Social and Behaviour Change in Emergencies (SBCiE) Roster (2023-2026) - Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

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.

For every child, a champion

How can you make a difference?

BACKGROUND

Global crises, including climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crises, and conflicts followed by mass displacement, have increased vulnerabilities, risks and inequalities within and between countries in the region. Migration into Europe since 2015 has mostly taken the form of an influx of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, violence, insecurity and a lack of opportunities. Between 2014 and 2020, 2.2 million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe through the Mediterranean migration routes, including 99,463 who came in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the health and wellbeing of refugee and migrants already living with limited access to basic services. The rising xenophobia and discrimination against refugees based on religion, nationality, and ethnicity across the region has aggravated the situation.

The geopolitical situation remains fragile in the subregion with a significant number of frozen and active conflicts. 6.5 million people, including 1.2 million children, are currently displaced within Ukraine, while 7.7 million refugees, 90 percent women and children, have fled to Europe. Altogether, 27.3 million people, including 7.1 million children, need assistance in Ukraine and in 19 countries in Europe. With much of the region in an active seismic zone, countries in Central Asia and South Caucasus experience medium to small tremors frequently, often followed by floods and mudslides. This situation makes it crucial to strengthen the government's capacities to prepare for and respond to emergencies. Moreover, there are growing concerns around the negative impact of climate change in the Europe and Central Asia region, including increases in intensity and frequency of floods, annual air temperatures, changes in river runoff and precipitation patterns. In addition, many countries in the region are exposed to a high concentration of air pollution due to the use of outdated energy sources, negatively affecting the health of children and their families.

Implications of these crisis increased the risks of child survival, growth, protection and development, as well as risk of misinformation, disinformation, rumors, hate speech, trust and confidence to the systems and services in the crisis affected countries. These challenges have significant behavioral dimensions from the level of information of refugees on how, where and why to access and use services to misinformation about the quality of the services, to service providers’ interpersonal communication and community engagement capacity to promote adoption of life-saving practices to reduce the vulnerabilities of marginalized people and building resilience, inclusive and peaceful societies.

Investing in CE, SBC is central to reaching the last mile with community engagement, social and behaviour change envisioned as key standard actions for more responsive, relevant and sustainable humanitarian programmes towards high-quality community/civic engagement from preparedness to different phases of humanitarian response. CE, SBC in humanitarian action calls for examining more complex, cross-cutting and underlying barriers to resilience and community well-being, including societal drivers of inequity, fragility and conflict. It supports well-planned engagement with communities to reduce their vulnerability to different types of crises while being more inclusive and local in approach.

Across its countries, regional and headquarters offices, UNICEF often engages consultants to support to maximize CE, SBC efforts in humanitarian assistance programmes through strengthening countries’ capacities for emergency preparedness and response, research, strategy design and planning, implementation, M&E, institutional capacity building, building partnership for social change, coordination to strengthen systems, services and platforms, contributing to: 1) increased demand for and utilization of quality and inclusive services across all sectors, 2) increased uptake of life saving practices and abandonment of harmful social norms and behaviours across sectors that increases vulnerabilities of most affected population 3) educated, engaged and empowered communities, adolescents and children, particularly the most marginalized, who participate and take actions to improve their wellbeing, and 4) increased institutional capacity and engagement of UNICEF partners, especially national and local government structures, CSOs/FBOs, media and communities in humanitarian action.

SCOPE OF WORK AND DUTIES

The UNICEF SBCiE Roster for Europe and Central Asia (ECAR) serves as a human resources repository from which the Regional Office or Country Offices can draw upon pre-vetted, well qualified Community Engagement, Social and Behaviour Change experts quickly and efficiently. The SBCiE Roster is designed to meet the consultancy needs of the region over a period of two to three years. The roster matches the competencies and skills of consultants with five thematic areas of social and behaviour change ensuring that contracts are based on a more nuanced and accurate determination of consultants’ expertise vis-à-vis the specifications of the job. This pooling of talent not only means that the right personnel are hired for the right assignments, but it will also accelerate deployment.

Consultants are required to indicate which of the key thematic areas they have expertise in and for which they would like to be considered:

• SOCIAL DATA FOR ACTION
• SBC STRATEGIC RESPONSE PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
• INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT
• PARTNERSHIP BUILDING AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
• MONITORING, ASSESSMENT AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Successful applicants to the SBC Roster will be eligible for contracts to support the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and/or Country Offices through, inter alia: i) Technical and advisory assistance, ii) Research, studies, and other forms of documentation; iii) Support to the development of CE, SBC strategies and tools; iv) Institutional capacity building inclusive of training and support to the development of training iv) Support to CE, SBC programme development, planning, coordination and resource mobilization with donors and partners, and v) Support to delivery, monitoring and the quality control of results.

