UNICEF International Consultancy - Content Development for Communication Material on Shock Jobs in Malawi
UNICEF International Consultancy - Content Development for Communication Material on Shock Jobs in Malawi
Background Malawi has been hit with consecutive and successive climatic shocks over the last few years. With a low capacity to cope, and little time to recover, the country has witnessed escalating food and nutrition insecurity. In this context, humanitarian food response, most commonly referred to as ‘MVAC’ , has increased considerably, reaching 6.7 million people across 24 of the 28 districts between July 2016 and March 2017. This was the largest and longest response in the country’s history. In 2017, 1,043,000 people in 20 districts have been identified as phase 3 food insecure.
With pre-existing high and chronic levels of food and income insecurity, any shock further negatively impacts the most vulnerable populations. Poor people are among the groups most exposed to and suffering the most from shocks, including drought or floods: Limited livelihood options, resources, and access to services, mean that these households are the least able to withstand shocks, especially without resorting to negative coping mechanisms. Major negative events, particularly rainfall and loss of off-farm employment, contribute to the poor households remaining in their status, and also increase the likelihood of non-poor households falling into poverty.
Social Protection Programmes are currently unable to predictably meet chronic needs and systems are not prepared to effectively expand or facilitate humanitarian interventions in times of crisis. To date, important investments have been made in the social protection sector, but coverage has remained limited, and the system has suffered from insufficient integration in programme design and consistency of programmes’ objectives.
Humanitarian action has in practice been filling the gap by responding to chronic needs which ought to be addressed by social protection systems. In turn, the social protection system hasn’t been leveraged to implement a more cost effective humanitarian response thereby leading to a suboptimal response, drawing on humanitarian budgets, technical expertise, and stretching the positioning of humanitarian actors as non-government stakeholders. The underlying vulnerabilities of Malawi, including chronic levels of food insecurity and high exposure to climate risks, “are an important factor in producing recurrent humanitarian emergencies”. As such, predictable seasonal patterns, and even minor weather variations currently result in humanitarian crisis.
To tackle this issue, efforts have been made by the Government of Malawi, in line with global commitments , to expand the current coverage of the social protection system and better align humanitarian action and social protection. Through the Malawi National Social Support Programme II, the government has made a strong commitment to design and implement a social protection system that: covers more people, provides complementary support to respond to the multiple and compounding needs of the population, and that is sensitive to shocks, i.e. that contributes to mitigate, respond to and recover from shocks, in collaboration with the humanitarian sector. This notably includes the ability of key social protection programmes to temporarily scale up to expand in response to a shock when needs of the population are exceeded and scale back down.
Justification
Shock-sensitive social protection is a topic that has attracted a lot of interest from different actors, within and external to Government, including
from Development Partners, Donors, NGOs and Government Ministries.
Different actors have brought in, and partially operationalized, different approaches towards SSSP that fail to follow a joint understanding in Malawi, despite broad guidance in MNSSP II.
Shock-sensitive social protection is a relatively young concept within UNICEF which requires better communication to fulfil its full potential in linking social protection with humanitarian interventions.
How can you make a Difference?
The successful candidate will be expected to carry out the following key objectives:
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, develop a story-board for a 3-4 minute documentary video, explaining why SSSP is important in the Malawi context, and showcasing the positive effect of Shock-Sensitive Social Protection in Malawi;
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, develop a story-board for a 2-3 minutes animated video explaining briefly what Shock-Sensitive Social Protection (SSSP) is and as an example, how the Malawi Social Cash Transfer Programme already expands vertically in response to shocks, and has the potential to further expand coverage and services in the future, if systems allow;
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains SSSP as a concept in general, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains SSSP as a concept in the Malawi specific context, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF and WFP staff, write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains how the SCTP has scaled up vertically, and can increase coverage and services, including the type of infograph, introduction text (<100 words), headlines and subheadings;
Based on the content for the above infograph (SSSP as a concept in Malawi), write copy and conceptualize an infograph that explains the SDG grant, DFID, and Irish Aid contributions to advancing SSSP in Malawi conceptually, showcasing effective contribution coordination;
Based on technical documents and key informant interviews with UNICEF staff, write a two-pager on UNICEFs position and contribution towards SSSP in Malawi
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Master’s degree in c communications, media, or a related field;
Minimum of 5 years work experience in copywriting with proven experience of developing written content for Development Partners and/or NGOs;
Proven background knowledge on social protection and particularly shock-sensitive social protection is a strong asset;
Demonstrated ability to produce high quality, creative communication materials;
Excellent writing skills and strong communication skills;
Ability to communicate complex content in an easily understandable, engaging and child-friendly manner;
Previous experience in working with UNICEF or other like organizations is an asset;
Excellent command / highly proficient in spoken and written English;
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; UNICEF International Consultancy - Content Development for Communication Material on Shock Jobs in Malawi
Click here to post comments
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Jobs in Malawi.
