Digital Engagement Expert (Polio Programme)

Pakistan was the sixth country in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, less than one year after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. However, children and adolescents living in Pakistan still face acute challenges.

UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan to accelerate progress for children, work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help children realize their rights under the Convention on the Rights of Children. This will be made through, among others things, strong partnerships with provincial authorities, teachers and health professionals, frontline workers and social mobilisers, communities and families, and of course the children and adolescents themselves.

In particular, UNICEF will work so that:

Every child survives and thrives -- being in good health, immunised, protected from polio and accessing nutritious food.
Every child learns.
Every child is protected from violence and exploitation, and registered at birth.
Every child lives in a safe and clean environment, with access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

Pakistan remains one of the last two countries where wild poliovirus continues to circulate, making strategic communication central to achieving global eradication. UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan in delivering evidence based, community centred communication to address misinformation, build trust, and increase vaccine acceptance across high risk communities. Despite major progress, vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and gaps in public confidence remain key challenges.

The proposed UNV Media and Digital Communications Expert will strengthen the digital evidence-based, community-cantered communication by integrating AI-enabled digital engagement, social and community listening, and misinformation management into routine programme operations. The volunteer will contribute to the development and implementation of an AI-assisted digital SBC strategy, strengthen real-time insight generation and rumour response systems, and build the capacity of PEI and communication teams to apply ethical, data-driven, and behaviourally informed approaches that improve community trust and vaccination uptake contributing to protecting every child in Pakistan from polio while gaining exposure to one of the most complex global health initiatives.

This assignment will offer the volunteer the chance to meaningfully contribute to a mission of global significance while developing professional skills in an international, multicultural UN environment.

Under the direct supervision of Senior Social Behaviour Change and Communication Manager, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Strategic Communications & Content Creation
• Support the development and operationalization of a comprehensive AI-enabled digital SBC strategy aligned with PEI priorities.
• Support in development of an AI-assisted SBC content pipeline: behaviorally framed message variants, multilingual adaptation, and rapid A/B testing to optimize for comprehension, trust, and call-to-action.
• Co-create pre-bunking narratives (inoculation theory) and debunking packages (myth/fact, trusted voices, story formats) in local languages for priority districts.
• Plan and oversee the implementation of targeted digital campaigns (social, search, influencer partnerships) aligned to vaccination campaigns.
• Monitor digital engagement performance and contribute to adaptive strategy adjustments.



Social Listening & Misinformation Response
• Strengthen and optimize the existing online and offline social and community feedback mechanisms by integrating AI-supported analytics to improve speed, depth and predictive capacity of data analysis.
• Support automation of data aggregation, sentiment analysis and thematic clustering to identify emerging behavioural trends, misinformation patterns and geographic risk signals in near real-time.
• Support development and implementation of rapid response protocols, including pre-bunking and debunking content toolkits.
• Coordinate real-time rumor response with NEOC and provincial teams; ensure consistent messaging and harmonized deployment.
• Facilitate triangulation of digital listening insights with community feedback, frontline worker reports and M&E data to strengthen evidence-based decision-making.
• Ensure ethical standards, data protection compliance and responsible AI use in all analytical processes.

Capacity Building and Knowledge Management
• Develop guidance notes, SOPs and practical toolkits on ethical AI use in SBC.
• Facilitate trainings and workshops for PEI, SBC and communication teams on AI applications, misinformation management and digital analytics interpretation.
• Produce a field-ready AI & Digital SBC Playbook with templates, message banks, and troubleshooting guides.
• Support development of dashboards for real-time performance monitoring.
• Document lessons learned and good practices from UNICEF–JICA collaboration for internal knowledge sharing and potential replication in other settings.
• Examining the potential application of lessons learned and experiences to other countries

Other
Coordinate with JICA-supported health and community engagement programmes to align AI-enabled digital SBC approaches, share behavioural insights, and explore joint adaptation of digital tools and methodologies in priority districts.
Support visibility of Government of Japan and JICA funding vaccine procurement under PEI.