Social & Behavior Change Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

Update UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
The world’s largest provider of vaccines, we support child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation.
Before, during and after humanitarian emergencies, UNICEF is on the ground, bringing lifesaving help and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, we are never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures.
And we never give up.

Context

UNICEF is supporting the Government of Guinea-Bissau, in collaboration with its partners, to promote child rights, knowledge, behaviour and social change for children, with particular focus on disadvantaged communities.
Through its Behaviour and Social Change component, the UNICEF programme is supporting the Government of Guinea-Bissau, non-governmental organizations, and community leaders to promote child rights and conduct positive social, and behaviour change activities at different levels of the society in Guinea-Bissau.
Social & Behaviour Change (SBC) is one of the key strategies used by UNICEF to put children at the forefront of the public agenda and to foster an open dialogue on child rights among decision-makers, partners, children, adolescents, and communities. UNICEF uses social & behaviour change interventions to accelerate programme results, raise awareness on the rights of the child, promote the adoption of positive behaviours and social norms, and the creation of enabling environments where children can survive, thrive, learn, and develop their full potential. UNICEF uses various communication and non-communication approaches to ensure that children are at the center of all its interventions, which include community & adolescent engagement, social mobilization, human-centered design, and collective change.
UNICEF has been progressively investing in adolescent and youth engagement including programming with and for adolescents to help them develop and reach their full potential. The purpose of this vacancy is to give the opportunity to young recent graduates to build the skills, assets, and competencies they need to make a successful and productive transition to professional life.
In line with the UNICEF 2022-2025 Strategic Plan and the Office Country Programme Document 2022-2026, the UNICEF Guinea-Bissau Country Office is recruiting a National UN Youth Volunteer, Social and Behavior Change Officer to contribute to the design, management, monitoring, and evaluation of evidence-based, inclusive, and innovative SBC strategies in support to the Education and Child Protection programmes under the general guidance of the Head of SBC and in close coordination with sectoral and cross-sectoral Specialists and Officers.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the SBC Officer acting as Head of SBC and in close collaboration with Programme Officers, the National UN Youth Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
1. Support the design, planning, implementation, and monitoring of SBC activities in support to the Education and Child Protection programmes that are backed by social and behavioural evidence and strong engagement and participation mechanisms.
• Supports the design and facilitate the implementation of Social & Behavioral change strategies and plans of action with a special focus on support on youth engagement in advocacy for access, coverage, and quality of Education and Child Protection programmes.
• Supports the implementation of SBC approaches to enhance community/social mobilization, engagement, and participation and make viable recommendations for youth-led bottleneck removal strategies for improving access to and quality of Education and Child Protection programmes.
• Supports the design, production, and distribution of social and behavioral change materials in support of UNICEF-supported campaigns and routine awareness-raising.
• Supports the generation and utilization of research, data, and evidence to inform the design, measurement, and monitoring of SBC interventions for the Education and Child Protection programmes and outcomes to build the evidence base for SBC.
2. Support quality assurance of U-Report initiatives across all Programme Outcomes centered on adolescent and youth engagement and participation
• Serves as Secretariat of the U-Report Guinea-Bissau External Steering Committee, and supports coordination with partners (government, CSOs, academia, etc.)
• Supports activities to launch U-report with national government counterparts and private sector partners.
• Support mobilization and capacity building of youth as U-reporters including data base quality assurance of a U-reporters’ database in close collaboration with ICT team and Digital M&E UNV.
• Support needs assessment and identification of opportunities in programmes for the use of U-Report (e.g. how programmes would like to engage children and young people, gaps in data, messaging and campaigns, verification of trends etc.) and translate those needs and opportunities into themes for polls for respective programmatic areas.
• Collate inputs from relevant programme/thematic focal persons to build U-Report polls and upload them on the platform and work with the ICT focal point and Programme colleagues in analyzing data collected from polls and providing feedback to adolescents and youth on U-Report and UNICEF social media platforms.
• Support provision of summary of status updates on the progress of U-Report initiatives during programme meetings and other coordination meetings.
• Support knowledge management and communications between the country office and the U-Report Global Innovation team or the broader U-Report global community.