Consultant for Demand Promotion on routine immunization & Covid-19 vaccination – UNICEF Vacancy Announcement, June 16 2023
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Organization: UNICEF
Position: Consultant for Demand Promotion on routine immunization & Covid-19 vaccination
Employment: Consultancy, Contract
Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Deadline: June, 27/2023
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Job description
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, vaccination
Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.
Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.
Watch a video about Improving conflict-affected health systems Here
How can you make a difference?
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
To provide demand promotion-related technical support for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout and routine immunization while ensuring monitoring and reporting of COVID-19 and routine immunization demand promotion interventions as a key liaison with FMOH.
Scope of Work:
- The overall objective of this consultancy is to promote public acceptance, uptake and demand of COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization in Ethiopia at the national level. The consultant is expected to understand key drivers of immunization demand among caregivers, the COVID-19 vaccine-eligible population, and frontline health workers to successfully promote and sustain the desired behavior based on evidence.
- With technical support and guidance of the SBC Specialist (immunization & PHE), Health Section of UNICEF Ethiopia, the consultant will be responsible for the coordination of a national communication technical working group to accelerate demand generation approaches and strategies to promote evidence-based social and behavior change interventions including advocacy, community engagement, community empowerment, social listening, monitoring and evaluation for the COVID-19 vaccination and routine immunization in Ethiopia.
The consultant is expected to provide technical support to the following activities:
- Provide technical support to the Immunization Service Desk of MOH and Communication Technical Working Group (C-TWG) to ensure the demand generation strategies and approaches are developed and implemented to reach the eligible population with COVID-19 vaccine and to reach zero-dose and under-immunized children with routine immunization
- Coordinate and liaise with EPI team, UNICEF, and partner agencies for monthly C-TWG meetings and ad-hoc meetings including preparation of meeting agenda, meeting minutes and any necessary follow-up actions
- Ensure that C-TWG is supported to develop plans and activities to promote acceptance among the caregivers for routine immunization and among the COVID-19 vaccine-eligible (above 12 years of age) population
- Support the Immunization Service Desk of MOH and C-TWG on implementation, monitoring and evaluation of demand promotion interventions in reaching zero-dose and under-immunized communities
- Support the development and endorsement of demand promotion activities for the vaccination (routine immunization, COVID-19, HPV, etc.) at the federal level including the development, review and pre-testing of multi-channel communication materials and support sub-national teams to contextualize and translate into local language
- Coordinate with the government and media agencies at the federal level on regular public opinion monitoring and social listening particularly on rumors, fake news, media coverage on AEFI cases and misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines, HPV, polio, and broader immunization services
- Provide support for capacity building of frontline health workers, social mobilizers, media, and hotline operators on demand generation activities including risk/crisis communication
- Facilitate and participate in monitoring and evaluation for demand generation and risk communication activities for the COVID-19 vaccination and broader immunization services including conducting rapid assessment for awareness, acceptance, hesitancy and trust around the vaccines/vaccination and field visits to regions in close collaboration with MOH/RHB and UNICEF
- Ensure SBC approaches are inclusive, gender transformative, and participatory in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders
- Collect human-interest stories from the field on the voices and experiences of communities and stakeholders around the vaccination (routine, COVID-19, HPV, etc.) in Ethiopia
- Submit the documents and reports mentioned in Work Assignment Overview table to UNICEF and MOH
- At the beginning of the assignment, the consultant is expected to discuss and agree with UNICEF and the Immunization Service Desk team of MOH on work plan schedules for the assignment period.
Work Assignment Overview:-
Tasks/Milestone:
- Coordinate with C-TWG member agencies, MOH and UNICEF for finalization, endorsement and launching of national demand promotion on routine immunization plan of action and costing of related activities for further implementation
- Facilitate consultation with regional health bureau (EPI & SBC) teams and support for adaptation and contextualization of demand promotion plan of action with a focus on reaching zero-dose communities
- Coordinate with C-TWG members, MOH and UNICEF for the development, implementation and monitoring of tailored demand promotion activities on COVID-19 vaccination with a focus on urban, youth, PWD and IDP communities
- Provide technical support to the MOH on the development, pretesting and rollout of multi-channel communication, social mobilization, community engagement and risk communication activities around COVID-19, routine immunization, HPV, and other new vaccines introductions
- Facilitate demand promotion training such as interpersonal communication skills for immunization in collaboration with MOH and UNICEF at the national and sub-national level
- Develop advocacy packages and media sensitization packages on routine immunization, COVID-19, measles and other new vaccines for different audiences such as media, religious leaders, community leaders and other stakeholders in collaboration with MOH & C-TWG
- Support for social listening, public opinion monitoring, media monitoring and rumor management around immunization through feedback mechanisms
- Support for national and subnational teams in conducting 1) training on demand generation and risk communication plan for frontline health workers, vaccinators and social mobilizers at national and regional levels, 2) training/orientation of reporters/journalists on the routine immunization, COVID-19, measles and new vaccines, 3) orientation/training of hotline operators, and 4) training of spokesperson on media handling and crisis communication
- Support MOH on the application of Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach and immunization journey mapping in identification and addressing localized barriers to immunization services
- Documentation of routine immunization demand generation process focused on key achievement, lessons learned and best practices including three human-interest stories from the fields
Deliverables/Outputs:
- Submission of MOH endorsed and costed demand promotion plan of action on routine immunization
- Submission of RHB endorsed and costed regional demand promotion plan of action on routine immunization (prioritize regions are Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Somali)
- Submission of a comprehensive report on SBC/demand promotion interventions highlighting key results, achievements, lessons learned and challenges (bi-annually)
- Submission of communication toolkits endorsed by the MOH and implementation status
- Submission of training report on national & sub-national level training
- Submission of advocacy and media sensitization packages
- Submission of consolidated reports on social listening and rumour tracking mechanisms including action taken
- Training completed and submission of training reports
- Submission of progress report on HCD application at the sub-national level
- Submission of documentation of the demand generation process including lessons learned, good practices and three human-interest stories
Notice for Consultancy Advert:-
- Please note that applications submitted without a fee rate (daily rate or lumpsum fee) will not be considered.
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Job requirements
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Social science, public health, sociology, anthropology, psychology, communication for development/Social and behavioral change communication
- A minimum of Five [5] years of relevant professional experience in SBC/demand promotion experiences in immunization or health sectors at the national level
- In-depth understanding of Ethiopian communities and SBC/demand promotion for immunization key stakeholders at national level
- Capacity in the designing, planning, monitoring, evaluation, training and skills-transfer of participatory governance in demand promotion for immunization interventions
- Proven ability to work effectively with government/MOH and multi-stakeholders.
- Experience in generating evidence around social and behaviors around immunization practices.
- Capacity in the documentation of best practices and lessons learned around demand promotion for immunization interventions
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies 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…
Core Values:
- Care
- Respect
- Integrity
- Trust
- Accountability
- Sustainability
Core competencies
- Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
- Works Collaboratively with others (1)
- Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
- Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
- Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
- Drives to achieve impactful results (1)
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)
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 including everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.
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 a reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterward 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.
How to Apply
To Apply for this vacancy Click on the ‘Apply Now’ button below. Please make sure that you have read the requirements section very well before you apply.
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