National Consultancy for Communication for Immunization

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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,

UNICEF Laos is seeking a National Consultancy for Communication for Immunization to implementation and monitoring of various RCCE activities on- ground. The duration of this assignment will be a period of 12 months, starting as soon as possible.

Sum****mary of key functions/accountabilities:

Under the overall guidance of Social and Behavioral Change Specialist in UNICEF Lao PDR, the consultant will work closely with the CCEH and UNICEF Lao PDR to strengthen RCCE. In particular, the consultant will:

1. Ensure timely coordination with representatives from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and mass organizations at central, provincial, and district levels for effective implementation of RCCE activities.
2. Organize and conduct monitoring field visits in close coordination with the Center for Communication and Education in Health (CCEH) and the National Immunization Program (NIP) to assess the progress and identify areas for improvement.
3. Review reports from provincial and district representatives to identify challenges and barriers in conducting RCCE activities on the ground and provide recommendations for addressing them.
4. Participate in field visits along with UNICEF and MOH representatives to ensure effective implementation of RCCE activities. Facilitate translations for non-Lao speakers to ensure that information is accessible to all.
5. Support the NIP Immunization Unit at provincial and district levels in organizing district-level workshops, briefings, and trainings on the importance of strengthening risk communication and community engagement (RCCE). This will involve engaging local government health officials, health workers, members of Village Development Committees, mass organizations, and local media.
6. Support health center staff in conducting social mobilization and RCCE activities with village chiefs, community leaders, and Village Health Volunteers to promote the benefits of COVID vaccination and reaching zero-dose children for vaccination.
7. Support district and health center-level staff in implementing targeted messages in local languages using appropriate means of communication to reach underserved, hard-to-reach, and remote communities.
8. Perform generic tasks related to coordination for dissemination of communication materials to ensure that they are effectively distributed.
9. Assess gender-based barriers to health literacy, vaccine literacy, and vaccination uptake and provide recommendations to address them.
10. Collaborate with the gender specialist for intervention planning and implementation, to ensure that gender considerations are integrated into all aspects of the RCCE activities.

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

• Bachelor's Degree in communication, social work, community engagement or any other relevant qualifications.
• Excellent communication skills in Lao and English
• Internet research skills, ability to handle and interpret data
• Good writing skills
• Be creative and proactive
• Ability to conceptualize, plan and execute innovative ideas
• Displays open, co-operative behavior with other team members
• Remains calm and in control, and good humored even under pressure
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view
• Sets priorities, produces quality outputs
• Flexibility to attend events during weekends, if needed
• Desire to work with and gain the confidence and respect of people with different language, national, ethnic and cultural backgrounds
• Respect for the principles of the Government of Lao PDR and United Nations
• Ability to multitask, respect timeframes and meet deadlines

Assessment Criteria:

A) Technical Evaluation (maximum 100 points), weight 80%.

The passing mark of the technical evaluation 70 points.

• Degree in Communication, HR or similar (20 points)
• Knowledge of team building and event management (30 points)
• Experience in staff engagement, development of organizational culture (30 points)
• Quality of past work (e.g. understanding, methodology) (20 points)

B) Financial Proposal (25 points), weight 20%

The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest Financial Proposal that is opened /evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum 70 points score in the technical evaluation. Other Financial Proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of applications:

• Letter of Interest (cover letter)
• CV or Resume
• Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments (if available)
• Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including travel, medical insurance and accommodation cost for this assignment as per work assignment.

Please find attached TOR here: Terms of Reference C4I_VA.pdf

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 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.

“This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either: a role with direct contact with children, works directly with child, is a safeguarding response role or has been assessed as an elevated risk role for child safeguarding. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) applies”.

Remarks:

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