Social and Behaviour Change Support Officer

Communications & PR

Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) communication is a key change strategy within the UNICEF Tajikistan country programme of cooperation to promote recommended practices, generate demand for services and build social accountability. The strategic and effective de-velopment and implementation of SBC interventions directly impact on UNICEF’s support to promote social, political, and economic action and changes in behaviors, beliefs, harmful so-cial norms and actions by communities, individuals and society on children’s rights, survival, and wellbeing. This in turn contributes to enhancing the ability of UNICEF to fulfill its mission to achieve sustainable, locally owned, and concrete results in improving the survival, develop-ment, and wellbeing of children in the country. UNICEF is supporting the Government of Tajikistan to improve uptake of routine immunization by reducing the number of zero dose children. To this end, the demand component of immunization is being strengthened with social and behaviour change approaches, addressing psychological, sociological, and environmental drivers of behaviour change. This includes generation of behavioural evidence, improving and applying strategic SBC approaches on the basis, building workforce capacity on interpersonal communication, community engagement and strengthening of feedback mechanisms. The SBC Section at UNICEF Tajikistan is seeking for UNV position, to support the Government of Tajikistan in improving uptake of vaccine and reducing zero dose children. This support is critical as Tajikistan will enter a new cycle of full portfolio building in 2024 and shall support the Government of Tajikistan in accelerating its effort to bring number of zero dose children to nil. Under direct supervision of the SBC Specialist, the UNV will be responsible for promotion of measurable behavioral and social change for immunization portfolio. The UNV shall particularly ensure that SBC support to the demand component of immunization portfolio is timely and effectively available, as per following specific functions, accountabilities and duties.

The technical, administrative, and operational support envisaged for the role shall be critical in efficient and effective delivery of SBC support to inclusive preprimary education. This will contribute to improving UNICEF and its partner’s ability to build trust on the educational services, address behavioural and social barriers related to preprimary inclusive education and thus improving the rate of acceptance and enrolment. This ultimately will support UNICEF in meeting its commitment to improving inclusive education and the Government of Tajikistan in achieving SDGs.

The UN Volunteer will specifically work to: 1.Support to behavioural evidence generation on inclusive pre-primary education, related barriers, enablers, and norms. 2.Support to development of a systematic, planned, and evidence-based SBC strategy for promotion of inclusive pre-primary education. 3.Ensure implementation of context appropriate SBC approaches, methods, and tools. 4.Advocacy, networking, and partnership building.

☒ Accountability ☒ Adaptability and Flexibility ☒ Building Trust ☒ Client Orientation ☒ Commitment and Motivation ☒ Commitment to Continuous Learning ☒ Communication ☒ Creativity ☒ Ethics and Values ☒ Integrity ☒ Knowledge Sharing ☒ Planning and Organizing ☒ Respect for Diversity ☒ Working in Teams

or demonstrated interest in social and behaviour change, social change communication, communication for development, community development, mass communication, public advocacy, development program management or another related area.

Previous experience as a volunteer and/or experience of another culture, (i.e. studies, volunteer work, internship) would be highly regarded;

The Republic of Tajikistan is located in the south-east of Central Asia. The total territory is 143.1 thousand square kilometres. The population is around 10 million people. The currency unit is Somoni introduced in October 2000. The geography of the Republic of Tajikistan is mountainous with heights above sea level varying between 300 and 7495 meters. Mountains belonging to the highest ranges of Central Asia make up 93% of the total area of the country. UNICEF operates from Dushanbe, the national capital of Tajikistan, located along the Varzob River in the Gissar valley, in the southwest of the country. Dushanbe has a population of about 1 million inhabitants. It is a family friendly duty station. Official language is Tajik (a variant of Persian; Farsi), while Russian is widely used. Dushanbe is a clean, European-style city. The city is located at 820 meters above sea level and has wide tree-lined streets with plenty of cafés to enjoy coffee or tea with local sweets. Dushanbe is the financial, political, administrative, and cultural capital of Tajikistan. All Government offices and Embassies are located in Dushanbe. The overall Security Level for Tajikistan, including Dushanbe where UN personnel resided is low. The threat rating of the Crime category is moderate. The general crime situation is assessed as moderate and is under control by law enforcement agencies. The number of registered crimes in Tajikistan during the current year decreased by 6.8% from the corresponding period of the previous year (2022).

Apply now

Added 9 days ago - Updated 14 minutes ago - Source: unv.org