Climate Communications and Outreach Specialist

March 5, 2025

10 minutes read

PR and Outreach Associate at UNDP in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This role is aimed at supporting a climate education project that targets youth, especially in rural areas, and focuses on climate resilience and sustainable practices.

Here’s a breakdown of key details:

PR and Outreach Associate Job Posting – UNDPhttp://PR and Outreach Associate Job Posting – UNDP

Position: PR and Outreach Associate
Location: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Job Schedule: Full-time
Duration: 6 months
Deadline to Apply: March 7, 2025
Languages Required: English and Uzbek; Russian is a plus
Grade: NPSA-7 (National Personnel Service Agreement)
Agency: UNDP

Key Responsibilities:

Communication Strategy Development: Helping create and execute a PR strategy to enhance public understanding of climate education and youth empowerment.
Content Development: Writing press releases, social media content, success stories, and educational materials.
Social Media and Digital Engagement: Managing the project’s online presence, ensuring consistent messaging, and tracking performance metrics.
Media Relations: Building relationships with media outlets and managing press coverage.
Event Support: Representing the project at events and forums, and facilitating stakeholder engagement.
Knowledge Management: Developing knowledge products, such as case studies and policy briefs.

Requirements:wordpress-6.7.1

Education: A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent work experience) in journalism, public relations, communications, or a related field.
Experience: At least 4 years (with a bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in communications, ideally in international organizations or NGOs.
Skills:
- Strong communication skills (both written and verbal).
- Experience with media relations and social media management.
- Familiarity with climate change and environmental issues is a plus.

Core Competencies:

Ability to manage work effectively, adapt to change, and collaborate with others.
Strong communication and media relations skills.

This role is ideal for someone with experience in media, communications, and public relations, who is also passionate about climate change and youth empowerment. If you’re interested in applying, you should do so before the March 7, 2025 deadline!

PR and Outreach Associate:

PR stands for Public Relations. It’s the practice of managing the spread of information between an organization and the public.
Outreach refers to efforts made to communicate or engage with specific groups, such as the public, media, or particular communities.
An Associate is someone who supports or assists in a specific role, in this case, PR and outreach.

NPSA-7 (National Personnel Service Agreement):

This is a type of contract used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for national staff members.
NPSA stands for National Personnel Service Agreement, which means this job is for a local employee (in this case, someone based in Uzbekistan).
The 7 refers to the level or grade of the position, which indicates the complexity of the work and responsibilities.

Climate Resilience:

Climate resilience is the ability to adapt and recover from the impacts of climate change. In this case, it’s about teaching youth how to live in harmony with nature and reduce the negative impacts of climate change, such as droughts and desertification.

Youth Empowerment:

This refers to activities or programs that help young people gain the skills, confidence, and knowledge they need to take control of their lives and make positive changes in their communities.

Green Skills:

Green skills are skills that promote sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. These might include knowledge about renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and other methods that reduce environmental harm.

Social media engagement refers to how well people interact with content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. For this job, it involves creating content that gets people to interact with the project, share it, or learn more about climate change and youth leadership.

Digital Tools and Platforms:

These are online tools (such as websites, apps, and social media) used to communicate, share content, and engage with audiences. For this role, you’d be expected to use these tools to spread the word about the project and engage with both local and global audiences.

Media Relations:

Media relations refers to the relationship between an organization and the press (newspapers, TV stations, radio, and online media). In this role, you’d be responsible for maintaining these relationships and ensuring the media covers the project’s activities.

Knowledge Products:

These are materials that capture and share information and insights gained from the project, such as case studies, policy briefs, or success stories. They help document the project’s progress and share useful lessons with other organizations or the public.

Stakeholder Engagement:

Stakeholders are individuals or groups that have an interest in the project, such as local communities, policymakers, media, and students. Stakeholder engagement involves building and maintaining positive relationships with these groups, ensuring their concerns are addressed, and involving them in the project’s activities.

