Illustrator/Graphic Designer/Communications Expert (Retainer)

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Women’s political participation (WPP) is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work, recognizing the role of women’s leadership in strong and stable democratic processes and inclusive societies. It is covered under the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 Impact Area 1 – Participation and Governance in Public Life: “Women and girls participate in leadership and decision making and benefit from gender responsive governance” and involves several key initiatives. Among these are: i) monitoring progress towards gender equality in political participation and representation in decision-making bodies of government, including through measuring women’s political participation and data collection and dissemination for SDG indicator 5.5.1b (women in local government), and women in the executive, under the custody of UN Women.; and ii) supporting implementation of international normative frameworks on women’s political participation.

UN Women, jointly with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), will implement the WYDE/Women Leadership component through a three-year programme titled: “Advancing Women’s Political Participation and Decision-Making through Social Norms Change, Networking and Global Advocacy.” Over three years UN Women will leverage their convening power to facilitate feminist and women’s rights movements participation in global and regional advocacy spaces and access to decision-making fora. The four implementing partners will use the opportunity presented the EU’s WYDE initiative, to leverage collective action, partnerships, coordination, knowledge, and resources at a global level to support the full and effective participation and decision-making of diverse women, especially those most often left furthest behind.

The WYDE Women Leadership programme will prioritize changing social norms and shifting cultural attitudes that portray women’s roles in communities and society as incompatible with political power; and put specific focus on building critical skills of young women and engage men and boys, office holders and the media as allies for gender equality and women’s empowerment. It will enhance synergies between women’s rights movements, member states, decision makers, the international community, the media, and other key actors, including the WYDE community across its different components, to maximize the effectiveness of spaces for coalition building, advocacy, and campaigning to promote WPP.

The consultant will report to the UN Women/WYDE Women Leadership Coordination, Communications & Advocacy Specialist, and will be supported by the Finance Associate, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Illustrator/Graphic Designer will work with the UN Women WPP team and including the WYDE Women’s Initiative Leadership project team to perform the following tasks:

• Design an advocacy plan to support multi-partner advocacy around the CEDAW Committee General Recommendation 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision making systems, within the framework of UN Women’s Beijing+30 Action Agenda. 
• Design series of 20 illustrations which will be used for various purposes across the WYDE Women’s Leadership Initiative advocacy work. The illustrations will serve across the WYDE Women’s Leadership initiative as materials to visibilize the issues at stake, while creating an aesthetic coherence within the activities as well as an appealing visual identity for our audiences, including young women. The illustrations should offer an original, striking, powerful and unique design, while always adhering to the intersectionality principles and perspectives of UN Women, especially on diversity and cultural awareness.
• Conceptualize and produce 1 set of social media assets (15-20), including both static and animated images (GIFs), illustration, graphics and infographics to communicate on: the issue at stake, and in particular on women’s political participation including current status, the obstacles and enablers to increasing women’s participation; the key objectives of the programme and once available, on results of the programme. The materials should be created for specific use on web and social media and should align with the WYDE Women Leadership branding and visual identity, as well as with UN Women branding, color and themes. They should constitute a package which can then be tailored and used on specific occasions (events, campaigns).
• Conceptualize, design, layout of an advocacy toolkit illustrating key main messages (to be provided) on the topic of social norms change in the context of women’s political participation, and other key priorities within the framework of UN Women’s Beijing+30 Action Agenda. The toolkit should include high-quality innovative, creative, and attention-grabbing materials, for print, web-based and social media-based communications, such as infographics, publications, illustrations, print and web-based campaign and advocacy materials, promotion materials and any other communications materials that require creative graphic design. The toolkit could include factsheet, flyers, handouts etc.
• Create a social media campaign focusing on tackling social norms in women’s political, used in concordance with the advocacy toolkit listed above (and used to disseminate the toolkit). The content of this campaign should focus on narratives surrounding social norms in regards to political participation and will build on the newly adopted UN Women framework on Social Norms.
• Design with efficient layout any publication (such as a publication to showcase human interest stories, results, particular achievements, and/or infographics showcasing UN Women’s work on global data on WPP, etc).

Principles:

• Visual messages should be positive and empowering and reflect the principle of partnering with women’s organizations and support to women from marginalized groups.
• Illustrations are expected to reflect diversity and intersectional experiences of women and young women in leadership and in politics;
• Designing materials that are both sustainable and accessible to a diverse audience, including people with disabilities, by employing various formats and accessible design principles in alignment with UN Women’s commitment to inclusivity.
• Materials should be designed in such a way that they can be updated and adjusted for future use (all colours, pantones, fonts, inserted bitmaps or any other used resource should be included in the design package; fonts should not be converted to outlines in order to follow further edits and adaptations in the future).
• Illustrations should aim to reach UN Women and its WYDE partners audiences, including young people, civil society organizations, journalists and the media, other stakeholders.
• The designs of the materials should be consistent with UN Women communications and branding guidelines and with the WYDE Women’s Leadership Guidelines (to be provided);
• UN Women will hold non-exclusive world rights in perpetuity of all designed submissions and products; UN Women will own the copyrights to the illustrations and materials produced.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

• This is a home-based consultancy.

Competencies

Core Values:  Respect for Diversity Integrity Professionalism Core Competencies:  Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues Accountability Creative Problem Solving Effective Communication Inclusive Collaboration Stakeholder Engagement Leading by Example Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:       FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:  Solid understanding of/ and hands-on experience in communications and outreach/advocacy, including designing/illustration to create visually appealing and well-structured visual identities and materials. Proven creative skills in graphic design, visual and digital storytelling to create new, artistic and original ideas. Proven mastery of Adobe Creative Cloud or any other relevant graphic design software (incl InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop…). Ability to produce well-written and powerful messages, tailored for specific audiences and channels. Ability to work under pressure and within limited time frames; to work in an independent manner and organize the workflow efficiently; to achieve results and to work in teams; to consistently approach work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues is a requirement;

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification: • Master’s degree or equivalent in graphic design, animation, multimedia, visual arts,  journalism, audio-visual or a related field is required. • A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.   Experience: At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in graphic design, illustration, layout work, creative content, communications campaign on social issues is required. Proven experience in advanced command over a full range of graphic design software, including Adobe Suite/CC such as Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, After Effects etc is required. Experience with printing and production matters and knowledge of different formats for printing is required. Experience in the development of communications materials on gender is an asset. Working experience with UN and/or international organizations is an asset. Experience in web content management systems (Drupal or other) would be an asset;   Languages: Fluency in English. Knowledge of French, Spanish or any other UN official is an asset.