Creative Writer/ Storyteller

In response to the request of the Government of Ukraine, UNOPS opened an office in Ukraine in 2017, which provides a broad spectrum of services to the Government and the people of Ukraine. Currently, the country office has a portfolio of projects exceeding USD 100 million, in the areas of rule of law, environment, energy efficiency, crisis recovery, good governance, human resources management, procurement, and logistics. 

UNOPS mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve peace and sustainable development. 

UNOPS vision is a world where people can live full lives supported by appropriate, sustainable and resilient infrastructure and by the efficient, transparent use of public resources in procurement and project management.

The main objective of the assignment is to translate programme results into powerful compelling human stories related to UNOPS Ukraine main areas of work.  

Under the direct supervision of the UNOPS Communications Officer, the consultant is expected to produce a number of human stories (in English and Ukrainian) demonstrating UNOPS’ impact on the ground.

The stories will be disseminated through UNOPS communication channels, including but not limited to web site social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter) etc.

The Consultant will carry out the following activities:

• Review the background documents provided by UNOPS to obtain a better understanding of the goals and context to follow when developing the products. Meet with communication and business development officers to discuss potential storylines. Develop the concept and detailed work plan identifying timelines, activities and determined deliverables for the period of assignment in consultation with UNOPS Communications Officer and submit to UNOPS for approval.

• Identify success stories and gather engaging and compelling stories/content, both by the desk review and by interviews with men/women selected to be portrayed in the storytelling project.
• Turn scientific content and human voices into personalized human stories the audience will relate to the style of stories should be catchy, avoiding jargon and technical words.   It is also important to capture the subject in their daily action or engaged in an activity that helps construct the story. Stories should also focus on the process of change, finding positive solutions and/or overcoming challenges.
• With an emphasis on strong writing, contextualize and design visual, text-based content as well as tailor and package key messages to be communicated to suit the audience. Ensure that the content clearly communicates the message and ensure content and message are consistent.
• Provide UNOPS with first drafts of the success human stories for comments/feedback by agreed deadline.
• Supplement the success human stories with photos and ensure their following photo quality and approach: photo files size should be around 3MB or more at 300 dpi. The consultant must obtain advance consent from subjects to photograph and/or record them.
• Provide UNOPS with revised drafts for comments / feedback by agreed deadline.
• Ensure timely incorporation of feedback received from UNOPS into final drafts.
• Develop a final report covering the whole assignment, followed with all relevant Annexes with all outputs produced.

To ensure the delivery of the above tasks, the Consultant will:

• Liaise and ensure constant communication/coordination with UNOPS communications and business development team regarding all aspects of the assignment;
• Submit all the deliverables for review, comments and approval to UNOPS communications and business development teams as requested;
• Hold consultations with UNOPS communications and business team as requested.
• Extensive travel within Ukraine will be required.  Cost of travel will be covered separately in accordance with existing UNOPS policies.

Deliverables and Timeframe

The timeframe and deliverables of the assignment are as follows:

Deliverable 1 - 15 days from the contract start date:

• Review of the background documents and consultations completed. Detailed concept and plan of activities with the timetable for the assignment/field visits prepared, submitted to and approved by UNOPS communications and business development teams. The plan should also contain short outline per each story planned, including person (s) to be interviewed, place, angle/theme of the story, highlights etc.            

Deliverable 2 - 45 days from the contract start date:

• Relevant scientific/project material reviewed and interviews with people to be featured in at least 10 storytelling projects conducted.
• High quality audio recording of all the interviews taken for writing the story and transcript shared with UNOPS.
• At least 10 compelling evidence-based human stories in English and Ukrainian with high-quality photos produced and submitted to UNOPS communications and business development teams for comments/ feedback. 
• The feedback / comments received from UNOPS incorporated into final drafts.
• Upon addressing comments/feedback from UNOPS produce and present UNOPS communications and business development teams final drafts of at least 10 human interest stories and relevant photos. The final report covering the whole assignment followed with all the relevant Annexes provided to UNOPS.   

Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in this Terms of Reference as follows:

• 30% of contract total value will be paid upon completion of the Deliverables 1 per TOR.
• 70 % of contract total value will be paid upon completion of the Deliverable 2 as per TOR.

Monitoring/Reporting Requirements

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UNOPS Communications Officers.

The consultant will interact with supervisors to receive any clarifications and guidance that may be needed. The Consultant will duly inform supervisors of any problems, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

UNOPS will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the work. The satisfactory completion of each of the deliverables shall be subject to the endorsement of the Communications Officers. Each deliverable will be delivered in a draft for comments and feedback as per timeframe before finalization. No reports or documents should be published or distributed to third parties without the written approval of UNOPS.

The Consultant will duly inform Communications Officers of, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

All reports and results are to be submitted to the UNOPS communications team in electronic form (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, and *.pdf or other formats accepted by UNOPS). The language of the materials and reports is Ukrainian and English.

Intellectual Property

All outputs produced under this ToR shall remain the property of the UNOPS who shall have exclusive rights over their use. The products shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever format without written permission of UNOPS.

• Master’s degree in journalism & media, public relations, communications, linguistics, social sciences or other relevant disciplines.
• A bachelor’s degree in the above disciplines with two years of additional relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a master’s degree.

• With master's degree at least 3 years or with bachelor's degree at least 5 years of relevant experience in journalism, development communication, copy writing of human-centred stories and/or storytelling or similar field;
• Excellent storytelling/ writing skills and ability to translate expert knowledge in language that can be understood by non-expert audiences proven by record (portfolio) of at least 5 published articles, human-centred success stories and/or other relevant publications;
• Familiarity with the issues related to the international development (education or at least 1 year working experience in the related field) would be a strong advantage.
• Previous relevant experience with UN Agencies, international organisations or donors would be an asset.

• Fluency in  written and spoken English and Ukrainian is required.

Contract type: Local ICA Specialist (LICA), Lump sum
Contract level: LICA 9
Contract duration: Short-term ICA – up to 60 days in duration.


THIS IS A LOCAL POSITION FOR WHICH ONLY APPLICANTS WITH UKRAINIAN NATIONALITY OR WITH THE RESIDENCY/WORK PERMIT IN UKRAINE ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONSIDERATION. 

Please note that fees are liable to national income tax.


For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:

https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx 

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time. 
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified. 
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. 
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. 
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.