The formal courts in Bangladesh are slow, expensive and overburdened, with a backlog of around 3.8 million cases. This pushes most people to manage petty disputes through informal means, such as shalish. These informal solutions are often biased especially against women and minorities, they are not transparent and often ineffective as they lack enforcement powers. The Village Courts (VCs) were established by the Village Courts Ordinance, 1976 to allow petty disputes to be dealt with by Union Parishads, the lowest tier of local government in rural areas. The law was not fully implemented, later the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) enacted the Village Court Act, 2006 repealing the Village Court Ordinance, 1976. The Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh Project (AVCB) began in 2009 as a pilot project aiming to activate VCs in 351 Union Parishads (UPs) between the Government of Bangladesh, the European Union, and UNDP Bangladesh. The positive results of the pilot led the GoB to scale-up the activation, and the second phase (AVCB-II) started in 2016, targeting a further 1,080 UPs. The tenure of AVCB-II was completed in June 2022 and a third and final phase has been approved by the GoB. The final phase will be implemented for five years (2022-2027) by the Local Government Divisions of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD&C).
The project will work across all UPs in Bangladesh, excluding CHT (amounting to 4,457 UPs) reflecting the GoB commitment for a national scale-up. It will have three components: first to activate Village Courts in 3,041 Union Parishads in Bangladesh; second to maintain the performance of the 1,416 courts activated under AVCB-I and AVCB-II; and third to ensure the Government has the capacity, resources and ownership to take over the management and oversight of VC services so that the project gains are sustained.
The project’s Overall Objective is: Increased Access to Justice and Social Harmony for People In Rural Areas of Bangladesh, Especially Women and Disadvantaged Groups.
Specific Objective/Outcome 1: Duty bearers in Bangladesh provide sustainable, fair and effective resolution for minor disputes in rural areas.
- Output 1.1 Duty bearers at national and local levels have improved capacity to ensure Village Courts function fairly and effectively.
- Output 1.2 Legal and policy frameworks for Village Courts are reviewed and enhanced.
- Output 1.3 Duty bearers in Bangladesh have the resources capacity and ownership to manage and administer village courts after completion of project.
Specific Objective/Outcome 2: People living in rural areas, especially women, the poor and other disadvantaged groups are empowered to access Village Courts to resolve minor disputes.
- Output 2.1 Local population are aware of their local VC and understand its role and functions.
- Output 2.2 Evidence and knowledge sharing on VC functioning enhanced.
There are 5 technical components in the proejct named Project Coordination, Capacity Development, Advocacy & Communication, Legal Review and Gender and Planning, M&E and Knowledge Management. Involving national institutions like NILG (National Institute of Local Government), BPATC (Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center), JATI (Judicial Administration Training Institute), BPA (Bangladesh Police Academy), etc. the project has a plan to build up the capacity of the institutional stakeholders on village courts. Besides, as a part of implementation strategy NGOs/CSOs are also included to help LGD for grassroots level capacity building, social mobilization and eventually activating village courts under the technical support and supervision of Project Management Unit.
The Communication Associate will report to the Communication and Outreach Analyst and work under the overall guidance of National Project Coordinator or his/her assigned official. S/he will also work in close coordination with the implementing partners, other team members of the project, LGD and UNDP.
The Communication Associate will have the following duties and responsibilities:
- Facilitate planning and designing.
- Facilitate developing IEC (Information Education and Communications) materials.
- Documentation, publication, reporting and influencing.
- Media Communication
Facilitate planning and designing:
- Under the broad guidance of the Communication and Outreach Analyst, Communications Associate will assist for planning, developing, and implementing communication strategies to promote VC activities through preparing various visibility documents.
- She/he will also assist to develop Annual Work Plan following Multi Year Budget.
- Support Communication and Outreach Analyst to lead the process of planning, development and implementing communication activities of AVCB Project to achieve the Communication and Outreach Strategy Goal in village courts.
Facilitate developing IEC (Information Education and Communications) materials.