SKILLS REQUIRED

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

Requirements applicable to all experts

• Advanced university degree in social and behavioural science, including sociology, anthropology, social linguistics, psychology, community development, risk communication and crisis communication, political economy, another relevant technical field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience working in emergencies (complex, disease outbreaks, natural hazards).
• Excellent conceptual and operational understanding of community engagement, social and behaviour change issues in emergency settings.
• Knowledge and experience in the formulation, design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of CE, SBC programmes, preferably in close coordination and cooperation with government bodies in HIC and UMIC.
• Knowledge and experience in strengthening national and/or sub-national governance systems to be response and resilient in times of crisis.
• Knowledge and experience in addressing inequities and disparities.
• Research and analytical skills, and the ability to put data into action with programme teams and partners.
• Communication, advocacy, negotiation and persuasion skills: the ability to engage clearly and articulately with stakeholders including, inter alia, government bodies, international organisations, national institutions, civil society and academia.
• Training, presentation and public speaking skills: the ability to share and impart knowledge, provide technical and policy guidance, build capacities and promulgate good practice for CE, SBC.
• Familiarity and experience in setting up community feedback mechanisms with local partners.
• Excellent spoken and written English, with another UN language or major language used in the region an asset.
• High level of computer literacy.
• Able to work with and contribute to a diverse and dynamic team while remaining diligent and resourceful when working alone.
• Highly flexible and adaptable to rapidly changing circumstances.
• Understanding of the social, economic and political landscape of the Europe and Central Asia region an asset.
• Willingness and ability work in a non-family duty station on short notice.

Requirements applicable for SOCIAL DATA FOR ACTION

CE, SBC Data for Action addresses the social and behavioral data needs for preparedness and response and includes the community engagement needs. In addition to community engagement, it lays emphasis on use of behavioural insights to risk perceptions of people at risk and affected populations and inclusion of their views while designing and implementation of CE, SBC interventions to reduce their vulnerabilities to the emergencies. Thus, building their resilience to the emergencies.

• Strong technical knowledge and demonstrated experience in designing rapid assessments in humanitarian context, including behaviour identification; formative research; monitoring and evaluation of social and behavioural communication interventions and/or applying community engagement standards.
• Proven experience in leading formative/applied research and working with diverse teams at national and sub-national level.
• Ability to collect, review and analyze social data, including secondary data analysis, social listening, and develop data collection and use tools and approaches informing inform CE, SBC interventions across the humanitarian programme cycle. It may include, but not limited to risk analysis and needs assessments, capacity and capability assessments, mapping of SBC partners, communication channels and platforms.
• Experience conducting research and rapid assessment with most children, young people, adolescents, and vulnerable groups.
• Ability to present data as evidence to advocate for leveraging the CE, SBC efforts at national and sub-national.

Requirements applicable for CE, SBC STRATEGIC RESPONSE PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION

CE, SBC Strategic Response Planning and Implementation includes validation of CE, SBC preparedness actions for response plan for action at the onset of any given crisis. It could be a CE, SBC integrated plan or CE, SBC component across sectoral commitments under HRP. If required the plan may be revisited and adjusted to prioritized risks, assessment analysis of social and behavioral drivers and previous learnings, strategic and specific objectives and addressing needs of people estimated to be reached. It must outline clear roles and responsibilities in consultation with programme teams and their partners to define the scope of CE, SBC interventions in delivering sectorial commitments. Moreover, the Plan should cover behaviour and social change commitments outlined for sectoral application, linked to Sphere Standards and CCCs. Implementation must provide life-saving information, promote or reinforce positive behaviours and re-establish positive social and cultural values. Key interventions may include, but not limited relevant to the context to high income and upper middle-income countries such as strengthening systems to be responsive and resilient, capacity development, quality standards and assurance, partnerships at scale.

• Proven experience and ability in the design and development of evidence driven, people centered and system-oriented CE, SBC in emergency preparedness and response strategies and action plans for specific humanitarian situations with sectors, clusters and interagency partners/governments.
• Proven experience and ability to develop CE, SBC tools, implementation guides, models and approaches, in strengthening systems, services and platforms to be resilience and responsive in times of crisis.
• Experience and ability to design, develop and use digital engagement strategies for social and behaviour change, including messages and call for actions for emergency preparedness and response.
• Ability to work closely and partner with national and sub-national government, CSO, FBO and media, as well as UN agencies to maximise CE, SBC interventions at scale.
• Ability in coordination and/or facilitation the multi-agency CE, SBC approaches as related to preparedness, response, planning and implementation in humanitarian contexts.

