Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

• Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
• Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
• Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
• Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supports the Government and people of Botswana in their development journey toward achieving shared prosperity, as articulated in Vision 2036 and outlined in the National Development Plans. The UNDP Country Office (CO) implements this commitment through its Country Programme Document (CPD), which is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNDP Country Programme (2022-2026) aims to provide upstream strategic and evidence-based advisory support while also delivering downstream interventions that engage directly with communities to promote a greener, more just, and prosperous Botswana. As a key member of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Botswana, UNDP works collaboratively with other UN agencies under a coordinated "Delivering as One" approach. 

The Government of Botswana has launched the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme that will be the vehicle for implementing the National Development Plan 12 (NDP 12). The UN’s engagement in Botswana is guided by the United Nations Cooperation Framework (UNCF), which derives its mandate from the 2030 Agenda, the SDGs, and the National Development Plan 12. In alignment with its commitment to accountability to partners, including governments and citizens, UNDP and the broader UN system ensure systematic, meticulous, and consistent tracking of progress against predefined results outlined in the UN Cooperation Framework (One UN Document) and the Country Programme Document (UNDP document). This is enabled through a robust Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system, which effectively consolidates data from projects to the CPD and the UNCF, ensuring transparency and accountability. 

As Botswana evolves in its needs for support across various sectors, there is growing need for a clearer picture of the needs, approaches, initiatives and results to stakeholders and communities. UNDP is increasingly embracing digital transformation, data-driven storytelling, and creative visual content generation. UNDP has also identified partnerships, advocacy and communications as a core strategic area of growth in support of its work at global, regional and country level. Focus on this area is motivated by the demands of a shifting development narrative, which require innovative actions from all development actors, to achieve the ambitious goals for socioeconomic transformation and sustainable development. It is also driven by the growing need to innovate the storytelling of development narrative, that positions UNDP as convener of national and regional policy dialogue, facilitator of development partnerships and the enabler of citizenry agency to respond to development challenges. To remain at the forefront of communication trends and standards—and to meet the growing demand for high-quality and timely outputs—it is essential to leverage emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence to enhance creative outputs/products and efficiency. 

To support the shifting development narrative and exploration of a deeper connection with Botswana’s development ambition and context, UNDP Botswana country office is seeking a professional expert to support by reimagination of visibility of impact, partnerships and public engagement. 

Position Purpose

Working under the day-to-day supervision of the Resident Representative, the incumbent will support the country office, through utilization of innovative communications approaches that enhance impactful development storytelling.  This includes curating engaging multimedia content for online and office audiences and management of engagement platforms and advocacy campaigns. The Associate will also contribute to strengthening the UNDP brand, ensuring editorial consistency, managing digital assets, and identifying innovative ways to proactively engage and sustain audience-centric communication to support the articulation of UNDP offer in Botswana and impact of its partnerships-enabled output. The CO therefore requires the services of the Communications, Innovation and Multimedia Associate in order to achieve its goals and objectives of effective, anticipatory, and results oriented communications. It will require skills in fields like photography-videography, journalistic drafting, photo editing, leveraging AI-supported platforms and software in a creative and ethical way, and the management of social media platforms. 

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1) Lead the design and implementation of the Communication strategies as aligned to the Country office and corporate priorities;

• Lead the formulation, implementation and tracking of the Country office Communications strategy aligned with PCAP and Corporate documents; 
• Provide timely support in the curation and implementation of the country office and project public engagement and outreach strategies and assets; 
• Support the design and implementation of digital and multimedia campaigns and advocacy strategies for the country office and projects;
• Facilitate timely and enriching communication on and around UNDP contribution and impact including that of its partners to Botswana's development agenda through an evidence-based and human-centered storytelling approach; 
• Support the inclusion and integration of the country office's communication and advocacy strategies into all aspects of the implementation of UNDP work in Botswana;
• Lead contextualization, localization and adaptation of global and regional communications and campaigns;
• Facilitate outreach and engagement with innovators, creatives, community mobilizers and influencers to achieve articulation of programmatic achievements.

