18 National Community engagement Consultants to support the Ministry of Health of Angola

Luanda

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
Location: Luanda
Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Public Health and Health Service
- Social Affairs
- Political Affairs
- Civil Society and Local governance
Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF Angola is looking for 18 National Consultants to support the Ministry of Health of Angola, Health Promotion unit, to coordinate community engagement activities at the provincial level to improve vaccination coverage among children under 5 years old.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have worked in Angola continuously since 1976 with mandate to support government and non-state actors to protect the rights and promote the wellbeing of every child.

Our work is aligned with Sustainable Development Goals and aims to ensure each child in each 18 provinces has access to good health services, quality education opportunities, clean water, and toilets; and children grow up protected and develop in an inclusive, just, and peaceful society.

Since its establishment, UNICEF has been helping the government of Angola to strengthen national policies, programmes and services to ensure that every child enjoy their rights.

UNICEF’s capacity, technical skills and structure allow us to work effectively with policy and decision-makers and be among the first responders to humanitarian crisis. It allows us to assess and respond quickly to the priorities and needs of communities in the most remote and underserved areas of the country.

UNICEF protects and promotes the rights of every child in Angola.

For every child, vaccine!

How can you make a difference?

The Ministry of Health of Angola had a preventive response following the outbreaks of Polio in neighboring countries in the region by preparing a national vaccination campaign structured in three rounds, in which the so called “zero dose children” will be identify at the communities as a mobilization strategy to reinforce the routine immunization in those areas. The Social and Behavior Change - SBC Unit from UNICEF Angola is providing technical assistance to the government to implement key interventions through social mobilization activities and a national communication campaign focused on protect children from Angola.

• Co-designed solutions will be implemented to reach eligible children in the community in all 06 defined provinces. The mobilization will focus on polio vaccination and take the opportunity to reinforce the relevance of the routine immunization (parents, caregivers, national, community leaders, faith-based communities, education community, particularly principal and teachers, health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, workers that provide services at the health unit, such as guards and cleaners, as well health community agents, key community actors, regional and local health authorities).

The vaccination against polio is expected to reach 95% of Angolan children at the eligible age to be vaccinated against polio. The expectation is also increasing the adoption of vaccination as a routine to be followed by their caregivers. The role played by the local leaderships or people that know the region is fundamental to promote the community engagement and mobilize the children's families to the vaccination. In this sense, National SBC Consultants will be hired by UNICEF to support the coordination of the polio campaign’s interventions at the provincial level, according to the needs of the National Direction of Public Health - DNSP, Health Promotion Unit in the Ministry of Health of Angola. Although it is not mandatory, national candidates are invited to apply to work in provinces where they live. The consultants will report to the Social and Behaviour Change Unit and work with the Health & Nutrition section, from April to June 2024.

During his/her contract, the SBC Consultant will respond to the implementation of the planned SBC activities related to the polio campaign to support DNSP. Every consultant will work in a specific province. The location per person will be defined with the consultant, considering their work to deliver the campaign's priorities. The consultant will be responsible to:

• Participate in the in-person national trainings to be implemented at the national level for supervisors during the campaign - two rounds in Luanda;

• Access and be aware of the key documents related to the polio campaign 2024 such as macro and microplans to guide the work at the province level;

• Monitoring the implementation of the microplans at the province level to support transparency in the management of the funds to reach quality results;

• Keep the SBC team updated on the activities ongoing at the provincial level, challenges and constraints;

Participate in daily in person and remote at the local level as well at the national level;

• Coordinate the SBC activities planned and implemented by the province to increase the vaccination of children against polio and other diseases in all municipalities engaged in the campaign;

• Support the trainings of mobilizers during the pre-campaign and their fieldwork to engage caregivers in the vaccination of their children as well community leaderships, faith-based organizations, among others, in promoting the vaccination campaign.

• Provide access of the key messages from the campaign to local radio communicators and influencers via the provincial Health Promotion guidance to ensure they reach caregivers and tradictional leaders;

• Provide support to the Health Promotion team at the provincial level to the adequate use of the visibility materials (hats, aprons, roll-up, banners, badges, among others) and the return of the indicated items;

• Support the data collection by the mobilizers during the pre-campaign and in the community rapid assessment in which they will use a printed form and the ReDIV platform;

• Support the registration of mobilizers in the human resource data (digital and printed forms);

• Support need-based review, pre-testing and dissemination of SBC products tailored communication materials to engage target populations/ audiences in the vaccination campaign;

• Strengthen coordination of ongoing implementation of Advocacy and Community Engamement, Social Mobilization/ SBC activities at the assigned provinces/districts.

• Providing technical support in conducting innovative community engagement, social mobilization, and advocacy activities to support the planned polio vaccination campaign.

• Ensure pertinent distribution of the communication materials produced at the central level;

• Facilitate trainings for provincial and district health promotion officers and other relevant training standards for Polio response.

• Ensure monitoring and reporting that mobilization activities are carried out in line with the M&E standards and systems and use of social data, including a focus on monitoring of missed children and refusal children and ACSM actions taken to cover these missed children during campaign.

• Document human interest stories and good practices.

• Final assignment report shared with UNICEF containing all information produced during the consultancy period in an organized manner with guidance to improve the practice.

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

Bachelor's degree in Social sciences, anthropology, psychology, education, health, management, public relations or other disciplines related to UNICEF's areas of activity.
2 years of professional experience (minimum) in communication and social mobilization, social/behavioral change, health and communication, community engagement and advocacy, or related fields.
Knowledge and experience of project coordination, data collection and elaboration of evidence-based, community engagement, SBC strategies as well as risk communication and for social behavior change, social mobilization, community engagement.
Fluency in spoken and written Portuguese is mandatory.
Knowledge of at least one local language is an asset.
Working knowledge in English is an asset.
Knowledge and experience of working with emergency programs, humanitarian / development contexts, emergency preparedness and / or natural disasters / is an advantage.
Previous experience working with Government Institutions, UN, civil society and/or NGOs is an asset.
High ethical standards and understanding of sensitivities related to children's rights.

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.

Please indicate your all inclusive lumpsum financial proposal.

This vacancy is now closed.
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