Social and Behaviour Change Support Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Context

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.

Task description

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.