Social and Behavioral Change Specialist

UNICEF, also known as the United Nations Children's Fund, is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide. The agency is among the most widespread and recognizable social welfare organizations in the world, with a presence in 192 countries and territories. UNICEF's activities include providing immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, enhancing childhood and maternal nutrition, improving sanitation, promoting education, and providing emergency relief in response to disasters.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvan-taged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfil their potential.
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy, and operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action.
In recent years, the strategic role of Social and Behavioral Change to achieve results at scale in the South and Eastern Africa region has been increasingly prioritized both in development contexts and humanitarian emergencies: natural disasters, effects of climate change, armed conflicts, and public health emergencies to name a few. The portfolio of SBC system strengthening align with the emerging priorities outlined in the UNICEF’s Contribution to the Africa Agenda 2063 https://www.unicef.org/executiveboard/media/23131/file/2024-32-UNICEF-contribution-Africas-development-agendas-EN-2024-07-17-advance-copy.pdf.

UNICEF ESARO is seeking an experienced SBC specialist to supporting the SBC regional team in advancing the institutionalization of Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) within the region. As part of advancing ESARO’s Thought Leadership, the assignment will focus on supporting the establishment of a consortium of academic institutions working on social and behavioral science. The planned activity aligns with the regional priorities Regional Collaboration for Children Hub (sharepoint.com) and the SBC Mid Term Review strategic shift ESARO MTR 2023 - Social & Behaviour Change.pptx (sharepoint.com) which focuses on enhancing thought leadership for SBC evidence-based programs at scale in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR).
The ESARO SBC team initiated the co-creation process to establish an Academia for SBC Consortium with the major objective to bridge the gap between theory and practice during a workshop attended by 24 institutions from 17 different countries which took place the 14th and 15th of November 2024 in Nairobi. By establishing an Academia for SBC Consortium, we are expecting to support sustainable evidence generation and skills-building opportunities, to increase south-south and north-south cooperation, and to pool resources, ideas, expertise, and partnerships to promote children’s rights at scale in the region and beyond.
The selected candidate will be responsible to support the Academia for SBC Consortium’s Secretariat which will be hosted by UNICEF ESARO for at least 3 years. The SBC System Strengthening Specialist will be responsible for the following activities under the overall supervision of the SBC Regional Specialist in close collaboration with the SBC Managers and focal points in the 21 ESAR countries:
• Support the Consortium’s secretariat including facilitating the taskforce and related coordination mechanisms and the shared annual plan inmplementation (Q1 to Q4);
• Support the drafting of relevant documents such as Memorandum of Understanding, concept notes, rules of engagement, roles and responsibilities, event agenda, human interest story, talking points for senior leadership (Q1 to Q4);
• Support the official launch of the Consortium (Q1);
• Support the development of a digital platform supporting the operationalization of the Consortium (Q1 to Q4);
• Manage content and community interaction in the dedicated digital platform including supporting a visibility and engagement plan (Q2 to Q4);
• Support a network building strategy including supporting an annual symposium and an annual publication of best research and skills-building opportunities (Q3 and/or 4);
• Review of existing related capacity-building tools related to SBC, HCD, BI, community engagement and developing a summary document to introduce the available tools in ESARO (Q1);
• Provide Knowledge Management support the documentation of the Consortium Development and the library of content to be placed in the dedicated digital platform (Q1 to Q4);
• Support an external capacity assessment to be done within the institutions signing to be part of the consortium (Q3 and/or Q4)
• Other support, as needed.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publica-tions/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.
Results/Expected Outputs
1. Digital platform established and managed for at least 9 months
2. Official launch finalized and documented
3. Annual symposium operationalized and documented
4. Coordination mechanism supported and documented with at least 12 monthly reports
5. Annual publications finalized, designed and disseminated
6. Annual Report to document the programme