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For every child, good health
Background :
On 31 December 2019, WHO was alerted to a cluster of pneumonia patients in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. One week later, on 7 January 2020, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a novel (new) coronavirus as the cause of pneumonia. To date, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread to over 150 countries, including over 10 in East and southern Africa. The Communication for Development program is at the forefront of UNICEF’s emergency response.
The COVAX Facility, one of three key pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is a global collaboration co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and WHO to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access globally. With over 300 COVID-19 vaccine candidates being monitored in varying stages of development and 25 vaccines in clinical evaluation, it is possible that a vaccine candidate may achieve emergency use approval in 2020. In preparation for this, effective assessment of communities’ and Health workers’ knowledge, behavior, attitude, and practice for this new vaccine and the development of evidence-based demand generation strategies is capital.
Hence, UNICEF Malawi Office is seeking assistance in the form of a consultancy with a duration of 8 months to support in developing an evidence-based Demand Generation and Communication Plan. The plan should include advocacy, communications, social mobilization, risk and safety comms, community engagement, and training to generate confidence, acceptance, and demand for COVID-19 vaccines uptake by the priority target population (FWLs, elderly/adults with comorbidities and/or other locally relevant risk factors). The plan should also include crisis communications preparedness planning.
Justification :
Public understanding of the prioritization of target population, which will initially focus on Front Line Workers before covering at-risk population, then general population over time, will be key to ensure overall acceptance and utilization of COVID-19 vaccines and reinforce trust in health and immunization services. This will also support the efforts to counteract the unprecedented abundance of information and misinformation circulating during the pandemic that can also impact the public response.
Strategies, both targeting primary recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine and the general population, will need to be informed by evidence on how Front Line Workers and general population think and feel towards this vaccine introduction, understand their risk perceptions, decision-making factors, and the barriers and drivers influencing demand for uptake of COVID-19 vaccine. Evidence should also showcase the levels of trust in health authorities, vaccine hesitancy, and perceptions of COVID-19 to shape relevant risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) strategies and plans. The COVID-19 vaccine process will require coordinating communications across national and sub-national levels as well as public and private sectors while engaging relevant stakeholders.
The following are pre-requisites to the development of demand generation and communication strategies:
- Support the data collection and analysis efforts to inform the development of a national demand promotion plan ;
- Support the development of a national demand promotion plan based on global guidelines on the COVID-19 vaccine ;
- Support MOH and MOI to coordinate the advocacy, communication, social mobilization, and training taskforce to implement the COVID 19 vaccine introduction ;
- Provide technical assistance to MOH and MOI and partners on the development of evidence-based communication messages and material as guided by global guidelines ;
- Provide support for social listening and rumor management through the establishment of crisis communication ;
- Support capacity building of health workers, CSOs, frontline workers, social mobilizers on-demand generation-linking it with the gains made in RCCE ;
- Monitoring and documentation of lessons learned from the whole process.
Currently, nor RCCE mechanisms under the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information neither UNICEF Malawi has the in-house capacity to perform the above-mentioned planning and preparatory activities to ensure the successful introduction of COVID-19 vaccine in Malawi hence the requirement to engage a short-term technical consultant.
How can you make a difference?
Under the general guidance of the C4D Manager, the consultant is responsible for the coordination of communication technical working groups to accelerate demand generation approaches and strategies at the RCCE subcommittee under the Ministry of Health and the Pubic Communication Group under the Ministry of Information to promote evidence-based Social and Behaviour Change interventions including social mobilization, advocacy, community engagement, community empowerment and monitoring and evaluation as key components of the country programs in Malawi in line with the work plan for COVID-19 Vaccine introduction.
