Vacancies

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CONSULTANT VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
Issued on: 12 April 2016

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the United Nations agency for Human Settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. As the United Nations focal point on human settlements, UN-Habitat will lead advocacy efforts to raise awareness of sustainable urbanization issues; provide evidence-based policy advice; build capacities; develop tools, norms and standards based on best practices; work on demonstration projects and provide assistance to national Governments, local authorities and other public institutions responsible for urban issues.

UN-Habitat aim to establish a number of communities of practices on various themes related to its sub-programmes starting with few pilots. A Communities of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who share common interest, concerns or a set of problems in a topic and who come together to fulfil both individual and group goals. The CoP provides a forum for sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practices. Interaction on an on-going basis is an important part of this. Many virtual communities of practices rely on face-to-face meetings as well as web-based collaborative environments to communicate, connect, and conduct community activities. A consultant is required to assist in the management of developed platform for the above under the following terms of reference;

RESPONSIBILITIES

The vacancy is located in the Programme Division in collaboration with the Knowledge Management Support Unit of the Management and Operations Division.
Under the Supervision of Head Knowledge Management Support Unit, and the Administration Oversight of the Programme Division; the incumbent’s responsibilities include:

• Management of the web based UN-Habitat Internal Experts database: adding new users, updating information, etc.;
• Moderate content for features on the Best Practices Database platform checking quality assurance of material posted and provide user support as required;
• Carry out quality assurance on the content published on best practices for better optimization and user engagement;
• Develop content for different communities on the platform for effective engagement required, create awareness on the developed content and disseminate appropriately;
• Manage users to understand their content requirements, and encourage engagement with their relevant communities;
• Ensure timely responses of questions raised on different communities including guiding the posting of documents and images, and coordination of translation work as appropriate;
• Review the postings for potential “flaming”. Edit the discussion threads to remove inappropriate comments (and state that you have done so) contact uses who have posted and clarify the norms for participation of the community;
• Through assessment of staff profiles invite relevant staff to participate in appropriate communities ;
• Create a “newsletter” that consists of items describing the activities of the group and other relevant groups;
• Educate and train users of the Urban Gateway on both new and existing platform features to maximize on the overall interaction;
• Develop and implement a framework for research on relevant topics to support the communities of practice; Identifies relevant discussion themes on the CoP in collaboration with the project team and engages relevant participants;
• To help build and maintain membership of the users on the CoP online platform;
• To support discussions and maintain activities and energy of the CoP;
• To devise and support the different interaction modes that will be used by members in the CoP;
• Supports the sustainable design and improvement of the CoP;
• Organizes and moderates on-line discussions of interest to CoP members;
• Seeks and promotes appropriate collaboration tools to aid and assist in knowledge sharing
• Stimulates and proactively engages with stakeholders to expand the CoP and ensure its effective and efficient functioning;
• Contributes to the monitoring and evaluation and reports related to his/her activities, output and outcome;
• Develop and provide detailed reports on analytics, site metrics, and user feedback which will be used to adopt new procedures and policies;

Undertake other relevant duties as required.

COMPETENCIES
Communication

• Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately;

Teamwork

• Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve the expected goals; Solicits input by genuinely valuing others' ideas and expertise.

Creativity

• Ability to be creative in order to increase usage on the developed Communities of practice and interests.

EDUCATION

• A degree in Information Technology or Information Science (or related field) additional studies in content development and/or web management and trainings in communication or related areas is desirable.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• At least one year experience in content writing and/or online research, including social media.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS (desirable)

• Familiarity with content management systems , knowledge of Drupal is desirable
• Proven experience in conducting online research (using tools such as Google Alerts, Google)
• Communications capability and experience in writing unique and engaging content that can be efficiently reproduced on websites.
• Basic knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices, meta information, deep linking and backlink promotion.
• Knowledge of development issues.
• Experience in connecting and engaging with users online through the website including social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Experience as a moderator of email conferences, multi stakeholder consultations and platforms, preferably within UN-Habitat.
• Can identify and promote suitable incentives, which foster and influence culture of internal and external knowledge sharing and collaboration
• Ability to build effective relationships and work with various stakeholders to identify relevant experts, to facilitate creation and “broker” transfer of accurate and relevant knowledge, create means for knowledge access and to minimize loss of both implicit and explicit knowledge
• Participates in fora to present and promote the CoP and related issues

LANGUAGE
English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in oral and written English is required. Working knowledge of other UN official languages is an asset.

REMUNERATION
Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies. The rate is determined by functions performed and experience of the consultant. The fees will be paid as per agreement.

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