedicated campaigns. The Media Relations Specialist supervises junior staff of the media team, including consultants and provides expert guidance on media relations to UN Women communication staff globally. The Media Relations specialist works in close coordination with the social media specialist and website editor and as a key member of the wider UN Women communication and advocacy team.

• Develops a media engagement strategy for UN Women in close cooperation with relevant internal stakeholders.
• Oversees the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of the media engagement strategy.
• Ensure that UN Women has a well maintained and continually developed contact list of journalists and media outlets. covering all media – print, TV, radio, web etc. – and a successful process of communicating and maintaining regular contact and close collaboration with the media to communicate the story of UN Women’s cooperation to a wider audience.
• Develop, maintain and update media relations contact list/database.
• Establish, document, review and refine process of communicating with media contacts, including press conferences and events, issuing of media materials etc.
• Collaborate with mass media through media activities, including press conferences, interviews and facilitation of field visits.
• Oversees media monitoring for UN Women; Monitor and evaluate the reach and sentiments of UN Women in the global media, share results and findings.
• Maintain close collaboration with Regional and Country Communications Focal Points for effective overall coordination.

2. Develop and distribute media materials

• Develops and distributes media materials, including press releases, media advisories, Op-Eds and media kits.
• Develops talking points on key programmatic areas for UN Women in close coordination with programme units.
• Develop and pitch news and feature ideas and secure coverage in print, broadcast, online and digital media.
• Ensure rapid and accurate information dissemination to the media, partners, the field and other appropriate audiences.
• Proactively identifies news angles, packages and pitches key content pieces to media; Identify, develop, distribute and evaluate variety of media materials in multiple, appropriate formats. Ensure or enhance the quality, appropriateness of specific communication materials, activities, processes and messages transmitted to the press, partners and public.

3. Design and implement global media campaigns

• Develop global media campaigns in close coordination with regional offices, country offices and UN Women national committees to generate positive coverage on UN Women’s priority issues.
• Support the development of regional and country office communication capacity to gather/facilitate the content and coverage of relevant country efforts. Use the opportunity to identify/highlight effective programme activities and results.
• Ensure regular communication and co-ordination with relevant communication focal points in regional and country offices and headquarters divisions.
• Supports the organization and coordination of press conferences and facilitates interviews with senior managers and thematic focal points.

4. Provide expert guidance on media engagements

• Provide recommendations on whether and what type of media engagement strategy and approach is required (e.g., reactive, press release, integrated package, news note, key facts etc.), with the decision taking into account relevance, reputational risk, timing, audience, reach, effectiveness, branding, consistency and relationship with partners.
• Proactively mitigates and manages reputational risks and supports on crisis communications in close coordination with senior management.
• Advise and support UN Women Spokespeople in their media interactions, including senior leadership, as needed.
• Provides technical guidance on media relations to regional and field offices.

5. Capacity building and support

• Advise UN Women management and personnel on all aspects of media relations communication as needed.
• Ensure opportunities are identified and addressed for building media relations capacity among Communications Community of Practice, media and other relevant partners.
• Advise UN Women management and personnel on media engagement strategy and implications for action and policies proposed.
• Enable appropriate media training, access to information, supplies and equipment, and developing training and orientation material.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen the media relations capacity of partners through appropriate advocacy and communication training.

6. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The incumbent co-leads the media team, which includes supervising 2 affiliate personnel.

• 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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of media relations, including state-of-the art methodologies and tools.
• Superior writing and editing skills, especially under time pressure.
• Demonstrated stakeholder engagement and networking skills with internal and external audiences.
• Experience in reputational risk mitigation and management.
• Demonstrated experience in shaping global media agendas.
• Initiative and sound judgment.

• Master’s degree in communications, media, journalism, public relations, international relations, or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience     

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in communications at the international level, with a focus on media relations is required.
• Experience in using professional media monitoring software and mass mailing tools required.
• Experience in designing and implementing effective media relations on complex development issues.
• Experience in producing content for a global news media audience is required.
• Demonstrated experience in working with journalists from top tier international media across sectors, channels and geographies and achieving impactful news and feature coverage is required.
• Demonstrated experience conceiving and managing communications and media projects, including global media campaigns is required.

Desirable

• Experience in international development, gender equality and the empowerment of women, human rights, humanitarian action
• Active personal network of media contacts
• Embraces modern methods of PR and media management
• Experience communication from or about humanitarian crisis situations

Languages

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is highly desirable.

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/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc   Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

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.