1. POSITION(S) VACANT: Communication Analyst - State Resource Centre, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Patna, Bihar

2. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND:

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN organization working for reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is supporting the Government of Bihar (GoB) and Bihar State Madarsa Education Board (BSMEB) in the implementation of the Adolescence Education Program (Talim-i-Naubalighan) in Government-affiliated Madarsas of Bihar. The project seeks to enhance the knowledge and skills of Madarsa adolescents through age and context-specific learning materials, training of teachers, and strengthening of systems. The pilot phase of this intervention was initiated in 2019 across 373 Madarsas in Purnea and Katihar Districts.

With support from the Department of Minority Welfare, the Government of Bihar, and under the leadership of BSMEB, the project is being upscaled in 34 districts of Bihar, covering approximately 2500 government-affiliated Madarsas and covering 1.2 lakh adolescents in Madarsas annually. The age and context-specific teaching will be introduced from Grade VI to X through the cascade approach of training led by a State Resource Centre and supported by 10 Regional Resource Centres (RRC/ Regional Markaz) and 40 Madarsa Resource Centres (MRC/ Madarsa Markaz) over three years.

A high-level Empowered Committee constituted by the Government of Bihar will oversee the implementation of the project. UNFPA will provide technical assistance and systems strengthening for the project.

A 3-tier institutional structure is envisaged to implement the Adolescence Education Program (Talim-i-Naubalighan) an SRC at the state level, supported by 10 Regional Resource Centres (Regional Markaz) covering 200 Madarsas each, further down to 40 Madarsa Resource Centre (Madarsa Markaz) covering 40 Madarsas each.

Located at the Ghulam Sarwar Memorial (Haj Bhawan), Patna, the SRC is envisaged to be the state-level technical and managerial apex body for implementing Talim-i-Naubalighan and will work under the BSMEB and the Department of Minority Welfare through UNFPA. SRC will provide administrative, managerial, and technical directions and inputs for achieving the objectives of Talim-i-Naubalighan.

The SRC is in its formative phase and will be strengthened with the technical support of UNFPA and its partners. Hence, at present, the SRC will function with the supportive supervision of UNFPA.

Once enabled with an institutional structure, full-fledged team, Standard Operating Procedure, management framework, as well as a result and resources framework. The dedicated team placed at the SRC will gradually lead, manage, guide and oversee the implementation of Talim-i-Naubalighan in the following ways:

(a) Establish formal linkages with Madarsa Markaz and strengthen/expand the existing interventions;

(b) Analyse Policy and Programmatic Gaps in the strengthening of the Madarsa System and undertake policy formulation (E.g. Madarsa Board is under the Department of Education while Funds for minorities comes under the Department of Minority Welfare);

(c) Advocate with relevant government departments for necessary policy shifts/formulations and programmatic reforms;

(d) Communication, Knowledge Management and Partnerships;

(e) Improve governance systems in Madarsa Education System;

(f) Coordination with other government departments;

(g) Regular review and updation of course curriculum;

(i) Capacity building

As mentioned above, MRCs are being developed with the technical support of UNFPA and its partners as the first point of contact for all Madarsas as their administrative and technical hubs. They have a dedicated team to strengthen the capacities of Madarsas for addressing various issues of adolescents by providing continuous training/ capacity building to the Nodal Teachers in Madarsas, and by mentoring and handholding - their primary responsibilities. They will collect data for MIS, endeavor to develop creative expressions for adolescents in Madarsas, and will provide health-related counselling, career guidance support, etc.

The intermediary institutional structure between the state-level SRC and 40 MRCs is that of 10 RRCs (which cover 200 Madarsas each). Their primary responsibility is to enhance the effectiveness of SRC by decentralizing management, assuring quality of the AEP, and providing supportive supervision to the MRCs. As technical hubs, they will collate and verify data for MIS collected by MRCs, guide and coordinate the activities of MRCs, and engage closely with the MRC teams.

