The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities, and countries to create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage land degradation and drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on a sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. Land also plays a key role in the prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, securing rural livelihoods and creating green jobs, supporting community resilience and maintaining the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. The functions of the secretariat are, among others, to make arrangements for sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and its subsidiary bodies. In addition, the secretariat also provides assistance to Parties in implementing the Convention. The Communications, External Relations and Partnerships (CERP) Unit supports the mandate of UNCCD by providing an overall strategic direction on communications, external relations and partnerships, underpinned by innovation and the use of effective tools. It leads and coordinates UNCCD’s engagement with key stakeholders and builds partnerships to mobilize corporate resources and raise the visibility of land issues on the political and public agendas. Furthermore, it acts as the UNCCD brand guardian, leading global strategic communication at corporate and programmatic levels, nurturing creativity and ambition to reach new audiences with world-class, science-based communication and advocacy. IDRA is a collaborative platform to generate political momentum and action to support countries, cities, and communities to combat drought proactively. The alliance will promote effective and efficient preparedness and adaptation measures that go beyond disaster response to reduce vulnerability to drought. The alliance seeks to act as a global facilitator for drought management focused on systemic risk. To reduce systemic risks and avoid new ones, there must be a shift from dealing reactively with drought impacts to getting ahead of the curve and addressing underlying risk drivers. Socioeconomic and environmental vulnerability of exposed systems must be reduced and impacts of land degradation, biodiversity loss climate change mitigated as part of a transition from reactive to prospective and proactive risk management.
Under the direct supervision of the Chief of CERP Unit the consultant will perform the following duties:
Develop and implement a media engagement plan for Spanish-speaking audiences around key moments, including UN Water Conference, Desertification and Drought Day and COP16, in alignment with the overall communication strategy
• Liaise internally and externally, as directed, to identify newsworthy and regional angles on key Convention issues, Suggest and develop new print and multimedia content for Spanishspeaking audiences, including case studies, feature stories, interviews etc.
• Prepare necessary materials (key messages, press releases, op-eds, media advisories, etc.) in Spanish or other languages as may be required;
• Proactively pitch Spanish-speaking media, including the creation of story ideas and thought leadership pieces to pique media interest;
• Coordinate media outreach activities around key events, including liaising with Spanishspeaking spokespeople, including UNCCD leadership, experts and key decision-makers, prepare talking points for spokespeople and coordinate interviews;
• As required, translate or adapt content from English or other languages into Spanish, adhering to UN editorial standards,
• Support an analysis of Spanish-speaking media coverage, including key message penetration, spokespeople quoted and estimated earned media cost;
• Manage follow-up interviews and public inquiries; and
• Perform other project-related tasks as may be needed.
The service of the selected consultant is estimated to be for 60 days between February and December 2024. This contract is home-based, and payment is upon received deliverables. All products resulting from this contractual arrangement are the exclusive property of the UNCCD. The consultant must be in possession of all the equipment and software necessary to conduct this work. The UNCCD will not purchase any equipment. Candidates are kindly requested to specify in their applications the software and equipment that will be used to carry out this assignment.
The deadline of application is 9 Feb 2024.