International Consultant to support development of SBC strategy on WASH and MH with UNICEF in Uzbekistan

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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.

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For every child, visibility!

Background Access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is essential for good health, welfare and productivity and is widely recognized as a human right. Inadequate WASH is primarily responsible for the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. Diarrheal diseases exacerbate malnutrition and remain a leading global cause of child deaths globally.

Almost 60 percent of deaths due to diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene and sanitation. Hand washing with soap alone can cut the risk of diarrhea by at least 40 percent and significantly lower the risk of respiratory infections. Clean home environments and good hygiene are important for preventing the spread of both pneumonia and diarrhea, and safe drinking water and proper disposal of human waste, including child faeces, are vital to stopping the spread of diarrheal disease among children and adults.

The occurrence of seasonal diseases like diarrhea, flue, and communicable diseases like Hepatitis A in the country entails the importance of advancing proper hand washing and hygiene practices among children and communities.

According to the Uzbekistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2021-2022, the country has made significant progress in ensuring access to basic drinking water, basic sanitation, and basic hygiene services. The data indicates that 95% of the household population has access to basic drinking water, which is a positive development. The highest prevalence of access to basic drinking water was observed in Tashkent city and the Central-Eastern region, with rates of 100% and 99%, respectively. However, there is room for improvement, as the Southern region reported the lowest access at 93%.

Regarding sanitation facilities, 92% of the household population has access to basic sanitation, with 94% of household members using improved sanitation facilities. Access to centralized sewerage shows a significant discrepancy across the geo-economic regions, with the highest percentage (94%) found in Tashkent city and the lowest percentage (5%) in the Southern region. This disparity highlights the need for targeted efforts to improve sanitation services in underserved regions.

Additionally, the survey provides insights into the challenges faced by rural communities. Approximately 3% of the rural population spends more than one hour daily fetching water, indicating that water scarcity is still an issue in certain areas. Moreover, it is noteworthy that in 42% of households, women and girls are primarily responsible for collecting drinking water in households without drinking water on premises. This gendered burden underscores the importance of addressing gender norms and practices.

Moreover, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the importance of safely managed WASH services and hygiene behaviors. These are fundamental elements in protecting human health from infectious disease outbreaks. Proper hand hygiene is one of the most effective measures in the context of COVID-19. The continuity and sustainability of WASH services is critical for improved hand hygiene access and community engagement through enhanced facilities and products and using multimodal awareness, risk communication, and behavior change techniques.

Noting challenges above, UNICEF is supporting the MOH in undertaking a comprehensive and representative KAPN on WASH to understand the effective ways of improvement the situation considering key behavior drivers existing in communities to develop an efficient SBC strategy for adopt a positive behavior among target groups.

UNICEF applied 7 social and behavior change approaches in programming, they are: (1) Applied Behavioural Science; (2) Social and Behaviour Change Communication; (3) Community Engagement. (4) Service Improvements. (5) Systems Strengthening. (6) Supportive Public Policies. (7) Social Movements.

The SBC strategy for WASH is expected to be built on the above listed SBC approaches.

Technically support this process, UNICEF is looking for an international expert to assist the MOH in the development of the SBC strategy on WASH including Menstrual Hygiene component based on the findings of WASH Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Norms (KAPN) conducted in 2023.

Scope of Work: Under the overall guidance of the Communication Chief and daily collaboration with the Social and Behavior Change officers, the international consultant will: - Inception phase o Conduct desk review of existing resources, policy documents, guidelines, IEC/BCC materials, studies and other documents related to WASH and SBC, including KAPN Survey on WASH conducted in 2023 to identify key issues to be addressed as well as SBC approaches to be used for addressing those issues. o Conduct Key Informant In- depth Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with key partners, targeted groups and UNICEF team to better understand the issue (including key behavioural drivers of targeted groups) and potential approaches for addressing them. o Define objectives of the SBC strategy, with a clear methodology for defining the different strategy sections (behavioural science models to identify the bottlenecks, frameworks, etc.)

- Content development phase o Develop the draft content of the WASH SBC strategy (The strategy should have a situation analysis (informed by a model), a framework including selected SBC approaches, objectives, description of M&E framework and the workplan, with detailed activities include aspects related to cost per activity, roles and accountabilities of different stakeholders involved in the implementation, timelines). o Facilitate a consultative meeting to present/validate the content and implementation plan to receive feedback from all involved stakeholders and partners for finalization of the document. o Finalize and submit the final strategy with a robust M&E framework for further approval by partners.

Performance indicators for evaluation of results: The performance of work will be evaluated based on the following indicators: • Completion of tasks specified in ToR. • Compliance with the established deadlines for submission of deliverables. • Quality of deliverables. • Demonstration of high standards of work.

Contractual modalities: • Location: The consultant will be mainly home-based, with one travel to Uzbekistan - validation workshop • Payment: UNICEF will issue a contract in USD. The payment will be made in USD by bank transfer following the acceptance of the deliverable by the supervisor. • Reporting: The consultants will be supervised by and will report to the chief of communication with daily collaboration with SBC officer.

Work Assignments Overview

1. Proposed content of the SBC Strategy based on desk review and meetings with partners.

2. Development of the SBC strategy based on the desk review, KIIs, FGDs, and KAPN findings and discussion with partners

3. Facilitation of the validation session and submission of the final version of the SBC strategy with adjustments after the validation.

Deliverables/Outputs - Timeline

1. Robust Inception report with a brief outline of the SBC strategy - 15 days

2. Draft SBC strategy - 25 days

3. Validation session and final strategy with implementation plan and M&E framework - 10 days

Total of number of working days: 50

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

• Advanced university degree (post-graduation, Masters or PhD) in social studies, public health, health communication/promotion, social and behaviour change in Health sector with focus on WASH and MHor.
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in development of SBC strategies, including for health sector with focus on WASH and MH.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Fluent in English.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

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. 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.