EOI - Inclusion in the database of potential social and behaviour change (SBC) consultants

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About the Organization

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world. And we never give up!

UNICEF is a leading humanitarian and development agency working globally for the rights of every child. Child rights begin with safe shelter, nutrition, protection from disaster and conflict and traverse the life cycle: pre-natal care for healthy births, clean water and sanitation, health care and education. UNICEF has spent nearly 74 years working in continuously improving the lives of children and their families. Working with and for children through adolescence and into adulthood requires a global presence, with goal is to produce results and monitor their effects. UNICEF also lobbies and partners with leaders, thinkers and policy makers to help all children realize their rights, especially the most disadvantaged.

About the Proposal

In the last Country Programme, Social and Behaviour Change is integrated within six outcome areas. This arrangement provides a space for better convergence and collaborative planning while allowing sharing of resources, leading to more efficiency in achieving the outcomes. Social and Behaviour change communication is a key strategy to meet UNICEF’s new CP outcomes and the objectives of sectoral and cross-sectoral programme outcomes that can support: 1) GOI national flagship programmes (NHM, ICDS, ICPS, SSA, SBM etc.) as well as the 2) Early Childhood Development (ECD) and adolescents programming - through its focus on influencing, changing and developing behaviours and social norms to achieving equitable results and rights for children.

Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) is central to the achievement of programmatic results. In each sector, SBC is essential to adoption of positive and protective practices for children, such as immunization, feeding practices, continued learning, hygiene and sanitation, protection from violence. And across sectors, Social and Behaviour Change is important for social change and transformation to make communities inclusive and equitable. Significant achievements have been made in SBC across the outputs in terms of reach, engagement and participation. More could have been achieved if 1) more investments and focus was made on evidence generation for adapting interventions swiftly and measuring attribution to behaviour change 2) a standard and better accountability systems across the programmes were followed and adhered.

The Social and Behaviour Change global guidance suggests focusing on two aspects necessary for change – 1) the people,communities as well as the work force within different programmes and 2) the context in which people act. There is a need to understand the mindset of the people, their perceptions and beliefs, how people make decisions and interact with each other. There is an equal need to understand contextual drivers such as social relations, time, distance from service delivery points, and ease of practice. The bottleneck analysis by sectors has articulated demand and social norm related challenges that lead to deprivations across health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and child protection behaviours.  Financial constraints, poor economic background of families, limited understanding of the value of accessing the service, lack of agency among communities in engaging with education and protection systems and social protection schemes are already well articulated challenges.

The Social and Behavior Change Communication and gender strategy for the ICO Country Programme will comprise of seven approaches that will be embedded within and applied across all the office programme flagships. These include:

• Establishment of long-term mega-partnerships (e.g. with FBOs, Tribal groups, Artist Federations, PRIs, Self Help Groups, farmer cooperatives, youth networks etc.) and trans-media platforms (Eg.TV, video, digital media, community radio and folk media/participatory theatre). These partnerships will be leveraged to expand opportunities for leveraging culturally appropriate forms, creating new social narratives and establishing on-going platforms for dialogue amongst families and communities towards influencing deep-rooted social norms and collective agreements to address identified behavioural and socio-cultural barriers.
• Targeted Social and Behaviour Change and campaigns will extend demand generation to the hard-to-reach, underserved and marginalized families and communities towards increasing their access to services and benefits. This will include promotion of Health and Nutrition Days, Adolescent days, Immunization and Back-to-school campaigns.
• Building social capital of communities, adolescents and youth will be achieved through social mobilization of local leaders, volunteer groups and networks; facilitating the creation of  spaces and mechanisms for strengthening connections and fostering trust within communities and a sense of unity, cooperation and social equity across tribes, caste and religion; breaking attitudes towards dependency and stimulating  community-led action; strengthening social accountability with community engagement in monitoring and feedback regarding quality of and access to services. 
• Institutionalization of systems for Social and behaviour Change capacity development.  This includes improved interpersonal counselling and facilitation skills of service providers and frontline workers and their respective supervisors to ensure quality promotion of demand and utilization of services and adoption of recommended practices.
• System strengthening for Social and Behaviour Change governance and accountability will be supported by providing technical support, guidelines, quality standards and tools to national, state and district programme managers to improve the planning, budgeting, coordination, convergence, and monitoring of Social and Behaviour Change Communication activities both within and across sectors particularly at decentralized level.
• Social and Behaviour Change evidence generation and knowledge exchange will be supported to improve strategic planning and collective advocacy for Social and Behaviour Change Communication interventions, including specific approaches to address the role of gender norms. An example would be to integrate Social and Behaviour Change quality monitoring indicators within administrative reporting systems as well as key behavioural indicators within government population level data systems. In terms of research, partnerships and alliances with academic institutions will serve as hubs or think tanks for Social and Behaviour Change discourse and for generating evidence on Social Norms to inform Social and Behaviour Change interventions. Documentationwill be supported by collection, analysis and presentation of case studies, human interest stories and special feature stories/articles on process, progress and results of evidence based, strategic and systemic social and behaviour change communication interventions/investments to improve communication for development programmes.
• New Media and use of ICT for Social and Behaviour Change – This will include use of social media and new media for Social and Behaviour Change, Artificial Intelligence through exploration of human – machine learning process to lead and facilitate the social and behaviour change communication interventions via application of AI theories, concepts, and techniques.

