Risk Communication and Community Engagement

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Description

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• Provide technical support to EPHI and RCCE technical working group (RCCE-TWG) to ensure the RCCE strategies and interventions on public health emergencies including polio and other disease outbreaks are developed, implemented, monitored and reported.
• Coordinate and liaise with EPHI team, UNICEF, and partner agencies for RCCE-TWG monthly and ad-hoc meetings including preparation of meeting agenda, meeting minutes and any necessary follow up actions.
• Support EPHI on the development/update and endorsement of the national RCCE plan for preparedness and response of public health emergencies including development, review and pre-testing of multi-channel RCCE materials/toolkits/guidelines and support sub-national team to contextualize and translate into local language.
• Facilitate dissemination of RCCE/SBC materials in the field as required and ensure effective utilization.
• Coordinate with the government and media agencies at the federal and regional levels on regular public opinion monitoring and social listening particularly on rumors, fake news, media coverage on AEFI cases and misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines, HPV, polio, cholera and broader public health services.
• Provide support to EPHI and RHBs for capacity building of frontline health workers, social mobilizers, media, and hotline operators on RCCE, interpersonal communication skills, and community-based surveillance.
• Facilitate and conduct rapid assessment around RCCE/SBC gaps and social investigation on disease outbreaks— in close collaboration with EPHI/RHB and UNICEF—including secondary data analysis from previous polio/OCV/measles campaigns to revise/update strategic RCCE/SBC planning to reach to the unreached children.
• Ensure RCCE/SBC approaches are inclusive, gender transformative, and participatory in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Prepare and submit report for polio campaigns and other outbreak response campaigns by compiling reports from subnational levels.
• Collect human-interest stories from the field on the voices and experiences of communities and stakeholders.
• Participate regularly in coordination and technical meetings by FMOH and EPHI
• Participate in the outbreak EOCs and other coordination regional forums where required.
• Facilitate and participate in monitoring and evaluation activities of polio outbreak responses and interventions.
• the documents and reports mentioned in Work Assignment Overview table to UNICEF and MOH At the beginning of the assignment, the consultant is expected to discuss and agree with UNICEF and EPHI team of MOH.

• An advanced university degree in the following relevant fields: social science, public health, sociology, anthropology, psychology, communication for development/social and behavioral change communication is required.

• A minimum of five years of relevant RCCE/SBC experience in public health emergencies at national level is required.
• In-depth understanding of Ethiopian communities and RCCE/SBC key stakeholders at national level.
• Experience with designing, planning, monitoring, evaluation, training and skills-transfer of participatory governance in RCCE/SBC interventions for public health emergencies.
• Proven ability to work effectively with government/EPHI and multi-stakeholders.
• Experience in generating evidence around RCCE/SBC in the context of public health emergencies.
• Capacity in documentation of best practices and lesson learned around RCCE/SBC interventions.

• Fluency in English and Amharic is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset. 

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