National SBC Consultant (Technical Assistance to MOH) UNICEF South Sudan (Open to South Sudanese Only)
Job no: 563639
Position type: Consultant
Location: South Sudan Division/Equivalent: Nairobi Regn’l(ESARO)
School/Unit: South Sudan
Department/Office: Juba, South Sudan
Categories: Social and Behavior Change
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Purpose of Activity/Assignment: The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) section works closely with the MOH, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), donors, UN agencies, and other stakeholders to provide South Sudan’s public with access to information on positive behaviours and lifesaving practices and an inclusive feedback mechanism for informed decision-making and resilience. SBC is a cross-cutting, evidence-based process that uses a mix of communication tools, channels and approaches to facilitate participation and engagement with children, families, communities and networks, for positive social and behaviour change in both development and humanitarian contexts. This consultancy contributes to the following objectives: 1) increased demand for immunization, MNCH services and utilization of quality and inclusive services across all sectors, 2) increased uptake of key parenting and community practices and abandonment of harmful social norms and behaviours across sectors, 3) empowered and engaged communities, adolescents and children, particularly the most marginalized, who participate and take actions to improve their wellbeing, and 4) increased capacity and engagement of communities in humanitarian action.
Background & Rationale:
The national and state MOH – both the national and state levels have been facing challenges in providing access to health services and promoting health-seeking behaviours among communities. The Primary Health Care (PHC) Directorate of the National Ministry of Health is comprised of three main departments: the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the Health Education and Promotion (HEP), and the Boma Health Initiative (BHI). There is limited coordination among the three departments at the national level owing to human resource capacity gaps in each of the departments. The healthcare service delivery in the states is led by different partners across the country, with each partner recruiting its own parallel workforce.
In 2017, the Boma Health Initiative (BHI) was launched by the Ministry of Health (MoH) as a government strategy for enhancing and strengthening the health structure, especially at the community level and in hard-to-access areas. Although the BHI is the government’s flagship strategy to formalize the role of Boma health workers (BHWs), standardize community health services as well as improve access to essential primary healthcare services in areas with limited access to healthcare institutions, it has not fully taken off.
During the 2022-2025 PEF-TCA application for South Sudan, the Ministry of Health requested technical HR assistance to provide support in the mapping of different community mobilizers; nutrition volunteers, hygiene promoters, and boma health workers for harmonization, integration and coordinated demand generation activities, sub-national coordination and capacity building of MOH Health Education and Promotion staff and BHI teams, support coordination and scale-up of BHI, support subnational teams in design demand generation approaches for reaching zero-dose children and women in hard-to-reach communities and community participation in microplanning. The MOH further tasked the UNICEF SBC section to provide technical support in the recruitment and day-to-day supervision of this personnel.
Scope of Work
Under the supervision of the SBC Specialist, in close coordination with the SBC and Health teams at the CO, the National SBC Consultant will be responsible for supporting the MOH in the harmonization of community structures supporting the health sector, coordination and scale-up of the BHI, health system’s actors capacity building, design, implementation and monitoring of community engagement initiatives increasing demand for health services using gender sensitive approaches and addressing the most vulnerable.
The consultant will be responsible for the following:
1. Support to MOH for better coordination among the three departments of Health Education and Promotion, the BHI and EPI for better effectiveness to reach zero dose children. 2. Support MOH in mapping different community mobilizers; nutrition volunteers, hygiene promoters, boma health workers for harmonization and coordinated demand generation activities. 3. Support any necessary update of the BHI guideline, tools, training manuals and ensure oversight of implementing partners for their alignment to the guideline and tools 4. Revise the state Social and Behavior Change strategies based on findings from KAP surveys, behavioral studies and community rapid assessments. 5. Strengthen MOH’s capacity in conducting health demand generation sub-working group meetings at the national and state levels. 6. Support the sub-national coordination and capacity building of the Health Education and Promotion officers and BHI teams. 7. Support subnational teams in designing contextualized demand approaches for reaching zero-dose children and women in hard-to-reach communities. 8. Support community participation in microplanning at the subnational level. 9. Support mentorship of the state communication officers to enhance their skills in planning, coordinating, monitoring and evaluation of community mobilization activities at sub-national level. 10. Monitor the expansion of BHI, document and ensure large dissemination of good practices, lessons learned and recommendations.
Location: Juba with regular travels to the field.
Tasks/Milestone: Deliverables/Outputs: Timeline Estimated budget Improve coordination among the three departments of Health Education and Promotion, the BHI and EPI for better effectiveness to reach zero dose children. 1. ToR of health demand generation sub-working group including representatives from the three departments (BHI, HEP, EPI) validated by MoH (10 days) July 2023
2. Health Demand generation sub-working group monthly meeting minutes with action points (12 days: one day per month) July 2023 to June 2024 from July 2023 to June 2024
3. National strategy for reaching zero dose children and hard-to-reach communities developed by the three departments (30 days) Jan – May 2024
Capacity building of health managers, communication officers and BHI teams 4. Updated BHI training manual (20 days) July-Aug 2023
5. Health managers, Health Education and Promotion officers and BHI teams trained on Social Behavior Change / Community Engagement and participatory microplanning (60 days) Aug – Dec 2023
BHI Scale-up and monitoring
6. Quarterly national implementation reports of BHI – Total of 4 reports (60 days) Dec 2023-May 2024 Reporting
7. Monthly consultancy report with recommendations (2 days per month) July 2023 to June 2024 from July 2023 to June 2024
8. Final consultancy report with good practices, lessons learnt and recommendations (10 days) May-June 2024
Qualifications:
Education
- An Advanced university degree in social/behavioral sciences, (Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Health, International Development, Education) with emphasis on strategic communication planning for behaviour change, social mobilization and community engagement, participatory communication, and research
Experience
- A minimum of 5 years of experience with either the UN and/or an NGO.
- Demonstrated experience in programme coordination, strategic planning, health systems strengthening with a focus on community systems
- Experience and/or training in the application of social change theories and current developments and new approaches in the field of social and behaviour change communication, and demonstrated ability to apply them participatory processes, media, strategic communication planning, behaviour analysis, formative research and evaluation and/or capacity building.
- Proven experience in SBC capacity development, including systems strengthening and institutional integration of SBC; development and delivery of training programs; development of online learning tools, and/or facilitation.
- Proven experience in the design and development of SBC strategies and action plans for specific SBC interventions, sector programmes, or country programmes.
- Demonstrated expertise in knowledge management, development of case studies, reporting and documentation of social change processes in development programmes.
- Excellent organizational skills and ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks within agreed deadlines.
- Knowledge and experience of UNICEF programmes of cooperation and the human rights-based approach to programming is considered as an asset.
- Strong analytical skills and ability to work with and as a part of teams.
- Fluency in English (verbal and written). Good written and spoken skills in the language of the humanitarian operation and knowledge of Arabic is an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
All applications MUST be accampied with detailed technical and financial proposals.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
Advertised: Jul 04 2023 E. Africa Standard Time
Application close: Jul 18 2023 E. Africa Standard Time
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- Closes Jul 18 2023National SBC Consultant (Technical Assistance to MOH) UNICEF South Sudan (Open to South Sudanese Only) in South Sudan
The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) section works closely with the MOH, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), donors, UN agencies, and other stakeholders to provide South Sudan’s public with access to information on positive behaviours and lifesaving practices and an inclusive feedback mechanism for informed decision-making and resilience. SBC is a cross-cutting, evidence-based process that uses a mix of communication tools, channels and approaches to facilitate participation and engagement with children, families, communities and networks, for positive social and behaviour change in both development and humanitarian contexts