Gender and Institutional Development:

This refers to the focus on addressing gender issues (e.g., ensuring equal opportunities for men and women) and supporting the development of institutions (e.g., schools, government agencies, or non-profits) to better address social issues like gender inequality and climate change.

If you’d like further explanations on any other terms or need clarification on any part, feel free to ask!

PR and Outreach Associate at UNDP:

Climate Education:

Climate education refers to teaching people about climate change, its impacts, and how to take action to mitigate or adapt to it. The project you’re working on aims to integrate climate change education into schools and youth programs to raise awareness and encourage sustainable behaviors.

Curriculum Development:

Curriculum development involves creating and organizing educational content for students. In this job, you’d likely help develop or promote a curriculum that teaches students about climate change and sustainability. This could include lesson plans, activities, and materials for teachers to use in classrooms.

Vocational Training:

Vocational training refers to practical training that prepares individuals for specific careers or trades. In this context, it means teaching young people in rural areas valuable skills like climate-smart agriculture (farming methods that adapt to climate change) and renewable energy (energy from natural sources like wind or solar).

Digital Platforms:

Digital platforms refer to online tools like websites, social media channels, and apps used for communication and engagement. You might manage or update these platforms to provide updates on the project, share success stories, and engage with the public.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is the process of tracking the progress of a project to make sure it’s meeting its goals. It involves collecting data, assessing how well the project is performing, and making adjustments to improve its impact. In this role, you’d help monitor the effectiveness of communication and outreach efforts.

Interactive Elements:

Interactive elements refer to tools or features that encourage participation. For example, webinars (online seminars) or live-streamed events allow people to interact with the project in real-time, ask questions, and share their opinions.

Multimedia Content:

Multimedia content involves using different types of media (videos, images, text, infographics, etc.) to communicate a message. In this role, you’d create engaging content to showcase the project, such as videos of training sessions or infographics that explain climate change concepts.

Press Releases:

A press release is a written statement distributed to the media to announce something newsworthy, like a project milestone or success story. It’s one way to inform the public and media about the progress and achievements of the project.

Brand Identity:

Brand identity is the way an organization presents itself to the public, including logos, colors, messaging, and overall tone. For this job, it means creating a consistent, recognizable image for the project that aligns with UNDP’s values, especially around climate education and youth empowerment.

Stakeholder:

A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest or role in the project. This can include the project team, local communities, government officials, schools, youth groups, and other organizations involved in the project. Engaging stakeholders is critical to the success of the project.

Success Stories:

Success stories are real-life examples of how the project has made a positive impact. These are often used in communications to inspire others and show the project’s effectiveness. For example, if a youth group leads a successful community climate project, that could be shared as a success story.

Impact:

Impact refers to the significant effect or influence the project has on the target group or issue. In this case, the impact would be the increased climate resilience and empowerment of youth in Uzbekistan.

Cross-Functional Competencies:

Cross-functional competencies refer to skills that are useful across different areas or roles. For example, the ability to write well, understand social media, and work in a team are competencies that could be applied in a variety of roles, not just PR and outreach.

UNDP’s Branding and Ethical Guidelines:

Branding guidelines ensure the project’s communications and materials reflect the values and visual identity of the UNDP.
Ethical guidelines ensure that communications are honest, respectful, and aligned with principles of integrity and fairness, ensuring that no one is misrepresented or harmed in the process.

Public Engagement Strategies:

Public engagement strategies are plans to interact with the public in meaningful ways, often to build awareness, support, or participation. It involves identifying the best ways to reach and communicate with various audiences (like schools, local communities, and the media).

Project Manager:

The Project Manager is the person responsible for overseeing the project, ensuring it runs smoothly, and making key decisions. As the PR and Outreach Associate, you’d report directly to this person and work closely with them to align communication strategies with the project’s goals.

These terms and concepts will be important to understand as you work on this role, helping to spread awareness about the project, communicate with the public, and highlight the impact the project has in promoting climate education and youth empowerment.

