Republic of Moldova

National Consultant on Communications to Support the Equality Council

Vacancy Number: Pr15/00894

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	08 Apr 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	12 Apr 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	20 Apr 2015
Reference to the project:	Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations
Expected Duration of Assignment:	April 2015 – September 2016 (up to 100 working days with possibility of extension)
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than 8 April 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: natalia.voronova@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Background

The Republic of Moldova is a State-party to the majority UN and CoE human rights treaties. The National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011-2014 contains commitments to protect and advance specific human rights taking into account the recommendations of the UN treaty bodies and a number of UPR recommendations. Related priorities and commitments are established under the UN-Moldova Partnership Framework (UNPF) 2013-2017. Reform of the National Human Rights Institutions is prioritized at the highest level of government. The Equality Council is one of the two major national human rights institutions in the Republic of Moldova working specifically on the issues of equality and non-discrimination.

In May 2012 the Moldovan parliament passed the Law on Ensuring Equality, which is intended to cover all grounds for discrimination in line with the international commitments of the Republic of Moldova. The law provides for the establishment of the Council on the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality (Equality Council), which is a collegial body established to ensure protection against discrimination and ensure equality of all persons who consider themselves to be victims of discrimination.

The Equality Council is a newly established institution operating in the widespread environment of discriminatory views and is in need of capacity building in the pro-active approach on the exercise of their functions in human rights and equality spheres, including in monitoring, documentation, reporting, education, litigation, campaigning, etc. Therefore the development and successful implementation of the Communication Strategy of the Equality Council (hereinafter Strategy) and Communication Action Plan is needed. The elaboration of the effective Strategy and its implementation will contribute to the timely access to information by professionals, members of the public, civil society and relevant national and international stakeholders to the decisions and other information, will increase the transparency, accountability and visibility of the Equality Council.

The overall objective of the Project “Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations” is to contribute to the effective protection and promotion of human rights, equality and non-discrimination in the Republic of Moldova with particular attention to women, minorities, marginalised and vulnerable groups. The Project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, co-funded and implemented by the UNDP Moldova and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with the Ombudsperson Office and the Equality Council.

Scope of work

The scope of work of the National Consultant is three-fold: 1) Updating the Communication Strategy and relevant Action Plan, 2) Coaching of the Equality Council Press Officer, and 3) Ensure Project’s visibility. 

In order to achieve the objective the National Consultant will:

1)      For the Equality Council:

• Conduct an assessment of the Council’s current outreach activities, tools and capacities in view of the existing Communication Strategy including a review of news articles and press clippings, media environment on the Council and public opinion of the Council’s outreach activities;
• Update the Communication Strategy and the relevant Action Plan for the Council to ensure mainstreaming of minorities, vulnerable groups, gender and human rights based approach (HRBA) as well as inclusion of the following into the Strategy and Action Plan:
  • Internal and external communication systems and tools to be used by the Council to improve its communications;
  • Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) modalities in order to measure progress and results of suggested activities a set of indicators should be developed, with targets and baseline data;
  • Web-site development, improvement and updates;
  • Use of social networks and media.

• Provide Training and coaching for Press Officer on topics related to internal and external communication, mass-media mobilization, strategy implementation, drafting of press-releases, work with web-site and social networks, etc.;
• Engage the relevant Equality Council staff persons and work closely with them throughout the assignment for the purposes of their capacity building relevant to implementation of the Communication Strategy and Action Plan;

2)      For the Project:

• Elaborate and implement Project’s Communication and Visibility Plan;
• Ensure compliance with the UNDP corporate rules and regulations in the field of communication and visibility promotion and reporting;
• Coordinate and provide support in the implementation of public awareness campaigns and events foreseen by the Project;
• Coordinate the communication and visibility aspects of the Grants Programme 2015 implementation, assist the grantees (about 6 civil society organizations and 6 mass media organizations) in any communication and visibility issues, work with them to ensure Project’s and donors’ visibility, supervise the application by the grantees of the visibility guidelines and rules;
• Collaborate with any other relevant stakeholders throughout the whole period of the assignment;
• Prepare periodical reports on communication/media activities and contribute to the Project’s reporting in part of communication and visibility issues;
• Submit periodic narrative and activity reports;
• Undertake any other related tasks requested on an ad hoc basis. 

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

  I      Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in communication, journalism, social sciences, public affairs, political science, and international relations or any other relevant field;

 II      Years and sphere of experience: 

• At least 5 years of experience in the elaboration of communication strategies, action plans and their implementation or in the elaboration and implementation of other documents related to public relations;

III     Competencies:

• Proven experience in designing and implementation of public communication strategies, action plans or other documents;
• Solid understanding of and ability to apply communications tools and techniques, including the ability to analyse and use research data;
• Strong management skills in the planning and financial management of communication work and a proven record of achieving results;
• Proven experience in drafting studies and reports;
• Extensive knowledge and experience in the political, social, and cultural issues in Moldova;
• Knowledge of the activity of the Equality Council and challenges it faces in its work would be a strong asset;
• Experience in good governance, human rights, transparency, accountability or similar work would be an advantage;
• Knowledge of Romanian and Russian languages;
• Knowledge of English would be a strong advantage;
• Knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset; 

IV     Personal qualities: responsibility, creativity, flexibility and punctuality.

• Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations; in particular, is respectful of differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status;

The UNDP Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information in Romanian, Russian or English to demonstrate their qualifications: 

1. Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form/P11) including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained and names of 3 reference persons and their contacts;
2. Cover letter, which should include:

(i)  A list of strategies, action plans, needs assessments, capacity building activities/trainings, reports, analysis documents or other task related activities and documents the candidate has elaborated or contributed to;

(ii)  Financial proposal (in USD, specifying a daily fee amount).

Financial proposal

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Payments will be made on the basis of the periodic reports and timesheets submitted to the UNDP Moldova Justice and Human Rights Programme Analyst. 

Travel 

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. 

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. 

No travel costs are envisaged under this assignment.

 

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