Social & Behavior Change Specialist (Gender & Immunization), P3, Panama, LAC Regional Office, TA 364 days

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 108,241 USD and 141,733 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide. The UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office is based in in Panama, operating in 36 territories, including 24 country offices.

UNICEF works to put the rights and well-being of the most disadvantaged children at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children. For more information about UNICEF and its work. (www.unicef.org/lac).

Social and Behavior Change (SBC) in UNICEF is a cross-cutting programme strategy that addresses the cognitive, social, and structural determinants of social change in both development and humanitarian contexts. SBC uses the latest in social and behavioral sciences to understand people, their beliefs, values, and the socio-cultural norms that shape their lives, to engage them and increase their influence in the design of solutions for sustainable behavior and social change.

SBC is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate, with corporate results that apply social and behavioral practices across sectors and goal areas like immunization, breastfeeding, hygiene, and positive discipline. UNICEF SBC employs a mix of approaches, including community engagement, strategic communication, applied behavioral science, service delivery improvement, systems strengthening and policy advocacy and social mobilization to advance child rights, survival, development, protection and participation.

The recent reform of SBC transitioning from C4D, and the presence of an SBC team in LACRO to support SBC mainstreaming at country office level, are inherent pieces that are essential to accelerating results in the 5 Goal Areas and supporting emergencies. In view of this, our 2023 Annual Work Plan (AWP) aims, in essence, the development of three fundamental areas: increase SBC capacity in the COs, amplify synergies through strategic alliances (faith-based, private sector, and academic institutions) and expand SBC Knowledge Management as a principle for having systematized lessons learned and best practices.

In Latin America and the Caribbean Region, the SBC section is implementing strategies to support routine immunization (RI), by identifying and addressing the core challenges that drive the significant decline in RI vaccination levels. – including gender-focused behavioural factors that drive unequal health outcomes and access to vaccines.

Differences in how men, women, girls, and boys learn about, look for, and utilize health services and resources can be attributed to gender norms and expectations. Decisions related to health and immunization uptake are influenced by gender socialization. Vaccines have an effect on people’s health at various ages, including young children, teenagers, and pregnant women.

All caregivers irrespective of their gender should have equal responsibilities and decision-making power in ensuring that their children are immunized this responsibility often falls on women in their roles as mothers and/or heads of households. However, restrictive gender barriers norms and roles often hamper women’s abilities to make decisions regarding their own and their children’s health and use of family resources to access such services. Additionally, care-related work may hinder their capacity to take children to health centers for vaccination during usual opening hours.

Additional obstacles include restricted mobility, the expense of in-home care, and limited health literacy. Gender bias can also encourage discrimination in healthcare settings and deter people from using services; for instance, health care workers may be less welcoming towards male caregivers, men or male caregivers may feel uncomfortable accessing spaces considered “female.” Although they are hired to help people who face hurdles due to their gender to get health are, female health workers, are equally impacted by prevalent gender norms.

In order to promote a thorough understanding of the immunization process and to promote more gender-responsive immunization programs, the SBC Specialist on Gender and Immunization will provide technical support at the nexus of behavioral science and gender to Country Offices

How can you make a difference?

Purpose

The Specialist aims to provide health and immunization support for COs by applying SBC-informed research, evidence and solution frames at the nexus of behavioural science and gender. These should be evidence-based and draw from SBC approaches, including from human-centered design and behavioural science.

The responsibilities include technical support and coordination of strategic implementation of SBC in immunization actions, emphasizing the intersection of behavioural science, human-centered design and gender equity.

Specifically, the SBC / Immunization & Gender Specialist will provide sustainable support to COs in the following:

• Support of SBC and Gender transformative approaches integration in immunization and health services
  • Promote the integration of SBC-informed gender approaches across vaccination and health services activities and outcomes.
  • Provide technical support that integrates behaviourally-informed gender and equity approaches into formative health and immunization research.
  • Provide technical support for behaviourally- informed, gender-transformative, women-led communication strategies.
  • Promote SBC strategies that support gender-equal immunization coverage amongst women and men, girls and boys.
  • Promote SBC strategies that support gender-equal immunization service provision across HCWs and health care systems.
  • Support the use of SBC approaches such as human-centered design and gender-transformative actions to include women and girls in the strategic design of community-level interventions and ultimately strengthen the health system in prioritized countries.
• Support Country Offices in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SBC strategies to increase vaccination among girls and women.

For details on the key functions, accountabilities and related duties and tasks, and additional skills preferred, please refer to the job profile: Job Profile SBC Specialist.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Social sciences (including behavioural science, anthropology and Social Communication), Gender and development, Public Health, global/international health, Policy and/or management, health sciences, epidemiology
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in a developing country program working on C4D/ SBC in one or more of the following areas is required: public health, immunization, gender, GBV, EVAC, adolescent girls’ nutrition, or maternal, infant, and child health care.
• At least three years of experience in conducting or supporting formative research, and SBC analysis including quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, to understand the drivers related to the issue.
• Experience in conducting SBC monitoring research
• Experience in training and facilitation is an asset.
• Fluency in Spanish and English is required. Knowledge of French or Portugues will be considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable male candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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