Requirements applicable for INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT

Capacities of local government institutions, sectoral and cross-sectoral departments and civil society organisations (especially those representing marginalised and excluded groups) in Minimum CE, SBC actions for preparedness and response is critical. Moreover, Social service workforce as a key engagement platform. Frontline workers are trusted influencers and a backbone of local communities, linking families and services. It is critical for UNICEF to build their capacity to maintain this trust, support the adoption of protective family practices and foster inclusion. This requires a deliberate move away from awareness raising to behaviour change programmes. Reinforcing community engagement systems for participatory governance requires UNICEF to support the development of mechanisms and accountability frameworks for government, non-government, civil society organizations and the private sector. This is a key contribution towards building trust in institutions.

• Ability to design and develop institutional capacity and capability development of modules, instructions and job aids in partnership with government and quasi-government institutions.
• Ability to facilitate training and orientation sessions to mainstream CE, SBC into professional education institutions to empower social workforce and decision makers with knowledge and skills.
• Proven experience to conduct capacity development assessment in CE, SBC at national and sub-national level.

Requirements applicable for PARTNERSHIP BUILDING AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION

Mainstreaming CE across HPC for timely and relevant response needs sustained resources. CE, SBC cannot be an ad hoc or one-time effort. Budgeting for CE, SBC requires development of a core set of practices and tools, for systematic investments in mechanisms that integrate government and non-government service delivery platforms and resource all components of community engagement work. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring resources are available to support results for CE,SBC commitments in national policy, capacity development, private sector and other civil society engagement, community level platforms and network and operational support, among others. Investments in CE,SBC need to be more predictable and aligned to strengthen vertical (sectoral) and horizontal (multisectoral) financing streams to achieve more sustainable delivery of programmes and services across the HPC.

• Proven experience in building partnership with national and sub-national stakeholders to leverage resources in times of crisis, to address behavioral challenges in accessing to and utilization of services, as well as discriminatory norms (for example, on gender, ethnicity, migrants, mental health and disabilities), promoting social cohesion and life-saving practices among most vulnerable communities.
• Ability to conduct CE, SBC partners’ mapping with its communication channels and platforms, services in disaster prone communities.

Requirements applicable for MONITORING, ASSESSMENT AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

CE, SBC monitoring complement the overall Humanitarian Response Monitoring. Through the process, humanitarian actors track progress in reaching CE, SBC strategic and sectoral and cross-sectoral committed programme activities and results. CE plays a key role in participation of affected communities in humanitarian programming, while providing agile data for decision-making or course correction via short-term and long-term strategies, and alignment to humanitarian response and recovery programme for affected communities. All opportunities must be used to document learnings and the continuous follow-up to shape behaviours during early recovery and recovery phases. Behavioural impact should be an integral part of the overall humanitarian response evaluation instead of being a standalone aspect

• Ability to develop and facilitate implementation of monitoring systems and mechanisms to be mainstreamed into data collection, analysis, and use informing CE, SBC interventions.
• Ability to design, develop and put into practice CE, SBC knowledge management, documentation and reporting systems and mechanisms.
• Demonstrated expertise in knowledge management, including for example development of SBC online and offline knowledge sharing platforms; development of case studies; fact sheets and sitreps in humanitarian responses.

COMPETENCIES OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE

Any candidate to the UNICEF's pre-qualified Consultants Roster should be:

• Able to communicate effectively with varied audiences, including through formal presentation and written communication
• Able to work across different units and encourage collaboration; ability to explain complex concepts to different audiences; ability to communicate with all levels of management and staff
• Able to synthesize complex information for multiple audiences
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment and demonstrate sensitivity for cultural differences
• Able to work independently and remotely as well as in various settings
• Able to work effectively with stakeholders from government institutions, international organizations, academia and NGOs
• Adopt a flexible attitude and adaptability to rapidly changing circumstances
• Able to work under pressure and respond to deadlines without sacrificing quality
• Able to handle multiple assignments with competing deadlines

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants are invited to:

1. Duly complete the online UNICEF application
2. Duly complete & attach P-11 History From (can be downloaded here: https://www.unicef.org/careers/documents/p11-form)
3. Curriculum vitae (CV) and Cover Letter
4. A sample of their own written work (report, proposal, situation analysis, etc.) of not more than 2000 words. Applications submitted without a sample will not be accepted.
5. Financial proposal with daily rate in USD (applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered)
6. Evaluation of work by UN if applicable (e.g. PER).
7. Names and contacts of three (3) referees (applications without referees will not be considered).

Please apply to the Regional Roster by the indicated online deadline of 21 November 2023.

Please note that only candidates who are under serious consideration will be contacted. Once pre-qualified, consultants will be eligible for direct recruitment by UNICEF offices in the region for a three-year period. In the selection of its staff and consultants, UNICEF is committed to gender balance, inclusion and diversity without distinction as to race, sex or religion, and without discrimination of persons with disabilities. Well qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

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 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.