National Consultant: Demand generation for Immunization, Accra Ghana SBC, 11 months (Work from home)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, hope.

In Ghana, UNICEF cooperates with the Government and other partners to defend the rights of children and help them fulfill their potential. With offices in Accra and Tamale, the UNICEF team seeks to achieve results in strategic programme areas. The overall goal is for every child to survive and thrive, to live in a safe and clean environment, to learn, to be protected from violence and exploitation, and to have an equitable chance in life. The current Country Programme of cooperation is aligned with the Government priorities, the UN Sustainable Development Partnership (UNSDP) and Key Results for Children (KRCs) in the West and Central African Region (immunization, nutrition, learning outcomes, ending child marriage and ending open defecation). UNICEF main strategies include evidence-based advocacy, system strengthening, integrated programming across sectors, emergency preparedness and response, and innovation.

To know more about our work click here

How can you make a difference? 

The objectives of this consultancy are to support the GHS to implement SBC activities to increase public confidence, trust, acceptance, and demand for:

• Polio and other routine immunization services for children 0 to 59 months,
• Yellow fever vaccine among all age groups,
• COVID-19 vaccine among priority groups.

The consultant will support the development of SBC strategies, coordination among key stakeholders, capacity strengthening, misinformation management, and monitoring and evaluation of demand generation efforts. This includes advocacy to elicit the support of nontraditional immunization partners, as well as other SBC activities relevant to the introduction of the HPV vaccine.

Tasks to be Completed.

Under the general guidance of the SBC Specialist, with support from the Head of SBC Unit. The consultant will support partners with the following activities: 

• Capacity strengthening in SBC approaches, especially in newly designated regions.
• Support community-based surveillance for symptoms of paralysis especially among children under 15 years.
• Generate trust, confidence, and demand for immunization among parents with children under 5 years, particularly for polio.
• Intensification of sanitation and hygiene promotion, including hand hygiene, safe handling of child faeces, and total sanitation.
• Additional activities are listed/described under the following broad areas:

Strategic Direction and Coordination

• Make viable recommendations and decisions on appropriate Social and Behaviour Change strategies to achieve SBC immunization goals and objectives, and to support UNICEF’s mission in Ghana by supporting coordination meetings and coordinating task teams.
• Develop, maintain, and update SBC strategies and materials with approaches, plans, and activities geared towards generating demand for yellow fever, polio, COVID-19 vaccines as needed.

Misinformation Management and Social Listening

• Coordinate effective offline and online misinformation and rumour tracking to address vaccine hesitancy among the general population, disseminate feedback through weekly rumours reports and ensure actions are taken during bi-weekly Misinformation Task Force meetings.

Capacity strengthening

• Develop participatory training materials and activities to strengthen skills in demand generation, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation management for key stakeholders involved in immunization programmes.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Oversee monitoring and evaluation of SBC Immunization interventions (both Routine and Emergency Campaigns), refine data collection tools, support data collection, and prepare reports with synthesized analysis of process and outcome indicators. Develop recommendations for course correction and improvement of demand generation strategy.

For more information on the work assignment and deliverables click on the attached Proposed Budget from Consultant-.docx. 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in Health Promotion or a related field (Public Health, Communication, Social Sciences, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology).
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in (5) years of experience working on Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) programs, with focus on the following areas:
  • project design and implementation,
  • research and evaluation,
  • capacity strengthening and knowledge management,
  • social mobilization,
  • community engagement,
  • risk communication and misinformation management
  • digital engagement,
  • SBC strategy development.
  Portfolio of SBC strategies, campaigns, and interventions relevant to vaccine demand generation, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation management.
• Strong communication, presentation and written skills in English.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language 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. 

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.