- The incumbent will facilitate to design and develop Information Education and Communications materials following the guideline of Communications Analyst and purpose of the project.
- Assist to develop and design of awareness materials in discussion with all team members focusing the priority; organize and preserve digital/IEC materials of the project.
- Assist in developing and designing brochures, visibility materials and cards used in event.
Documentation, publication, reporting and influencing:
- The Communication Associate will also be responsible for developing linkage and communication with other communication team under UNDP to disseminate information and create awareness about topical conservation issues and to seek their support.
- She/he will work closely with the AVCB Program and monitoring unit to ensure that relevant program materials such as Human-Interest Stories, donor reports, proposals, factsheets, info graphs etc. are developed and disseminated to donors and target groups through relevant media and network channels.
- Communicate and ensure timely and quality production of advocacy and branding materials such as periodicals, annual and donor reports, supplements, briefing notes, Human Interest Stories, newsletter, picture stories, videos, etc. He also assists to manage the publication of promotional materials by consulting with respective programme personnel, procurement unit, communication department and vendor.
Media Communication manage:
- Support to extend media relations, develop and maintain contact information, materials and relationships with journalists and media outlets (print, TV, radio, web, social medias etc.) to increase coverage of conservation issues in the media (print, broadcast and digital). Also collaborate with the media by organizing project site visits, facilitate photo coverage and TV footage and utilizing both web-based and traditional media as appropriate.
- Draft and edit articles, press releases, human interest stories and other advocacy/information materials. He/she also assists to monitor and evaluate the use and effectiveness of media materials. Maintain a library of media coverage (print and electronic media), clippings, photo etc;
- Assist to produce audio-visual materials of the project and also assist to develop the contents of social media, organize and manage social media campaign; He/she also assist to manage Digital Communications/Social media (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) Project website such as daily monitoring, posting, boasting and content development;
Other assigned or project need based tasks:
- Assist to manage resources (budget and work) to deliver results to agreed quality standards and also assist in organizing and generating public support for special events and campaigns to promote strategic conservation goals.
- Develop and archive communication materials, including digital, such as publications, press kits, clippings, photographs, audio-visual materials, web resources etc.
- Provide necessary support in organizing of workshops, seminars, campaigns, events, and project review meetings including agendas and meeting minutes. Accordingly, he will also draft different file/note sheet/justification for getting GoB/UNDP approval and different event report.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Core competencies:
- Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
- Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
- Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
- Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
- Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
- Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
- Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Direction and Strategy
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions; Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.
Business Management
- Communications: Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience; Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
Partnership Management
- Multi-stakeholder engagement and funding: Knowledge and ability to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships and remove any obstacles to resource mobilization and multi-stakeholder funding platforms.
Communication
- Advocacy strategy and implementation: Ability to create and implement advocacy strategies which lead to impactful change.
- Campaign Management: Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns which lead to impactful change.
- Graphic design: Ability to communicate visually and create appealing UNDP graphic products.
- Media Relations: Ability to develop media relations across all aspects of media work including relations with media and preparing media materials such as messages.
- Secondary education is required.
- University degree (Bachelor´s degree) in Mass Communication/ Journalism/ International Relations/Social Science from a recognized University will be given due consideration but is not a requirement.
- Minimum 7 years (with Secondary Education) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible for communication work experience at the national or international level is required.
- Have experience and hands on knowledge on planning and designing of communication activities and communication media (print or electronic or social media).
- Expertise on computers, graphics designing and MS Office software packages, excellent Bangla and English composing and typing skill in computer.
- Willingness to travel to all project locations.
- Working experience of facilitating and developing IEC (Information Education and Communications) materials, content development and copy editing.
- Working experience on documentation, publication, reporting as well as production of advocacy and branding materials such as periodicals, annual and donor reports, supplements, briefing notes, Human Interest Stories, newsletter, picture stories, press kits, clippings, photographs, audio-visual materials, web resources etc. of planning, development and implementing communication activities.
Required Languages:
- English and Bangla