3. JOB DESCRIPTION/ RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting to the Director, SRC and Project Manager, UNFPA, the Communication Analyst (CA) will play a crucial role in eliciting photographs and videos of various field activities from Madrasa, MRCs and RRCs. S/he is expected to curate and manage social media handles, and coordinate with the knowledge management team (Research & Documentation Officer (SRC), MIS associate (SRC), Policy Analyst (SRC), and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer (UNFPA).

S/he will support the team in writing, editing, and proofreading memos, press releases, online articles, brochures, and other communication materials. S/he will also design various collaterals (quarterly project magazine, monthly newsletters, centre exhibits, brochures, online blogs.)

Key Job Responsibilities.

(1) Design communication products and outreach strategies including organising public events, roundtables, panel discussions for AEP to enhance the credibility, visibility, and effectiveness of its advocacy initiatives at the state and national levels in close coordination with Policy Analyst;
(2) Assess communications needs and priorities for the AEP/ SRC, refine and adapt communications and outreach strategy from time to time;

(3) Build a strong digital presence for the project’s work in consultation with Director and Project Manager;
(4) Support the planning, organizing, and execution of thematic campaigns (offline and online) aligning with the programmes’ communication and advocacy strategies;

(5) Generate story ideas/ content pieces/ videos/ short film, and coordinate with program sectors and national/ international individuals/ agencies to build case studies;

(6) Support social media engagements by tracking, coordinating, and developing digital content/posts and regularly tracking relevant news stories in state media, submit a monthly news analysis and a detailed state annual media report;
(7) Draft concise and informative documentation in English/ Hindi/ Urdu for a range of uses from detailed progress reports to media releases including ability to analyse complex information and to draw out the key points and issues and to present these in a way that can be easily understood;

(8) Periodically update the SRC database of journalists for state and maintain liaison with critical media houses/media-persons;

(9) Train project staff to develop communication strategy and guide them to capture the quality images and videos from the project activities;

(10) Any other tasks assigned on priority basis by the supervisors.

4. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:

Qualification:
Applicant must have Master's degree in Mass Communication/ Journalism/ Media Relations or equivalent

Experience:

(1) Minimum four years of relevant work experience;

(2) Prior experience of managing media and communications in an education/ gender-based NGO or media agency will be preferred;

Skills and Competencies:

(1) Fluency in written and spoken Urdu is mandatory;

(2) Sound written and oral communication skills in Urdu, English and functional knowledge (verbal and written) of Hindi would be highly preferred;

(3) Proficient in designing software such as Corel draw, Photoshop or online tools like Canva;

(4) Additional skills of working on mass mailing platforms are preferable and ability to produce digital content;

(5) News article pieces (including print, broadcast, photography, video, layout & graphics);

(6) Video production for digital platforms (including news organizations);

(7) Web publishing and content management;

(8) MS-Drafting, Documentation, Data Presentation;

(9) Ability to work with a diverse group/ setting and manage parallel tasks and deliver on time to meet internal and external deadlines.

5. NATURE OF ENGAGEMENT:

The Communication Analyst shall be hired on a consultancy contract through Strategic Alliance Management Services P Ltd. (SAMS), a respected HR Agency.

6. REMUNERATION:

The consolidated remuneration for the position ranges between Rs. 60,000 per month and will commensurate with experience and salary history of the candidate.

7. LOCATION: State Resource Centre, Haj Bhawan, Patna, Bihar

8. DURATION: The successful candidate shall be issued successive consultancy contracts for a period of one year by UNFPA’s third-party payrolling partner(s).

The initial contract from the date of joining till December 31, 2022, shall be issued by SAMS. The subsequent contract for the balance period shall be issued by SAMS and/or UNFPA’s successor third-party payrolling partner.

9. REFERENCE: CA-UNFPA-BR

10. CONTACT INFORMATION:

Team SAMS
Strategic Alliance Management Services P Ltd.
1/1B, Choudhary Hetram House, Bharat Nagar 
New Friends Colony, New Delhi 110 025
Phone Nos.: 011- 4081 9900; 4165 3612

11. APPLICATION PROCESS:

Eligible candidates interested in the position are requested to apply using the link https://recruitment.samshrm.com/Jobs/UNFPA, by or before January 31, 2023.