Vaccine uptake programme, International specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

Update

Context

The Covid Pandemic resulted in millions of deaths across the globe. One of the strategies to combat this pandemic is the vaccine. Fortunately, our region achieved well in most of the countries while the most vulnerable ones due to instability have not achieved the 10% in 2021 while the global target was 4%. One of the main reasons for of the failure to achieve the set target was that the communities were neither engaged in the rolling out of the vaccine nor aware of the importance of the vaccine. The Knowledge, attitude and practice study in EMR countries showed that the acceptance of the vaccine is reasonably good, but the awareness of the vaccine and the perception risk of the disease was of a great gap. The vaccine pillar of all units at EMRO is working in concerted manner to overcome all the challenges including the risk communication and community engagement. In addition, they are working with other stakeholders especially Unicef and the country teams of WHO and Unicef through Country Support Team meetings and the integrated communication team from all stakeholders call with every individual country for deep dive on the causes of the behavioral and social drivers. Therefore, Immunization and Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Polio transition (IVP) along with Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) decided to get additional hand to help in this regard. Hence, it has been decided to us eth UNVs to help in this regard. The incumbent UNV will be working under IVP in full coordination with the RCCE to achieve the required deliverables. It’s expected that the efforts of both IVP and RCCE to be more concerted and effective for improved vaccine uptake through contextualized national communication strategies and better operational plans.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Life Course Immunization Lead or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer for Vaccine uptake programme will: • Coordinate efforts to make vaccination services easy, client-friendly and convenient as to increase acceptance. • Liaise the IVP unit with the Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) team, and other programmes/departments in the COVID-19 vaccine pillar to take into account behavioral insights in service delivery and demand generation activities. • Facilitate EMRO IVP, RCCE and communication team coordination for joint priority planning, implementation, and product development (communication content, training materials etc). • Assist in the design of tools and collection of behavioral insights and community feedback to inform immunization programme interventions. This includes discrete data collection activities (focus group discussions, Knowledge Attitude and Practices studies, key informant interviews), as well as data collected through broader immunization related activities and assessments, such as Health Care Workers trainings, rapid coverage assessments and other (in coordination with the RCCE pillar). • Support the design and implementation of RCCE activities aimed at generating vaccine demand and addressing vaccine hesitancy (in close coordination with IVP, RCCE and other departments under the Vaccine Pillar) • Regularly review social listening reports and monitor online media for emerging issues, rumors, information voids, and report to IVP to adapt the required response (communications and other). • Prepare and regularly update country profiles on vaccine uptake considerations, including vaccine intention, barriers, and needs. • Monitor implementation of communication, social mobilization, and vaccine demand generation activities in countries, documenting best practices for publication and advocacy related purposes. • Participate in the COVAX Demand Generation sub-working group and ensure action items and updates are actioned in coordination with IVP unit. • Participate in country support team and demand generation meetings with priority countries, and take notes for follow-up. • Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. - Results/expected outputs; • Concerted efforts between Immunization and Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Polio transition (IVP and Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) for the improved vaccine uptake; • Data on behavioral insights and community feedback are collected, compiled and presented in a visualized and scientific way; • Immunization programs are informed on the interventions to overcome the social barriers ; • Operational plans for the vaccine uptake and risk communication and community engagement are well supported; • Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment; • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.