International Consultancy - Social and community listening consultant, Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi

Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

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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.

And we never give up.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Background and Justification

Social and community listening has emerged as a vital component of Social and Behavior Change (SBC) initiatives in the context of health, child protection, nutrition, SRHR and HIV, climate change, transition from learning to earning, emergencies and other core areas of UNICEF work. It serves as an early warning system that allows UNICEF ESAR SBC and other sections teams and COs to monitor public sentiment, identify information gaps, and adapt our community engagement strategies accordingly. This is particularly relevant in the Eastern and Southern Africa region, where digital communication and social media are fast becoming one of the main sources of information and engagement.

Scope of Work

Goal and objective: Under the supervision of the SBC Emergency Specialist, ESARO and in close collaboration with the relevant sections, COs the SBC Social and community listening (SCL) Consultant for the ESARO Social and Behavioural Change team will be responsible for supporting the planning, execution, and monitoring of the ESARO SBC social listening strategy across various platforms, generation and utilization of behaviour and social science data on community insights.

Activities and Tasks:

1. Support implementation of a Regional Social and Community Listening Strategy and

• Produce highlighting key issues, topics, concerns raised, monitoring trends, misinformation, rumours, disinformation, knowledge, attitudes, and practices shifts, influencers and reference group, etc. providing recommendations on potential messaging and potential programmatic focus to RO and COs.

• Through online monitoring tools, identify highly assessed conversation threads to identify wrong information and/or myths being circulated in ESAR.

• Expand the existing Regional Social and Community Listening Strategy and its implementation to include other programme areas (e.g., SRHR and HIV, Nutrition, Child Protection (Violence against girls, boys and women, child marriage, FGM, child online protection, girls’ empowerment, emergency, immunization, etc.). SCL process will also use insights that are generated from the SCL initiative on child marriage and FGM led by HQ to effectively utilize the insights that emerge from those analysis.

2. Community insights data utilization

• Support RO and COs in collection, compilation, analysis and use of community insights and beliefs on behaviour and social barriers and drivers around key programmatic areas.

• Review guidelines and tools for conducting social and community listening to equip COs with practical tools and templates.

2. Outputs/Deliverables:

No.

Output

Deliverable

Submission date

Payment

1.1

Implementation of the Regional social and community listening strategy

12 Regional monthly social media and community insights analysis on key programme areas of UNICEF.

By 30 May 2025

15%

1.2

4 Quarterly thematic reports based on geographic relevance.

By 30 May 2025

10%

1.3

10 Ad hoc reports on rumours or new trends in the region including reviews on secondary data

By 30 May 2025

10%

2.1

Technical assistance to COs provided

3 toolkits on rapid community insights tools are developed

By 30 January 2025

5%

2.2

Social and community listening system and action trackers are established in 10 COs integrating CFMs and RQAs

By 30 March 2025

10%

2.3

10 country specific reports are produced

By 30 May 2025

10%

3.1

Capacity building to COs and UNICEF ESARO partners

5 sessions on social and community listening for action for UNICEF COs SBC staff and their counterparts.

By 30 January 2025

10%

3.2

Individual coaching to 5 COs through at least 3 sessions to each

By 28 February 2025

10%

4.1

Consultancy final report, Documentation and Lessons learned

Lessons learnt and recommendations documented both from the regional level and in at least 3 countries.

By 1 July 2025

5%

4.2

4 case studies on generation and usage of community feedback data for informing SBC interventions.

By 1 July 2025

5%

4.3

Delivery of final consultancy report and 15 slides max PPT on key achievements

By 1 July 2025

10%

Payment Schedule

Payment schedule is as per above table. Payments will be per deliverable as indicated. Payment is upon satisfactory completion of deliverables.

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary. The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.

Please note that the final remuneration will be negotiated by HR.

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

Education

• Advanced university degree or equivalent experience in Statistics, Communications, Marketing, Data Science, Behaviour Science or relevant areas. *A first-level university degree in a relevant field

combined with and additional two years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Work Experience

• At least 5 years of proven experience in social media monitoring and analysis and/or digital listening

• Previous experience with social media management, trend monitoring, and influencing

• Experience in the design and implementation of interventions on rumour management/misinformation

• Previous experience in working with UN, and/or other development partners.

• Excellent writing skills planning and coordination skills, with proven ability to work independently.

Language Proficiency

• Fluency in English (verbal and written). Knowledge of French and Portuguese is an added advantage

Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:

1. Care

2. Respect

3. Integrity

4. Trust

5. Accountability

6. Sustainability

Core Competencies

• Builds and Maintains Partnerships

• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

• Drive to achieve results for impact

• Innovates and embraces change

• Manages ambiguity and complexity

• Thinks and acts strategically

• Works collaboratively with others

Conditions

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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 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.

• The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.

• Consultants are responsible for determining and meeting their tax or duty liabilities in accordance with local or other applicable laws. UNICEF does not issue statements of earnings to consultants.

Risks

Given the increased workload around supporting RCCE in ESAR, due to the increased number of public health outbreaks in the region, not having this additional support poses a reputational risk to UNICEF.

As this is a contractor who will be paid per deliverable, this poses a risk of getting to the end of contract with some deliverables unaccomplished due to factors which may be beyond the contractor.

How to Apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit the following to the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System):

• Motivation letter

• CV

• An indication of their availability and fee/rate expressed in US$ for international contract to undertake the terms of reference.

Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.

Apply now

Added 1 month ago - Updated 29 days ago - Source: unicef.org