2)  Manage digital platforms, including website, social media, intranet and other web-based communication platforms and adaptation emerging tech/tools for communications;

• Lead designing and preparation of content for country office website, including social media platforms, fostering timely, innovative and consistent engagement with all target audiences;
• Facilitate the development and publication of blogs, articles, success stories, multimedia campaign materials/assets that enhance the visibility of programme implementation, partnerships and impact;
• Monitor and optimize trends in digital and emerging tech for communications to elevate visibility and stakeholder engagement;
• Ensure that Country Office reporting adheres to the laid-out UNDP corporate communications requirements and best practices;
• Ensure that regular updates are made in the dynamic sections of the country office website (events, results etc.);
• Ensure timely and regular social media engagements through people impact stories; 
• Reach out to implementing partners and beneficiaries to create timeless content to help raise the CO profile;
• Support in the design of the communications data base and image banks based on corporate requirements in collaboration with the UNDP global digital team and regional team;
• Lead social media and creative writing workshops to implementing partners to improve how Partners communicate UNDP interventions;
• Provide digital solutions to enable smooth and inclusive dialogues such as livestreaming, virtual meetings and other available avenues. 

3) Promote close cooperation between and among UN/DP units to proactively identify and mitigate bottlenecks to delivery of results;

• Ensure regular communication and information flow between the programme and operations teams to ensure programmatic and operational coherence, identify and resolve bottlenecks to programme/project implementation;
• Support identification and coordinated actions to promote more efficient implementation of the programme and proactive mitigation of bottlenecks/risks to programme delivery (e.g. set-up of programmatic rosters etc.);
• If/as delegated by the UNDP Resident Representative, represent UNDP in specific partner coordination mechanisms/platforms to advance UNDP’s interagency commitments (e.g. HACT working group etc.);
• Support development of CO pipeline if/as assigned through cross-sectoral coordination with other UN agencies or partners.

4) Support the facilitation of Knowledge building and Management;

• Curate digital content on thematic topics aligned to the CO programmatic offer to position UNDP in the emerging development trends, targeting internal and external audiences; 
• Provide social media & creative writing workshops to IPs to improve how they communicate development issues and impacts (in collaboration with Comms Associate and RBA Comms colleagues); 
• Contextualize and localize promotion and advocacy of corporate knowledge products such as the Human Development Report;
• Create, maintain, and keep track of a digital calendar of event to support a timely and consistent preparation and dissemination of media advisories and press releases;
• Gather and consolidate content for the generation of monthly digital calendar of events for CO;
• Disseminate content of the CO digital calendar of events;
• Publicize within the internal communication platforms, implemented events and interventions are per the CO calendar of events;
• Periodically generate and administer internal surveys to improve CO feedback processes in a more transparent but also in secure manner.

5) Identification and roll-out of Digital and AI Solutions for Country Office projects and their Implementing Partners;

• Identify and roll out approved digital solutions for programming in alignment with UNDP digital and AI strategy;
• Work with project teams to re-organize digital filing on MS Teams and other corporate platforms to enable a seamless sharing of file and improve collaboration;
• Facilitate adoption of project data and mapping tools including AI tools, to consolidate CO projects presence in the country;
• Ensure compliance with corporate information management and technology standards, guidelines and procedures for the Country Office technology environment;
• Support implementation of database management systems (DMS) for CO projects as needed;
• Support staff and partners in ensuring that procurements for digital works (videos, websites, databases, eBooks/catalogues, podcasts) that have branding components are fully compliant;
• Design creative materials such as infographics, social media cards, publications, banners, and visuals that align with UNDP’s branding guidelines, using tools and AI-supported platforms such as Canva, Adobe Creative Suite or any other relevant tool;
• Prepare a weekly digital news bulletin highlighting key developments and recent events in the development landscape for the Office of the Resident Representative;
• Manage and analyze media monitoring data with AI tools to (i) systematically collect, categorize, interpret and repackage information from diverse media sources (ii) provide actionable insights on public sentiment, emerging trends and stakeholder perceptions to inform and optimize UNDP’s communication strategies and messaging.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Secondary education is required.
• A university degree (bachelor´s degree) in Communication or Information Technology or equivalent will be given due consideration, but it is not a requirement.

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years (with Secondary Education) or 4 years (with bachelor´s degree) of relevant experience in Communications or digital sector, at national or international level or related field is required;
• Experience in management of Strategic Communications, Public Relations, software solutions delivery including packaged and bespoke solutions is required;
• Experience in system development life-cycles and their relationship to project delivery methods is required; 
• Knowledge of and experience in graphic design, video editing is an advantage;
• Knowledge of AI tools and applications is highly desired;
• Microsoft certified professional (MCP) is desired.

Required Language(s):

• Fluency in English and Setswana is required.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.