Consultancy: Consultant to support UNICEF’s global demand for immunization team to track, monitor and document initiatives on COVID-19 vaccines confidence and uptake - Health Section, PG, NY

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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.

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Consultancy Title: Consultancy to support UNICEF’s global demand for immunization team to track, monitor and document initiatives on COVID-19 vaccines confidence and uptake

Section/Division/Duty Station: PD/Health Section/Immunization Unit/Remote

Duration: Nov 1, 2021- Oct 17, 2022 (11.5 months)

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Under the overall guidance of the Senior Adviser, Communications for Development and the direct supervision of the Communications for Development Specialist - COVAX, the purpose of this consultancy is to support UNICEF Programme Group’s Demand for immunization team to monitor, track and document progress on vaccine confidence and uptake initiatives globally. The consultant will collaborate and coordinate with global, regional and country offices to synthesize programmatic results into high-quality knowledge products documenting outcomes of vaccine acceptance and uptake projects including activities funded by the Solidarity Fund, BMZ vaccine confidence and uptake project, as well as the Vaccine Demand Observatory initiatives.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Scope of Work:

Achieving high uptake of a safe and effective vaccines to control the spread of COVID-19 is a public health emergency priority. Given the ongoing risk that COVID-19 poses to frontline health workers, people with high-risk medical conditions, and other vulnerable groups, there is a need for countries to support vaccine uptake in those priority population groups, as well as to expand the introduction to general population. While many countries have relatively robust immunization programmes targeting infants and adolescents, COVID-19 vaccines necessitate a shift in demand strategies and approaches to ensure vaccine acceptance and uptake among different population groups.

Since the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines, numerous barriers affecting acceptance have contributed to low uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. A key factor are inadequate vaccine availability for low income countries, but countries are also faced with weak health systems, supply disruptions, mistrust in the vaccines or institutions responsible for providing them, lack of understanding about the need for vaccination, variations in confidence about vaccine safety and benefits, lack of a recommendation from a healthcare provider and practical issues affecting ease of access to the vaccines.

In order to accelerate efforts to promote vaccine confidence and address other demand-side barriers causing low uptake, UNICEF and partners are implementing diverse interventions to promote vaccine confidence and uptake globally, premised on the five pillars below:

  1. National Planning for demand creation: UNICEF country offices work closely with government health agencies on demand for immunization and use the networks of civil society organizations and social mobilizers to reach the heart of communities. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF has been supporting countries to strengthen capacities in areas such as social listening, evidence and data generation, and community engagement as part of country and regional Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) coordination efforts to promote vaccine uptake.
  2. Improving the availability, analysis, access and use of behavioral and social data for vaccine uptake and demand:

UNICEF’s supports Governments across the globe to generate data and analyze evidence to inform the design of vaccine acceptance initiatives. This is achieved through supporting implementation and testing of interventions, documentation, monitoring, learning, evaluation and scaling up the most promising interventions and innovations to better serve hesitant, vulnerable, and/or under-immunized groups, including health care and community health workers, and vulnerable populations including the urban poor, nomadic, remote rural, IDPs.

3. Supporting countries to design behaviorally informed interventions:

Trust in institutions and systems involved in delivering vaccines and trust in health systems as a whole, as well as concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines are major barriers to acceptance of the vaccine. UNICEF and partners employ a mix of data-driven, people-centered, context-specific, and multi-component approaches to promote trust building as well as public health social measures and preventive behaviors including among people who have been vaccinated.

4. Supporting countries to develop promising approaches to improve service experience:

UNICEF’s interventions support understanding of the drivers of low uptake by health workers and designing effective behavioral interventions aimed at promoting confidence among healthcare workers in their decision to get vaccinated and to effectively recommend vaccination to the individuals and communities they serve.

5. Civil society and community engagement:

Recognizing the influence and potential of influential groups such as religious and community leaders underscores the important role, they play in building community confidence in the vaccine and support for COVID-19 preventive and protective practices. UNICEF through its extended networks with Faith based and civil society organizations leads the engagement and meaningful participation of a diverse and broad-based constituency of religious leaders, Women-of-Faith and Youth-in Faith to advance its work on RCCE and demand for immunization at global, regional and country levels.

Objectives of the assignment:

  1. To provide periodic analysis of progress of COVID-19 vaccines uptake through interactive dashboards and reports to inform course correction and improve future vaccine demand interventions
  2. To generate high quality knowledge products documenting innovations around key themes including social listening, behavioral data, community engagement approaches within the context of Covid-19 vaccines and routine immunization uptake
  3. To contribute to the socialization on knowledge on vaccine confidence and uptake through different platforms aimed at sharing insights and key lessons from the two outputs above.

Qualifications

1. Education:

Advanced university degree in social sciences, statistics, planning development, monitoring

2. Work experience:

  • At least 5 years of professional experience in programme monitoring, qualitative data analysis and visualization and knowledge management
  • Strong writing skills with track record of published knowledge products
  • Demonstrated experience working with multi-cultural environment
  • Experience in working with global and regional partnerships will be an added value
  • Ability to plan, coordinate and disseminate knowledge products.

3. Language Proficiency:

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Requirements****:

  • Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
  • Financial proposal that will include:
  • your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
    • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
    • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
    • Indicate your availability
  • Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
  • At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
  • Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org