India Country Office CO has also committed to engage with the national and state governments for national priorities such as Poshan Abhiyaan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and Swachch Bharat Mission (SBM) where Social and Behaviour Change and social movements are identified as primary strategies. 

Purpose

UNICEF is trying to build a pool of potential high-caliber candidates to be hired as Social and Behaviour Change Consultants, from which UNICEF country office and different state offices can swiftly select and fill a requirement through a faster contracting process as soon as a need is identified.

Candidates who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to apply following which a desk review of their skills and experience will be done to determine whether they qualify for the Social and Behaviour Change database. The process will ensure all candidates in a Social and Behaviour Change database are evaluated prior to recommendation for a specific consultancy opportunity. Successful candidates will be notified and placed in a Social and Behaviour Changedatabase for a three (3) year period. However, engagement of identified consultants for specific assignments would be as per the terms and conditions specified in the contract.

The vetted Social and Behaviour Change Consultants, once in place, will allow the Social and Behaviour Change network and programme colleagues to select three or more potential candidates for further appraisal and selection of one candidate, rather than going through a formal advertisement process for each consultancy assignment. 

This will expedite the placement of consultants (both short term and long term) and provide the scope to choose from a vast pool of potential candidates with Social and Behaviour Change expertise and background. Consideration will be given to those with understanding and expertise in multi-sectoral programming and have worked on delivering programmes / projects that address cross-cutting issues and objectives. The intended flagship results are focused on neonatal and child survival, stunting reduction, elimination of open defecation, all children in school and learning and prevention of child marriage. 

The database will be managed centrally by Supply & Procurement (S&P) section, New Delhi. In this context, should the currently on-board consultants with UNICEF be interested in being considered for future opportunities with UNICEF, they need to apply to the advertisement.

Location(s)

The position would be responsible for providing technical support to national / state / divisional / district level/ sub-district levels (in certain cases) Social and Behaviour Change programming in UNICEF supported states in India, with specific deliverables to be achieved for improved nutrition outcomes. The position would be based at Country Office or State or selected district HQs within the states.

Possible locations are: New Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad/Telangana, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Raipur, Assam and NE states and Ranchi and other locations (districts) where UNICEF will be providing technical support.

Eligibility

• Education: Master’s or Post Graduate Diploma in Social and Behavioral Science / Development Communication/ Social Marketing/Sociology/ Anthropology/ International Development / Public health / Public policy/Behavioral Economics or other relevant social science degree is required.
• Technical knowledge: Minimum 5 years or more work experience in the field of Social and Behaviour Change Communication/ Developmental communication. Excellent technical knowledge about social / communication development programming, planning, implementation and monitoring/evaluation, strategic communication, public advocacy related to policy influencing and implementation and/or related areas. Social sector programme experience can include public health, nutrition, WASH, women and child development, education programs especially in the context of India and/or South Asia.
• Language: Fluency in English and Hindi is required. Knowledge of other local Indian language as relevant to the state is an asset. Good negotiation and influencing skills supported by excellent writing, communication and presentation skills is desirable.
• Computer literate and conversant with MS Office and its application, internet, e-mail
• Knowledge/familiarity with the national flagship programs (NNM, NHM, BBBP, ICDS, MDM, Tribal Welfare, Livelihood Mission, and others)
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-disciplinary environment and to establish harmonious and effective working relationships with governmental, non-governmental and civil society organizations

How to Apply

Your application should be made through the online Portal and should contain the following 4 attachments:

• A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining how the qualifications and skill set of the candidate are suitable for this position. Please also confirm if you are open to working in all locations or else specify your location preferences in your cover letter (to be uploaded online under cover letter)
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (to be uploaded online under CV/resume)
• One sample of a relevant Social and Behaviour Change strategy OR campaigns OR publications OR reports OR article (To be uploaded under work sample, in case the file is heavy then share a link to the work sample in your uploaded document)
• Please also complete the MS form at the link shared

Apply now

Closing Date: 31 March 2023

For more information please check the Link

Tags Social Change Others