Individual Consultant, Social & Behavior Change (Community and Individual Engagement), San Jose, Costa Rica

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

TO REVIEW THE FULL DOCUMENT OF THE TERMS OF REFERENCE PLEASE GO TO THIS LINK: https://www.unicef.org/costarica/media/4906/file

There will be considered only the submitted valid offers presented via the UNICEF given platform

The consultancy services included in this contest will take place in the period from end of july and december 2022

1.1 Context

The United Nations Children's Fund in Costa Rica (UNICEF Costa Rica) works to promote positive changes children's and adolescents' lives. The Cooperation Program Document (CPD) signed between UNICEF and the government of Costa Rica 2018-2022 aims to ensure that all children and adolescents equally enjoy the fulfillment of their rights and the socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural benefits the country offers.

UNICEF supports the government of Costa Rica at the national and subnational levels, civil society organizations and children and adolescents themselves in the promotion and defense of their rights. UNICEF seeks to promote innovative, replicable, and scalable models, approaches, and strategies, as well as knowledge and data generation to mobilize different actors in society and encourage policies, programs and projects contributing to reduce inequities and inequalities affecting children and adolescents, focused on highly vulnerable populations such as indigenous populations, with disabilities, migrants, afro-descendants and those living in poverty, among others.

UNICEF is undertaking a global organizational change to strengthen its Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) function, to respond to the growing importance of quality people-centered approaches and implement science-driven change programmes, requiring the expansion to new territories beyond communication and into more applied behavioral science. This aligns with the Social and Behaviour change and Community Engagement dimensions in the 2022-2025 UNICEF Strategic Plan which will be leveraged both as core change strategy and critical result milestones in support to the accelerated efforts toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) achievements at country level.

UNICEF Costa Rica is in the last year of its 2018-2022 CPD. Its programme‘s broad Theory of Change is that thousands of children and adolescents, principally from migrant, indigenous, LGBTQI+, Afrodescendent communities, poor households and those living with disabilities, have been excluded from the social and economic gains that have benefited a large majority of the population, leading to missed opportunities for their development.

To address this situation, three programme outcome areas drive the theory of change: Inclusive Earle Childhood Development and Education; Child Protection; and Social Inclusion, Public Advocacy and Communication. In unison, they aim to remove five fundamental barriers: design of public policies that limit greater incidence; institutional capacity constraints and insufficient coordination; inadequate societal awareness of the plight of children; spending inefficiencies; and specific social norms that perpetuate child rights violations.

In the context of the organizational to SBC, one critical dimension is to improve in-country capacities to define concrete, relevant and measurable social and behavioral results, and to select and implement the right strategies and tactics to achieve them (including enhanced capacity to collect and analyze social data, understand and track behaviors, build efficient engagement and accountability mechanisms, prepare for emergencies, support participation and community-led solutions, align social and relief services with people's needs and values, build trust, and leverage innovations, culture, belief systems, local dynamics and norms for change).

Moreover, the Latin American and Caribbean region has identified violence against children as its flagship priority and all the countries engaged in this consultancy will have this focus. More in particular on sexual violence, corporal punishment and armed violence. Also, another regional priority is human mobility including human trafficking, early childhood development and the response to vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19. UNICEF Costa Rica is currently developing its new CPD 2023 -2027, in alignment with the upcoming UNSDCF. As Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) will be a central cross-cutting area in the upcoming CPD, this consultancy will support our office to strengthen its internal SBCC capacities while robustly responding in 2022 to all forms of violence against children.

For these reasons, UNICEF Costa Rica requires to hire a specialist in Social and Behavior Change to carry out a strategy for the next four years and an action plan for two years that can be extended.

1.2 General Objective:

The Social and Behavior Change specialist will provide technical and operational support to the UNICEF country office in Costa Rica by planning, administering, implementing, monitoring and/or evaluating a variety of SBC initiatives and activities to promote community engagement and participation, and measurable behavioral and social change/mobilization.

1.2 Specific Objectives:

• Design to strategy design and development of SBC activities.

• Implement SBC activities.

• Advocate, network, and partnership building.

• Innovate, knowledge management and capacity building.

1.3 Expected Results:

1. Research and/or participate in conducting comprehensive S&BC situation analysis of social, communication, cultural, economic and political issues in the country/region. Collect and synthesize qualitative and quantitative information and data to support the establishment of comprehensive and evidence-based information for developing and planning the S&BC component of the Country Programme Document.

