MULTI-MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT; Closing date: Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Closing date: Wednesday, 25 February 2015

MULTI-MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT

Advertised on behalf of : United Nations Capital Development Fund

Location : Home-based

Application Deadline : 25-Feb-15

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

09-Mar-2015

Duration of Initial Contract : 145 days

Expected Duration of Assignment : 12 months

Background

UNCDF is supporting an expanding portfolio of programmes in all regions that provide capital resources to local governance processes to enable them to meet the challenges of poverty reduction, the Millennium Development Goals and climate change. These programmes promote local level public financial management and decentralized governance responses to these challenges.

In Asia - Pacific and Africa, the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) aims to promote climate change resilient communities en economies by increasing financing for and investment in climate change adaptation at the local level in least developed countries, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly the specific goals of poverty reduction (MDG1) and environmental sustainability (MDG7).

The LoCAL Global Project was designed to provide access to climate finance for local governments in least developed countries (LDC). The project is based on successful previous UNCDF experiences in public financial management; local investments and performance-based fiscal grants.

Climate change adaptation finance flows to central government agencies, and yet local governments have the mandate to deal with many of the issues directly affected by climate change such as drainage and water management, land use planning, road maintenance and other issues which effect food security, especially in the LDCs. LoCAL transfers grant funds for climate change adaptation to local governments through existing financial and public expenditure management systems, while reinforcing incentives for good performance, building capacity and supporting policy development for climate change adaptation at local level.

Since 2013, LoCAL has been implementing its work in many Asian and African countries such as in Bhutan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Benin, Lao PDR, and Nepal, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Mozambique. Selected local governments receive technical assistance and resources from UNCDF through the implementing partner(s) to test the PBCR grants. Scoping missions were conducted in these countries as well as endorsement from the government in the collaboration with UNCDF on LoCAL. Consequently, it is important to document the outcomes/ impact of the project in the pilot countries, particularly at community level, and publish the findings in a high-quality accessible format suitable for dissemination as background information on the project and for building understanding and sharing experiences to new participating countries. Therefore, the LoCAL Secretariat plans to build upon the findings of the participatory evaluations by carrying out and documenting, in accessible, multi-media formats, cases studies based on the project implementation in selected local government in all countries. This consultancy assignment will contribute to wider visibility of the donors and also the project's future resource mobilization.

The selected Multi-Media Communications consultant will carry out the assignment, and in the case of field work, with support from UNCDF team in the countries of assignment. The consultant will report to LoCAL Project Manager, with guidance and assistance from Partnership and Communications Specialist.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to document and publicise through high-quality print, web and audiovisual media the effectiveness of LoCAL in addressing the impact of climate change on local communities and in building the climate change resilient of local government in countries where the project is being implemented.

Scope of Work

The multi-media consultant will be primarily responsible to develop the story line for the case study, template formats; to conduct the video interviews; to draft the case study materials and to edit the materials and prepare them for publication. The consultant is responsible for all aspects requiring a technical knowledge of web page design.

The consultant will undertake the following tasks

• Provide professional support for LoCAL project, in line with UNCDF communication strategy using a broad range of media, including video, web pages, and social media;
• Design and develop the story line for the case studies for countries as assigned;
• Develop contents for publication of case studies in form of ready-for-printing materials, web-page, and short video segments suitable for download or for presentation in conference events;
• Administer content of e-newsletter and LoCAL websites, including writing of news and stories in coordinate with project team in countries and LoCAL Secretariat;
• Produce content for LoCAL website, including story writing, video segment preparation, produce video segments for website;
• Supports social media initiatives;
• Review findings of participatory evaluation, monitoring, assessment carried out by implementing partner(s) and/or UNCDF and other related documents;
• Prepare draft publication materials and submit to LoCAL Secretariat for review;
• Finalize publication materials following comments from LoCAL Secretariat;
• Provide video interview segments with English sub-titles;
• Identify climate change adaptation websites (in addition to UNCDF in-house websites) on which LoCAL material could be placed, and determine the format requirements for material to be posted on these sites;
• Assist UNCDF to place case study materials on suitable UNCDF and non-UNCDF websites;
• Revise overall promotional materials of LoCAL, i.e. brochure, with insertion of the findings from the case studies;
• Carry out fieldwork including video interviews with key stakeholders including local administrators at the village, district and provincial level, community leaders, citizens in the selected communities, representatives of key donors, and UNCDF officials;
  • Observation on the project implementations
  • Depth interview with the beneficiaries (communities and LoCAL administrators) and other stakeholder
• Undertake video interviews with key participants at the events for website. This include depth interview with the beneficiaries (communities and LoCAL administrators) and other stakeholder including local administrators at the village, district and provincial level, community leaders, citizens in the selected communities, representatives of key donors, and UNCDF officials;
• Film the LoCAL events, interview, prepare scripts for the LoCAL participating countries;
• Responsible for carrying out the filming, cameraman, photographer, equipment in undertaking the assignment.

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station and expected places of travel

Duration: 09 March 2015 to 30 March 2016.

Duty station: Home-based, with travel to LoCAL participating countries.

Number of work days

145 days (including Home-based work days, days for mission, days after field missions, to finalize the reports and update all publication materials). Mission days are subject to actual need but the total work days will not exceed the maximum (145 days). Each mission may involve travel to the field, in cities outside of the capital city, as to be agreed and approved by the hiring project.

Expected places of travel: All LoCAL participating countries.

Final Products

The deliverables of the assignment will be

• High standard of media services and products including LoCAL website fine-tuning (to align with UNCDF website), illustrated web-ready news and stories on progress and achievement of LoCAL, promotional materials, e-newsletter;
• Video segments of length 5 to 10 minutes each covering LoCAL events and individual interviews, with sub-titles where needed and of suitable size to be made available by download from a website or for presentation at conference events;
• Up-to-date LoCAL brochure and other promotional materials, with new findings from case studies;
• Case study materials edited in format suitable for web-page publication;
• Three video segments of length 5 - 10 minutes each presenting the case studies, including English sub-titles where needed, and of suitable size to be made available by download from a website or for presentation at conference events;
• Updated LoCAL short movie with the video segments on case studies;
• A short factual report documenting the activities carried out by the consultants and any lessons learned which may be of use to UNCDF/ LoCAL in undertaking similar initiatives in the future.

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls

The selected Multi-Media Communications consultant will carry out the assignment, and in the case of field work, tasks in collaboration with and support from UNCDF country team in the countries of assignment. The consultant will report to LoCAL Project Manager, with guidance and assistance from Partnership and Communications Specialist.

Deliverables shall be submitted to the LoCAL Project Manager.

Payment will be made after each submission of products with satisfactory rating by the supervisor

Competencies

Functional competencies

• Excellent drafting skills;
• Ability to deliver high quality synthesis papers by set deadlines (requiring minimal editing);
• Strong presentation and communication skills;
• Strong planning and coordination skills

Corporate competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• University degree in a relevant subject;
• Master's level is preferred.

Experience

• At least five (5) years of experience in producing and editing development communications products in a variety of media;
• Expertise in production of short video segments;
• Expertise in production of publicity materials for web page publication;
• Previous experience and understanding of local development, preferably in climate change issues;
• Knowledge of the context of rural targeted countries preferred;

Languages

• Fluency in English is required.

Evaluation Scoring

• Technical evaluation based on competencies, experience and education (70%);
• Financial evaluation based on daily fee quoted by applicant (30%).

Total score: 100%.

Application Requirements

• Offeror's letter confirming interest and availability form can be found here: http://uncdf.org/en/hiring-consultants;
• Updated CV;
• Daily fee.,

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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.