Behavioral Insights Expert

Background

Solomon Islands is a Small Island Developing State in the Pacific comprised of nearly a thousand small islands. This geographical attribute makes the country more exposed to climate change such as sea level rise and extreme weather events like tsunami, cyclone, and heavy rain. Therefore, it is critical to be prepared to minimize disaster risks. However, in Honiara where 70,485 inhabitants live, huge amount of solid waste is generated per day (80 tonnes/day in 2017[1] and many people litter because i) the Honiara City Council (HCC) lacks capacity to collect rubbish as scheduled, ii) the informal settlements are not covered by HCC, and iii) in recent years the common practice to discharge rubbish has been tipping waste into rivers, streams and the sea. For example, among other issues, the city's drainage systems are filled with solid waste clogging the drainage, hampering a currently ongoing highway upgrade project. Consequently, the city is more prone to flooding and damages on the infrastructure. As it is projected that the amount of waste will increase along with the population increase[2] and the local government does not have capacity to address waste management alone, there is a need to adopt new perspectives and approaches to deal with the challenges regarding waste management.

The government of Solomon Islands has a waste management strategywhich looks at the ways in which the waste management issues can be addressed in the Solomon Islands. As part of the action plan, it is in the process to establish the Solomon Islands Recycling & Waste Management Association Incorporated with support from Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). To fulfill the mandate of the association, the entity is to establish recycling businesses to generate revenue, strengthen the members' recycling businesses and also attract other businesses and individuals to get involved in recycling businesses. These include waste-to-energy, production of recycled goods, and exporting recyclables. In order to achieve this, the current waste collection needs to be strengthened by collecting segregated solid waste in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

The United Nations Development Programme Office in the Solomon Islands in partnership with the Environment and Conservation Division (ECD) in Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM), Honiara City Council (HCC) and JICA is undertaking an initiative aimed at targeting specific behaviours around recycling recyclable waste such as plastic bottles and other soft plastics. The objective is to reduce environmentally harmful discharge practices through identifying obstacles, design behavioral interventions that can change behaviours that will make waste collection for the recycling businesses more effective and efficient, and test the interventions until desired results are achieved. The overall goal of the initiative is to help the government achieve more effective waste management and scale up successful intervention and potential complementary activities or initiatives. Funding for this initiative is from the UNDP Global Innovation Facility which is funded by the Government of Denmark. In order to initiate the initiative, the UNDP CO is seeking a Behavioral Insights Expert (BIE) to conduct a baseline assessment on behavioral drivers, facilitate the design of nudges, support their implementation and conduct robust quantifiable impact evaluation.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Objectives and scope of work

Under the general supervision and guidance of the Environment and Conservation Division (ECD) in Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, Honiara City Council (HCC), UNDP Office in Honiara, and with input from the Regional Innovation Specialist in Suva (Fiji), the BIE will be responsible for leading the behavioral insight components of the project. The BIE shall be responsible for conducting the baseline exploration for the identified objective and target population, leading the design of interventions informed by behavioural insights, and supporting the trial and impact evaluation of at least three identified interventions. The BIE is also expected to provide feedback and contribute to the project communications and reporting.

1. Duties and responsibilities

• Finalize and – if necessary – refine BI target statement identified (consulted with stakeholders) by the project team.
• Conduct and present desk review of the relevant behaviorally informed interventions outside the Solomon Islands to inform the implementation of the project and facilitate knowledge sharing with the project team and relevant stakeholders.
• Facilitate an inception workshop with relevant stakeholders to identify and design of possible interventions based on insights gained from baseline assessment.
• Conduct exploration of ethnographic and behavioral drivers using interviews, user journey mapping, immersive experience and/or surveys, collect baseline assessment data and collate results.
• Select qualitative and quantitative methodologies to be used in baseline study activities in consultation with stakeholders.
• Prepare and submit baseline findings reports
• Contribute to stakeholder workshop design and planning.
• Lead the design of feasible and effective interventions and validate prototypes of interventions with relevant stakeholders;
• Lead the development of robust trial protocol (including ethical clearance) to test the effectiveness of the proposed interventions identified in the scoping phase with well-elaborated plan of trial implementation, including data collection strategies;
• Support implementation of the trial by the project team;
• Conduct data analysis to measure impact and comparative effectiveness of the trial interventions;
• Deliver an in-depth analysis of the results from the trial with key findings and policy recommendations   to scale up successful intervention and potential complementary activities or initiatives.
• Contribute to the preparation of project communications, including blog posts, stakeholder communications, workshops and project reporting.

Competencies

• Excellent written and verbal English language skills are essential;
• Highly organized person, sets priorities, produces quality outputs, meets deadlines and manages time efficiently;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Ability to think out-of-the-box and works toward creative solutions by analyzing problems carefully;
• Shares knowledge and is willing to provide support to others who request advice or help.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Degree in a behavioral science, behavioral economics, psychology, cognitive science, psychobiology, neural networks, social cognition, social psychology, sociology, anthropology or a related field, or highly relevant work experience
• Postgraduate degree in relevant field and other trainings in the area of assignment is an asset.

Experience and skills:

• Minimum 5 years of demonstrated experience in behavioral insight projects, including baseline assessments for behavioral insights, design of nudges, as well as implementation and analysis of randomized control-trials for prototype interventions;
• Minimum 3 years of experience in designing and testing of “nudges”;
• Demonstrated experience in planning and facilitating workshops
• Experience of working on multidisciplinary and multicultural projects;
• Familiarity with UN agencies and systems is an advantage;
• Knowledge of waste management issues is an asset;
• Prior work experience in the Pacific is an asset;