UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for an individual consultant for Social and Behaviour Change Communication

Consultant

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.

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For every child, a childhood!

UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.

The current UNICEF-Government of Zimbabwe Country Programme of Cooperation (2016-2020) aims to support Zimbabwe to sustain and build upon the gains achieved for children during the 2012-2015 Country Programme of Cooperation. The programme focuses on improving the quality of social services, increasing access to services, and helping to build national and sub-national capacities to provide low-cost, high-impact interventions for all children, especially the most vulnerable.

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How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to hire an innovative individual consultant for or Social and Behaviour Change Communication.

Consultancy Terms of Reference

Section

Health and Nutrition

Purpose

The purpose of the proposed assignment is to provide technical support and capacity building to integrate Social and Behaviour Change Communication related actions for UNICEF, MOHCC, NAZ and ZRBF consortia with a focus on strengthening behavior change for nutrition delivered through community health services, care groups and extension agents (Agritex) under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund.

Location

Harare based

Duration

336 days

Start and end dates

15 June 2021 to 22 May 2022

Reporting to

Nutrition Manager

Background Rationale

In the last 15 years Zimbabwe has experienced repeated and prolonged periods of drought and other shocks which exposed most vulnerable people, mostly women and children, to recurrent food and nutrition crisis. The country has been suffering from the triple burden of malnutrition where overweight coexists with undernutrition in the form of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies. Zimbabwe’s stunting rate for children under 5 is high at 23% (MICS 2019) and wasting stands at 3.7% (MICS 2019). Conversely overweight and obesity stands at 6% in children under 5 years of age, 13% in older adolescents and 35% in women of child-bearing age, whilst 37% of children, 26% of adolescents (ZDHS) and 27% of women suffer from anaemia (MICS 2019). It is now well documented (WHO 2012) that drought and other livelihood related stresses and shocks intensify the cyclical effects of poor nutrition on social capital – poor linear growth or stunting in young children is associated with adverse functional outcomes, including short adult stature, reduced lean body mass, poor cognition and educations performance, lower productivity and lower adult wage.

UNICEF has recently joined the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund through an 18 months UN to UN contract with UNDP (EU funded). The overall objective of the ZRBF is to contribute to increased capacities of communities to protect development gains and achieve improved well-being outcomes in the face of shocks and stresses however the investments towards these approaches have been insufficient to ensure that affected populations particularly women and children are able to maintain good nutrition in the face of shocks and stress.

It is with this background that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Zimbabwe Country Office, is seeking to hire a consultant to provide support to nutrition related Social and Behaviour change communication and advocacy service to the ZRBF programme as well as support the implementation of the adolescent SBCC communication strategy and coordinate advocacy events at national and sub-national levels.

Overall Purpose

The purpose of the proposed assignment is to provide technical support and capacity building to integrate Social and Behaviour Change Communication related actions for UNICEF, MOHCC, NAZ and ZRBF consortia with a focus on strengthening behavior change for nutrition delivered through community health services, care groups and extension agents (Agritex) under the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund.

ASSIGNMENT:

The consultant will be responsible for the following:

1. Facilitate implementation of SBCC package for Nutrition in the ZRBF programme, and for the overall maternal, infant and young children and adolescent programme.
2. Facilitate and implement a capacity development plan and relevant SBCC tools to support the integration of care group model into ZRBF implementing partner activities.
3. Facilitate mid and mass media engagement for Maternal Infant Young Child and adolescent Nutrition (MIYCNA) within the ZRBF
4. Work in partnership with nutrition stakeholders and other sector partners to develop and implement advocacy and campaigning events as appropriate.
5. In collaboration with other ZRBF stakeholders, support learning and provide input to key nutrition events, such as conferences and other learning fora.
6. Compile reports of nutrition activities for sharing with stakeholders.
7. Support relevant nutrition research and facilitate adoption of research evidence findings into policy and programming

The consultant will work on time-based contract (with predetermined fees paid per month) on an on-going and full-time basis.

Description of expected deliverables and payment schedule

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Hold initial discussions with UNICEF and partners, prepare inception report detailing full understanding of the TORs and resource needs. Share inception report with supervisor and Nutrition Team at UNICEF

Identify best practices for nutrition integration into resilience programming in partnership with Nutrition Action Zimbabwe and ZRBF partners.

• Inception Report
• Documentation of best practices (report)

15 June to 14 July

(10%)

Implement a capacity building plan to integrate the Care group model into ZRBF implementing partner activities in partnership with NAZ

• Capacity plan and training package developed
• Care group roll-out and adoption plan

15 July-14 August

(10%)

• Support training of 4 consortia and roll-out in respective implementing districts (Training Report)

15 August-14 September

(5%)

• Support training of 3 consortia and roll-out in respective implementing districts (Training Report)

15 September-14 October

(5%)

Identify key determinants of MIYCN practices and bridges to recommended practices. Develop and implement a nutrition SBCC strategy for the ZRBF project in partnership with Nutrition Action Zimbabwe.

• Formative Research conducted in ZRBF districts

15 October – 14 November

(10%)

• Analysis of results and report writing with clear recommendations on barriers (Barrier Analysis Report)

15 November- 14 December

(10%)

• Nutrition Social and Behavior Change Strategy for the ZRBF project

15 December-14 January

(15%)

• Develop audio-visual SBCC materials for the caregivers. At least 4 audiovisual materials developed

15 January-14 February 2022

(10%)

• Roll-out of audiovisual materials to care groups for 4 consortia

15 February-14 March

(5%)

• Roll-out of audiovisual materials to care groups for 3 consortia

15 March-14 April

(5%)

Collaborate with ZRBF nutrition sensitive partners to streamline nutrition SBCC into the consortium activities

• Documentation on how nutrition messages have been adopted into nutrition sensitive programming

15 April to 14 May 2022

(5%)

Documentation of lessons learnt and recommendations on the way forward for SBCC activities in ZRBF

• Lessons learnt documentation
• Compilation of human-interest stories
• Exit Report

15 May- 22 May (10%)

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

• An advanced degree (Maters) in Public Health; health promotion, nutrition, social marketing.
• At least five years of progressively responsible professional work experience in Nutrition programming.
• Able to work within various teams and be able to contribute to the overall success of that team.
• Able to demonstrate a flexible and adaptable approach to work.
• Ability to communicate fluently in English required.

For more information refer to the attached ToR TOR for SBCC Consultancy .pdf

Other Consultancy Costs and Payment Modalities

Competitive market rates will apply.

If interested and available to undertake the consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical and an all-inclusive financial proposal (detailing professional fees, DSA, airfare etc where necessary).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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 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.

Those who had already applied do not need to re-apply.

Apply now

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org