National Individual Consultancy – Social and Behavior Change – Immunization, Nairobi, Kenya Country Office

This consultancy aims to provide technical assistance in designing, reviewing, planning, implementing, coordinating, and monitoring integrated routine immunization, including HPV and C-19. The consultant will work closely with the Ministry of Health National Vaccine and Immunization Program (NVIP) and stakeholders towards implementing integrated Immunization Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilization interventions at the national and county levels.

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Background

Kenya with a population of 53,980,566 and 1,653,053 live births (2023)(1). Most of the population (68.8%) resides in rural areas. Kenya enacted a new constitution in 2010 that devolved political power and governance to two levels of government, National and 47 semi-independent counties which have clearly defined functions.

Capacity building/ orientation/training for MOH leadership at all levels to plan for and implement effective integration of COVID-19 vaccination with routine immunization, other primary health care interventions, interpersonal communication, and programs managing individuals at highest risk of COVID-19 including resource allocation and mapping. This will be carried out through continuous education and working with healthcare workers. Leveraging on World Immunization Week to further promote the integration.

Since its introduction, COVID-19 vaccination has largely been delivered in a campaign mode, which is incentivized, expensive and challenging to sustain. Through the generous contribution from GAVI, Kenya is now focusing on delivering sustainable COVID-19 vaccination as an integral part of the National Routine Immunization Programme (NVIP) and Primary Health Care (PHC), with a focus on high-risk priority groups. The country is already operationalizing/ implementing the integration of COVID-19 vaccination into the immunization programme

UNICEF Kenya has received Social Behavior Communication funds to support to COVID-19 Vaccine rollout in the country as agreed with the MoH. It is against this background that UNICEF SBC wishes to engage a specialized consultant to be based at NVIP to support the integration and collaboration with other key stakeholders, such as Education and Children Services.

Justification
Social Behavior Change (SBC) is a core pillar for implementing and supporting the acceptance and utilization of INTEGRATED Routine Immunization services including C-19 towards the delivery of primary health care. SBC has a greater role in supporting Health outcomes to deliver equitable, affordable, and gender response services to all. Specifically, by 2026, more newborns, children, adolescents, and women in deprived areas survive and thrive and live in safe environments with safe access to and improved use of high-quality and affordable health, HIV, nutrition and WASH services and practices including in emergencies.

Activities and tasks

Under the technical supervision of the SBC Specialist and working in close coordination with the Health Specialist and county focal points, the consultant will provide timely SBC technical guidance and support the successful implementation of integrated routine immunization SBC activities. The main activities include the following:

1) Review the GAVI CDS3 proposal, Kenya, strategy documents, plans, result framework, performance monitoring plan and recent county data and map SBC activities, bottlenecks and capacity gaps and develop a roadmap for providing technical guidance and support across the country.
Support counties and implementing partners to undertake/ analyze existing county situation/problem assessment and a communication (participant, behavior and channel) analysis to inform the design, review and formulation of county SBC implementation plans.
2) Orient the County Health Management Team and implementing partners on SBC and provide technical guidance/support in developing/reviewing, implementing, coordinating, monitoring and reporting on county SBC plans.
3) Working with CHMTs and implementing partners, explore and promote a social accountability mechanism for improving immunization reporting.
4) Contextualize the communication and advocacy interventions by creating county county-specific messaging matrix and support the development and dissemination of county-based IEC packages.
5) Co-ordinate with UNICEF partners and consultants to ensure the communication and mass media content is running on media platforms, including the community radios (Digiredio) ensuring complementary two-way community engagement both on air and on the ground while mobilizing community members to utilize routine immunization services by disseminating clear, credible and consistent multi-media messages.
6) Support NVIP disseminate the Routine Immunization communication guidelines, RCCE and interpersonal communication guide and other key NVIP documents.
7) Participate in GAVI and NVIP coordination meetings within UNICEF and at the county level as appropriate and report back on the key SBC issues and action points.
8) Facilitate documentation and dissemination of good practices and lessons learned.
9) Prepare monthly reports, and a final consultancy report including progress on SBC outcome(s), lessons learned, gaps and recommendations.

Expected deliverables

The consultant will provide the following deliverables:
a) Work plan, results framework, and monitoring plan for integrated Routine Immunization.
b) Messaging matrix and IEC packages for integrated SBC dissemination plan.
c) SBC Capacity building plans for counties and partners
d) SBC Capacity building implementation report.
e) Mass Media campaign, execution and demonstrated utilization of community radios and IPC.
f) NVIP national SBC strategy
g) Documentation of good practices, and facilitation of videography, where required
h) Final consultancy report, summarizing SBC achievements in each county, lessons learned, gaps and recommendations.

Deliverables

Desired Competencies, technical background and experience

• At least 8 years of professional work experience in a technical position in Social and Behaviour Change Communication and other relevant areas
• Proven expertise in Social and Behaviour Change planning, coordination, implementation, monitoring and reporting.
• Knowledge of local health system context, immunization and zero-dose communities to ensure alignment with the government system & community engagement.
• Insights into social–political dynamics will contribute to effective communication.
• Prior experience working with the government, UNICEF or UN Agencies.

Knowledge/ Expertise/ Skills Required

• Able to promote collaboration among key stakeholders in the face of pressure and tension among stakeholders.
• Strong advocacy and analytical skills to understand immunization data, anticipate changing priorities and identify solutions, openly sharing knowledge, insights and effective practices.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Kiswahili
• Knowledge and versatility in message and materials development
• Proven skills and experience in SBC capacity assessment and development.
• Ability to work independently, within tight deadlines, ensuring attention to detail and following through.
• Willing to travel frequently within Kenya as per UNICEF travel rules, regulations and procedures.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  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.

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. 

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.