Consultant : Technical writer

Background:

Vacancy number: ISDR/C/03/2010

The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) is a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder platform to enable societies to increase their resilience to natural, technological and environmental disasters and to reduce associated environmental, human, economic and social risk and losses. A range of United Nations organizations and international partners participate in cooperation with Governments and civil society organizations.

The implementation of the ISDR is supported by a secretariat lead by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. The secretariat’s main functions are policy coordination, advocacy and information management, at the international and regional levels, to ensure synergy between disaster reduction strategies and those in the socio-economic and humanitarian fields.

In January 2005, the World Conference on Disaster Reduction adopted the Hyogo Declaration and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. The Hyogo Framework constitutes the essential guide for implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and represents the key policy framework for reducing risk and to strengthen community resilience. The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, established by the UN General Assembly in 2006, is the main global policy forum for disaster risk reduction, and is complemented by a system of regional, thematic and national platforms, which bring together all relevant stakeholders.

Organizational setting and reporting relationships:

Reporting to the Head of the UNISDR Information management Unit, the consultant will work with the Information management Unit team, as well as information management focal points in UNISDR regional offices.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Head of the information management unit, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) is looking for a Technical Writer to develop documentation and user manuals for the UNISDR CMS, API and internal Intranet applications.

The consultant will be responsible for:
-Analysis and documentation of UNISDR internal applications connected to the ISDR Contact Directory
-Analysis and documentation of UNISDR public applications, content syndication and API of the PreventionWeb site, including diagrams and flow charts as required
-Development of short online user training videos for all UNISDR Intranet application
-Consolidation of content management policy guidelines and development of a full user manual for the UNISDR web content management system
-Creation of additional documentation and related tasks as may be reasonably requested by the head of information management
-Testing of documentation and training videos with UNISDR staff

Results expected:
User manuals, videos and documentation produced and tested for all UNISDR technical systems.

Competencies

Professionalism
-Strong background and substantial experience in web design and management, particularly in writing for the web.

Managing
-Effective project management skills and ability to lead a project to completion.

Client orientation
-Ability to identify and analyze clients' needs and develop appropriate technology to meet business requirements.

Communications
-Strong communication (spoken and written) skills.

Planning & organizing
-Ability to organize, plan and implement work assignments, juggle competing demands and work under pressure of frequent and tight deadlines.

Teamwork
-Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Essential skills, experience & qualifications

-Degree in communications or equivalent combination of education and experience.
-A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience following degree.
-Proven ability to write clear and concise technical documentation for complex systems.
-Applied knowledge of interaction design and web content management systems.
-Basic understanding of relational databases
-Excellent spoken and written English.