2. Collect, synthesize, draft and/or organize materials and related documentations for evidence-based S&BC strategies and plans (as a component of the CO and/or UNSDCF Programmes) to ensure optimum impact, scale and sustainability of achievements/results.

3. Assess, select and/or recommend appropriate information and materials for S&BC initiatives verifying accuracy and quality for dissemination.

4. Monitor and assess the impact of S&BC strategies and activities on the CO and UNICEF goals to achieve measureable behavioral and social change resulting in the improvement of children’s rights and wellbeing. Submit qualitative report/synthesis of results for development planning and improvement.

5. Design, develop, pre-testing context specific S&BC materials and support to counterparts/ partners for implementation

6. Collaborate and/or consult with internal and external partners to provide operational and technical support to research, develop, and produce evidence-based strategies and test, produce and use quality S&BC materials, organize events and activities to ensure community engagement and participation, and maximum outreach and impact on behavioral and social change.

7. Provide technical, administrative and logistical support and background materials to carry out S&BC strategies and activities and recommend operational strategies, approaches, plans, methods and procedures to ensure community engagement and participation, and optimum outreach and impact.

8. Assess and recommend potential contacts, networks, resources and tools to support maximum impact and outreach of S&BC initiatives.

9. Follow up and monitor the production of S&BC materials to ensure technical quality, consistency and relevancy of communications materials that are developed, produced and disseminated to target audience (e.g. individuals, communities, government officials, partners, media etc).

10. Collect, assess and organize information for budget planning and management of programme funds and prepare documentations and related materials for financial planning for S&BC initiatives.

11. Monitor/track the use of resources as planned and verify compliance with organizational guidelines, rules and regulations and standards of ethics and transparency.

12. Build and maintain partnerships through networking and proactive collaboration with sub-national, national and international civil society organizations, community groups, leaders and other critical partners in the community and civil society to reinforce cooperation through engagement, empowerment and self-determination and to pursue opportunities for greater advocacy to promote UNICEF mission and goals for child rights, social equity and inclusiveness.

13. Collaborate with internal global/regional communication partners to harmonize, link and/or coordinate messaging to enhance S&BC outreach and contribution to programmatic outcomes

14. Share best practices and knowledge learned/products with global/local partners and stakeholders to build capacity of practitioners/users and disseminate products to key audiences including partners and donors.

15. Support the organization, administration and implementation of capacity building initiatives, including partnerships with training and academic institutions including private and public universities.

16. Enhance the internal competencies of Communications Associate, and support stakeholders/partners across programme sectors in SBC planning, implementation and evaluation in support of programmes/projects.

1.4 Reporting:

The consultant will directly report to the Programme Manager and will work directly with the Communications Associate with support of the Communication Officer.

1.5 Consultancy duration

The consultancy will start at the end of July 2022 and until December 2022.

1.6 Recruitment Qualifications

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: social and behavioral science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, communication, or another relevant technical field.

• A minimum of four years of proven experience in developing and implementing social change strategies and behavioral norms in one or more of the following areas is required: social development Programme planning, communication for development, public advocacy or another related area. Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

• Fluency in Spanish and English is required.

2 Admissibility of offers

Offers that meet the general, specific, legal and technical conditions requested in this poster will be admissible. Any offer submitted late will not be considered.

2.1 Evaluation of offers

Individuals with proven experience in similar jobs may submit offers. The technical offer must contain:

• Presentation of the methodology to be used.

• Program of activities and work schedule.

• Resume of the bidder.

• University degrees of the bidder.

• Examples of consultancies or previous work.

Also, a financial proposal must be presented in US Dollars according to the products, including all the costs for their production (fees, travel expenses, international flights if necessary and other operating costs, as the case may be), as well as the required payment schedule.

Remarks:

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 accomplishment of our mission from the different types of connections possible. In this regard, the Organization is interested to count with people committed with the promotion of gender equality and no discrimination.

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.

For offers to be considered admissible, the consultants (if is located in Costa Rica) must be registered before Ministerio de Hacienda and be up to date with Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social

For UNICEF is fundamental that those who would like to become part of our grand mission live by our values of Care, Respect, Trust, Integrity and Responsibility, as well as to demonstrate the basic competencies of our organization.

To know more about our values and competency framework:

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (if applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.