The consultant is expected to provide technical support to the following activities :
Strategic Direction and Coordination :
- Support RCCE to determine strategic directions for Communication for Development (advocacy, social mobilization, communication, community engagement, and behavior change) Technical Working Groups and ensure the strategies are in line with UNICEF Country Office plans to achieve COVID-19 vaccine coverage targets ;
- Make viable recommendations and decisions on appropriate Communication for Development strategies to achieve the RCCE’s goals and objectives, and to support UNICEF’s mission in the country ;
- Coordinate different fora mainly GAVI subgroups for demand generation, and the country’s community engagement working groups under RCCE mechanisms ;
- To provide expert advice and assistance to the RCCE teams by attending task teams including RCCE core groups – Health Promotion Technical Working (MoH) and Public Communication Cluster (MoH) which promote culturally sensitive and tailored Social and Behaviour Change interventions contributing to ensuring sustainable demand and uptake of immunization services.
Demand Generation :
- Ensure that RCCE groups are supported to develop plans and activities to promote acceptance among the general population of the initial ACT/COVAX prioritization guidance, increase trust in health and immunization services, and generate demand and uptake for COVID-19 vaccine among the target population (Front-Line workers in a first phase, then at-risk population, and finally general population over time) ;
- Develop, maintain, and update the RCCE strategy with approaches, plans, and activities geared towards generating demand for COVID-10 vaccine and other primary health care (PHC) services, as needed. The strategy should be founded on sound evidence-based studies with clear objectives, approaches, plans, activities, as well as monitoring and evaluation mechanisms ;
- Provide support for social listening and rumor management through the establishment of crisis communication ;
- Provide support for capacity building of Health Workers, CSOs, Front-Line workers on-demand generation-linking it with the gains made in RCCE ;
- Ensure the approaches used are inclusive, consultative, and participatory to carry along all stakeholders.
Promotion of C4D/SBCC/RCCE principles :
- Provide advice on the appropriate use of Social and Behavioural Change interventions ;
- Provide expert advice, coordination, and technical support to government counterparts and other partners in the development and strategic use of Communication for Development to ensure optimum leverage and impact of communication activities on program, policy, and advocacy activities ;
- Collaborate with the national and subnational Government officials, community/traditional leaders, other UN bodies, and bilateral agencies and NGOs in the organization of activities, operational research, advocacy, and exchange of information and ideas supportive of RCCE’s goals and strategies ;
- Monitor and evaluate activities on the basis of applied targeted communication research and visits to field/project sites, when needed ;
- Disseminate communication research findings, ensuring exchanges of experience and new methods to government officials, program staff, and other UNICEF partners.
Capacity Building for Sustainability :
Oversee and advise on the development of goals, strategy, approaches, plans as well as training materials and activities to build up capacity in participatory and behavior change communication for personnel involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of Communication for Development intervention within RCCE strategies for generating demand for COVID-19 vaccine uptake by communities.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree from a recognized academic institution in one or more of the following areas is preferred in social science, communication, international studies, or a related technical field in UNICEF C4D areas ;
- A first university degree combined with relevant professional work experience and understanding of relevant functions may be considered in lieu of an advanced university degree ;
- Minimum six years progressively responsible experience in humanitarian/development contexts, emergency preparedness, complex emergency/multi-hazard disasters, community engagement and accountability to affected population work with UN, civil society and/or NGO, including program management and/or coordination in major emergency response relevant to the cluster or other related area, is required ;
- Work experience managing large-scale projects, working with governments, working in resource-limited settings, monitoring and evaluating supply chains, and risk management, mitigation will be an asset ;
- Product knowledge on social behavior change, social mobilization, community engagement, and understanding of the principles of communication for development, knowledge, and experience with collecting data and designing evidence-based C4D strategies, a well as risk communication and communication engagement are essential ;
- Written and spoken fluency in English and the local language are required.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
View our competency framework at : http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
For more information find attached ToR for your perusal : 
TOR _Demand Geneation_COVAX_MCO_Final (002).pdf
Use the attached template for preparing a financial proposal : Template for Financial Proposal.xlsx
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
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.