National Consultancy – Demand Generation support for RCCE to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi

Jobs in Lilongwe Malawi UNICEF Jobs in Lilongwe National Consultancy – Demand Generation support for RCCE to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi Jobs in Lilongwe at UNICEF National Consultancy – Demand Generation support for RCCE to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi Employment opportunities UNICEF

UNICEF

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, 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/UNICEFCompetencies.pdf

For more information find attached ToR for your perusal

TOR Demand GeneationCOVAXMCOFinal (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.

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Jobs in Lilongwe Malawi UNICEF Jobs in Lilongwe National Consultancy – Demand Generation support for RCCE to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi Jobs in Lilongwe at UNICEF National Consultancy – Demand Generation support for RCCE to introduce COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi Employment opportunities UNICEF

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