Home-based part-time consultancy to support conceptualization, development and implementation of regional communication campaigns

Contract

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Home-based part-time consultancy to support conceptualization, development and implementation of regional communication campaigns and materials to promote vaccination, protective behaviours against COVID-19, safe return to schools (48 days)

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, results

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an enormous disruption to human lives worldwide and significantly impacted health systems, including routine immunization services. Vaccines for COVID-19 are critical tools for helping bring the pandemic under control and lives back to normal. However, vaccine hesitancy, mainly led by safety concerns triggered by misinformation, has the potential to prolong the pandemic and the suffering.

The COVID-19 vaccines currently available have the potential to prevent illness, hospitalizations, and deaths. However, it is still unclear if it can stop transmission, especially in an environment with several variants of the COVID-19 virus. Moreover, due to the limited vaccine availability and the fact that there are currently no vaccines widely approved for children, public health and social measures (e.g., mask-wearing and distancing) remain critical to control the spread of the virus.

Ensuring that the public has access to easy-to-understand and reliable information that addresses their questions and concerns is key to tackle vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and ensure the adoption of protective public health and social measures. Reinforcing the importance of these measures during the summer and when children/young people go back to schools will be particularly critical.

The UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia is looking for a consultant who will support the Communication for Development section in the conceptualization, development and implementation of regional communication campaigns and materials to promote vaccination, protective behaviours against COVID-19, safe return to schools and other topics identified by the team.

How can you make a difference?

The consultant is expected to support the Communication for Development section by:

• Supporting the conceptualization, of regional communication campaigns on the topics identified by the regional Social and Behaviour Change team.
• Drafting content for different communication materials/channels, including social media, web stories, posters and videos.
• Drafting campaign toolkits for engagement with media and potential influencers.
• Developing social media packages to be shared with partners and relevant stakeholders.
• Working in collaboration with the social media team, record lessons learned from the implementation of the campaigns and develop reports on the results.
• Drafting the “safe return to school” package, with different resources tailored to specific audiences (school authorities, teachers, students, caregivers).
• Drafting content for community outreach materials around COVID-19, immunization, safe return to schools, and other topics identified by the team.
• Drafting content for health workers’ job aids related to COVID-19 and immunization.
• Drafting messages to counter identified misinformation narratives.
• Drafting a media and digital literacy guidance.
• Designing a methodology to pre-test the messages developed under this assignment.
• Supporting the team to pre-test messages and communication materials developed under the assignment.

A monthly work plan will be developed and submitted ahead of each month, identifying the key deliverables and timelines.

Contractual modalities:

• Duration: The contract will be for 5 months between July and November 2021, on a part-time basis (2 days/week), for a total of 48 days.
• Location: The consultant will be home-based. No travel expected.
• Payment: Payment will be made monthly based on submission of monthly invoices by the contractor based on completion of key monthly deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.
• Reporting line: The contractor will be supervised by and report to the Regional C4D Specialist.
• Responsibilities: UNICEF’s responsibilities include timely provision of all required information, guidance and feedback on all deliverables. The contractor is expected to produce products as per defined tasks and deliverables and revise them based on feedback to be provided by UNICEF.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Required:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Social and Behaviour Science, Public Relations, Social Communication, Journalism, or related field.
• At least 5 years of previous experience and expertise in working on communication for behaviour and social change.
• Proven experience with content development for social media.
• Experience in copywriting and editing.
• Demonstrated ability to produce high quality results in a timely manner.
• Excellent command of English.

Desirable:

• Previous experience on media literacy interventions and on issues related to COVID-19, education, and immunization.
• Previous experience in working in Europe and Central Asia region.
• Fluency in Russian.
• Proven familiarity and experience working with the UN (ideally with UNICEF).

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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.

Applications

Interested applicants should submit:

1. A CV and/or Personal history form (downloadable from http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc). Alternatively, if a candidate profile in the UNICEF e-Recruitment System is available, you may download it and submit it as part of application.
2. A financial offer, with a daily rate in USD.

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.