Back Communications Specialist

Background Information - Myanmar

UNOPS Myanmar is one of UNOPS leading offices in Asia, acting as fund manager for three of the largest development programmes in the country. In addition, UNOPS Myanmar is Principal Recipient for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Myanmar and Cambodia, and for the Global Fund’s Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative targeting drug resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong sub-region. UNOPS provides procurement, infrastructure and project management services to a wide range of organizations in the country, including the Government of Myanmar, international development partners, other UN agencies, NGOs and INGOs. UNOPS Myanmar plays a critical role in ensuring that the quality of services provided to its partners meets stringent requirements of speed, efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Background Information - Job-specific

LIFT is embarking on a new strategic period for 2024-2028. The LIFT 2024-2028 Strategy builds on the achievements of LIFT's experience as well as recent adaptations and learning in the face of a changing and dynamic context. The new Strategy outlines an approach to tackle structural drivers of poverty and vulnerability, while also considering immediate interventions to secure and maintain Myanmar's previous development gains. LIFT has proven itself as a key delivery partner across Myanmar’s changing contexts – ranging from post-Nargis recovery, a time of political transition, and relief support during COVID-19. LIFT is managed by the United Nations Office for Projects Services (UNOPS) and has received funding from 16 international donors. The current donors are the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and Denmark.

Functional Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Fund Director and in close collaboration with the LIFT teams, the Communications Specialist will revise and implement the LIFT Communication Strategy for donor relations, external, internal, and crisis communications.

This includes editorial responsibility for reports, newsletters, minutes, programmatic updates, social media posts, town halls, events, press releases, the LIFT website, and other channels, ensuring the highest quality in all written, graphic, and audio/visual communications content.

The incumbent under this role should liaise with senior management and the Fund Board, to proactively contribute to LIFT being well-positioned to deliver on its 2024-2028 POA, streamlined through Plans of Action and at any time aligning to UNOPS’ global communications strategy and standards.

The Communications Specialist will be supervising a small communications team, and ensure that the entire team works coherently to achieve goals within the agreed framework.

Lead the revision and implementation of the communications strategy and plan

Revise LIFT's communications strategy aligned with the overall UNOPS Myanmar Communications Strategy, by considering the Fund Director and Fund Board inputs and expectations.

Oversee and manage day-to-day communications operations, ensuring that high-quality work is delivered in a timely manner to support core LIFT activities in the best possible way.

Create a tracking framework or method to ensure quality and timely delivery of the plan.

Monitor all communication channels, working with the LIFT teams and management, to facilitate effective reporting, proper templates, access to information, formatted impact accounts, and more.

Ensure that the communications framework supports the overall LIFT activities and goals, adapting when necessary.

Conduct regular communication assessments, to ensure mapping the Programme´s needs.

Create and track the communications budget, ensuring compliance with UNOPS rules and regulations.

Partner with the Fund Director and LIFT´s Leadership for proposal writing, including working on methodologies, creating templates, and continuously improving the process.

Take accurate notes from meetings and FB fora ensuring the incorporation of stakeholder comments to produce final records for adoption.

Team management

Recruit and develop the most qualified and suitable talent for the team, according to the Communications Strategy.

Provide continuous feedback on team deliverables and performance.

Establish weekly checkpoints to track progress on the work plan and ensure covering sensitive/urgent/latest topics on the internal and external communications agenda.

Facilitate capacity-building sessions for the team on trending topics, methodologies, and processes.

Set up personal goals for communication staff, coaching them to perform to the best of their ability, and inspire and help them to develop skills as required by tasks.

Comply with UNOPS Performance Management processes, ensuring the quality of assessments, feedback, and deadlines completion.

Stakeholder management

Identify and develop strong relationships or partnerships with the Programme´s main stakeholders, to enhance strategic alliances and visibility.

Liaise with stakeholders such as the Fund Director, Fund Board, LIFT Senior Management Team, and relevant external stakeholders to ensure understanding and alignment of their needs to produce newsworthy deliverables.

In collaboration with the Fund Director, decide on a framework and process to communicate with Donors and stakeholders, effectively.

Participate in external events, ensuring to represent UNOPS following the highest standards of diplomacy and alignment with LIFT´s communications principles.

Lead on coordinating and formulating communications to the Fund Board, ensuring consistency and quality reporting and other products.

Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned to develop knowledge and build stakeholders' capacity.

Apply innovative approaches to support the implementation and delivery of effective and efficient initiatives.

Participate in capacity-building sessions to enhance the stakeholder´s capacity development.

Enhance a development & learning management culture within your team to ensure sustainable and scalable growth.

Lead capacity development of staff in general and manage the communications unit to drive a high-performing team that strives for quality and development of innovative communications products

A minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in strategic communications work in a global organization is required.

Within those 5 years, a minimum of 3 years of experience in collaborating with senior management on all aspects of strategic or crisis communication, preferably including messaging and media training is required.

Experience leading a team is required.

Experience managing sensitive and complex communication in a corporate or diplomatic context is required.

Experience in advising on and overseeing the production of content for social media and other communications channels is required.

Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (e.g. MS Office newer versions, Google Suite Applications) is required.

Experience supervising and contributing to the production of communication content, including editing, writing, storytelling, and formatting skills is highly desirable.

Experience in training and mentoring colleagues and partners in collecting data and impact stories for internal reports and updates as well as external use is an advantage.

Experience working with the UN or international organizations is highly desirable.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Proficiency in Myanmar languages is an asset.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.

Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.
Terms and Conditions

For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post.

For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses ( they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here.

All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

Note that Yangon, Myanmar is currently classified as a non-family duty station.