Communications Specialist, Humanitarian Response Division; HRD P

The Position:

The Communication Specialist post is based in the Humanitarian Response Division (HRD). The post is located in Geneva. Under the overall supervision of the Emergency Director, the post reports to the Head of the External Relations Unit. The Communication Specialist provides support to HRD in standardizing the humanitarian communication response, increasing visibility for UNFPA’s humanitarian activities and enhancing humanitarian media content in emergency situations.

UNFPA is the lead United Nations agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan for  articulates the organization’s response to a complex global environment, providing a roadmap for resilience and renewal. It is designed to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

This mandate is pursued through a focus on four interconnected outcomes: ending the unmet need for family planning; ending preventable maternal deaths; ending gender-based violence and harmful practices; and adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff who embody these international norms and standards and will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact sustained results, ensuring effective external relations, communications, partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results

The overall purpose of the Humanitarian Response Division (HRD) is to facilitate the delivery of the UNFPA mandate by leading emergency response and supporting humanitarian preparedness actions in increasingly complex humanitarian situations, within globally agreed frameworks (2030 Agenda, Grand Bargain Commitments, Sendai Framework, etc.). The HRD leads in leveraging and increasing effectiveness, efficiency and capacity of UNFPA staff and partners to scale up UNFPA's role as a key global humanitarian leader.

Through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (IASC) and other associated entities, the HRD acts as a point of convergence on humanitarian activities, including policy, coordination, programming, advocacy, field capacity development, resource mobilization, innovation, partnerships, technical guidance and,crucially, thematic integration, ensuring complementarity between humanitarian and development action within the organization.

HRD advocates among humanitarian agencies to include sexual and reproductive health and rights needs and sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response needs and humanitarian concerns and specific needs of women, adolescents and young people into the overall humanitarian preparedness and response frameworks. The HRD facilitates the development of UNFPA capacities to prepare and respond to the emergencies and to ensure the Agency is well equipped to deal with the context of fragility and disaster risk reduction.

The Communications Specialist provides technical support to advance the role of UNFPA in the domain of emergency information management. S/He will maintain strong collaborative partnerships across the organization and with external partners to ensure high-quality information…