Candidacy · UNICEF Gulf Area Office, MENA (MENAR) · Riyadh · Chief of Communication, P-5, FT · Position #00136826 · Job no. 592731

For every child, regional communication leadership.

For fifteen years, I’ve led regional campaigns that turned policy into action. At UNDP, I moved from advocacy to institutional leadership. Now I’m ready to bring that expertise to UNICEF, where regional communication strategy isn’t a support function: it’s a strategic imperative. Rooted in the MENA region, based in Riyadh. Native Arabic, fluent English and French. Already in Riyadh, no relocation required.

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Thinking like a Chief of Communication, regionally.

Four pillars define how I would lead the UNICEF Gulf Area Office, built from 15+ years across the UN system, international NGOs and multi-country campaigns.

Why UNICEF needs a regional communications expert.

A fair question: can a communications expert shaped in the MENA region, and across development finance and human rights, lead children’s advocacy at a global scale?

The answer is yes. The Gulf is not a context I would need to discover. It is a region where I already understand the institutional, cultural and media dynamics required to lead effectively. I have navigated its media ecosystems, its government workflows and its cultural sensitivities. I’ve sat in rooms with Saudi ministries. I’ve built campaigns in Arabic for audiences that hear “international organization” with scepticism. That’s an asset, not a limitation.

At UNDP, my work has shifted from advocacy to institutional leadership. I advise the Resident Representative. I write briefing notes for government partners. I translate policy into messages that don’t oversimplify or alienate. That’s the exact skill a Chief of Communication needs in the Gulf.

This is also where my campaign experience is relevant. I’ve learned to lead regional communications not by changing audiences, but by finding where children’s rights, women’s rights, and economic development intersect. UNICEF’s presence in the Gulf sits at that intersection. My job is to make that visible.

Communication is what makes partnership possible.

In a Gulf Area Office with a global resource mobilization mandate, communication isn’t a visibility function sitting next to partnerships and fundraising. It’s what makes them possible. When partners in this region commit, they don’t just commit funds; they commit their own reputation. And reputation is only lent to a narrative they trust and a track record they can verify. My job is to build that narrative and that credibility, so the Partnerships and Fundraising team walks into every conversation with the ground already prepared.

That’s how I’ve worked throughout my career, at Greenpeace MENA, Amnesty International, RAWSA and now UNDP. Communication has never been a support function. It’s been the engine that opens institutional doors and turns attention into partnership and commitment.

How my experience aligns with the role

Side by side: what the role demands, and what my record shows.

How I lead.

I set direction and trust expertise. My role is to make the priorities unambiguous and the expected outcome clear, then give people the time and space to bring their full judgment to the work. Experienced professionals do not need a manager at every step. They need to understand what success looks like, to know that agreed decisions will remain stable unless circumstances genuinely change, and to have the freedom to determine how best to deliver. I adapt the level of guidance to the person, the task and the moment.

Autonomy comes with visibility, not surveillance. I ask to be informed at the moments that matter, so I understand where the work stands without standing over it. I remain accessible and step in when my contribution can materially change the outcome, through a timely approval, a strategic call, or a decision that prevents a delay from becoming a larger problem.

Trust is not the absence of standards. When work is not landing, I say so early, directly and in private, and we agree what has to change.

Part of leadership is clearing the path. When workloads rise, I help distinguish what is essential from what is simply urgent, and I challenge processes that add complexity without adding value.

I also protect the space to disagree. People should be able to propose an idea, challenge an approach, or tell me that something is not working without calculating the cost of saying it. That is how decisions improve before they are made, rather than after.

Leading teams, across countries.

A panel will want to know what scale I have actually run. Role by role, here it is.

Amnesty International, Regional Content Manager (MENA). Communication coordinated across more than 22 country contexts, alongside campaigners, researchers and designers. Country communication focal points, designers and press teams worked under my day-to-day direction. I translated programme inputs, research findings and management decisions into end-to-end communication strategies, including audience analysis, messaging architecture, channel planning, KPIs, production requirements and impact measurement. I also translated campaign strategies into production scopes and budgets, briefed external providers, participated in competitive selection processes, assessed creative and financial proposals, supervised delivery, and ensured that outputs met the required standards, timelines and available resources.

Greenpeace International, Communication Lead (MENA). I provided day-to-day functional leadership to content creators, social media managers and designers. I drafted the press releases myself while coordinating researchers and country focal points. That balance matters: close enough to the craft to hold quality, senior enough to hold the line on strategy.

UNDP Saudi Arabia, Senior Communication Expert. Daily work with project managers and consultants to align every campaign with concrete objectives, within a Country Office where communication must serve programme objectives while meeting the expectations of government partners, donors and institutional stakeholders.

Integrated strategy, multi-country teams, and results measured against advocacy and partnership objectives. That is the shape of the Gulf Area Office role, and it is the shape of the work I have been doing.

The portfolio I communicate today.

One Country Office, a whole policy landscape. As UNDP Saudi Arabia’s senior communication expert, every day I work across these four domains.

A regional strategist, fluent in the Gulf context.

Communication leadership requires cultural intelligence, institutional diplomacy and regulatory sensitivity, adapting international standards to the GCC context.

A regional communications expert who knows where the lines are, and how to do excellent, impactful, principled work within them.

Nine accountabilities, one cohesive response.

90-day priorities.

Fifteen years: UN, NGOs and regional brands.

Four campaigns, structured as case studies.

Further reading.

UNDP resources related to GCC and humanitarian action themes.

Why this office, and why children.

Children are not only the citizens and decision-makers of tomorrow. They are rights-holders today, and protecting those rights is one of the clearest ways institutions can turn policy into human progress.

This is especially urgent across the MENA region, where children are living with the consequences of conflict, displacement, climate pressure and unequal access to opportunity. The decisions taken now will shape their lives for decades.

I have seen this throughout my work in the region. At RAWSA MENA, on women’s health and rights, I learned what dignity-centred communication demands: lived experience at the centre, accuracy before impact, and respect for the people whose stories carry the message. Behind every policy file is a child whose rights are either protected or deferred, and the way an institution communicates helps decide which it will be.

The Gulf Area Office matters because it sits close to the governments, institutions and partners capable of turning commitment into resources and action. That is why I am drawn to this office: not simply because it is close to the story, but because it is close to the decisions that can change children’s lives.

Ready to lead regional communication in the Gulf.

Available for interview. Already based in Riyadh. No relocation required.

Borhene Eddine Fakhfakh
borhene.fakhfakh@gmail.com · +966 504 586 973
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia · Portfolio: fakhfakh.com