If you’d like more details on any specific part or term, feel free to ask!

Job Overview

The PR and Outreach Associate plays a key role in shaping the public perception of a major climate education and youth empowerment project. This individual will be responsible for creating and implementing communication strategies, engaging with various media outlets, managing social media platforms, and organizing events to promote awareness and involvement in the project.

Since this is a UNDP role, the candidate will also be expected to uphold UNDP’s values, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, and maintain high ethical standards in all communications.

Project Background

The job is part of a larger initiative aimed at tackling the climate crisis in Uzbekistan by empowering youth with knowledge and skills to address environmental challenges. The project focuses on:

Climate Education – Integrating climate change topics into upper secondary school curricula to educate over 1.3 million students.
Youth Empowerment – Training 800+ Young Green Ambassadors to lead local sustainability initiatives.
Green Skills Training – Providing 4,000 youth in rural areas with hands-on training in renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and other sustainable practices.

The PR and Outreach Associate will play a crucial role in communicating these efforts effectively to various stakeholders, ensuring that the project gains public support and recognition.

Key Responsibilities

1. Communication and Outreach Strategy

Develop and implement a comprehensive PR strategy to boost the visibility of the project.
Identify key target audiences (e.g., students, educators, policymakers, journalists) and tailor messages accordingly.
Ensure that the project’s branding aligns with UNDP’s climate and sustainability goals.
Monitor and assess the impact of outreach efforts, making improvements as needed.

2. Media Relations & Content Creation

Develop press releases, articles, and newsletters to communicate project milestones and success stories.
Build and maintain strong relationships with local and international media outlets.
Arrange and coordinate press interviews, media briefings, and public statements.
Oversee the creation of videos, infographics, and other multimedia content showcasing the project’s impact.
Ensure the production of high-quality brochures, posters, and educational materials that support climate education initiatives.

Manage the project’s social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) by posting engaging content and interacting with followers.
Regularly update the project’s website or online platforms with fresh content, news, and success stories.
Utilize digital tools like webinars, live-streaming, and online discussions to increase engagement.
Track and analyze social media performance to refine outreach strategies.

4. Event Organization & Public Engagement

Serve as the project’s public spokesperson, representing it at events, conferences, and media interviews.
Organize public forums, seminars, and youth engagement activities to discuss climate change solutions.
Facilitate networking and partnerships with government agencies, NGOs, and educational institutions.

5. Knowledge Management & Capacity Building

Create knowledge-sharing materials such as case studies, policy briefs, and best-practice reports.
Conduct training sessions for project staff on public relations, social media management, and communication strategies.
Ensure that all communications align with UNDP’s ethical guidelines and branding standards.

Skills & Qualifications

Educational Requirements

Option 1: High school diploma with 7 years of experience in PR, communications, or media.
Option 2: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Public Relations, Communications, Public Administration, Development Studies, or a related field with 4 years of experience.

Work Experience

Proven experience in public relations, communications, digital marketing, or media engagement.
Experience in international organizations or NGOs is preferred.
Strong background in social media management and digital content creation.
Previous experience working in climate change, environmental projects, or education-related initiatives is an advantage.

Language Requirements

Fluency in English and Uzbek is required.
Knowledge of Russian is desired.

Key Competencies

Excellent writing and editing skills – Ability to create compelling articles, social media posts, and reports.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills – Ability to interact effectively with media, stakeholders, and the general public.
Creativity and innovation – Developing engaging multimedia content and outreach campaigns.
Adaptability – Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
Project management skills – Ability to coordinate multiple outreach activities simultaneously.

Why This Role Matters

By joining UNDP as a PR and Outreach Associate, you will be making a significant impact by:
✔ Raising awareness about climate change and sustainable solutions.
✔ Empowering youth with the knowledge to lead environmental action.
✔ Building a strong network between government, media, and communities.
✔ Shaping public perception of climate initiatives in Uzbekistan.

If you are passionate about climate action, communication, and youth engagement, this is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a meaningful cause.