VAC-8095 Nutrition SBC Social Mobilizer

UNICEF is looking for motivated and qualified social and community mobilization agents able to work in remote areas the scope of the social mobilizer covers strengthening community engagement and social and behavior change interventions to generate demand for services and promote key behaviors during both development and emergency periods.

The nutrition situation remained dire in Afghanistan. In September and October of 2021, nearly 10 million people in Afghanistan experienced high levels of acute food insecurity (International Food Security Phase Classification IPC Phase 3 or above), an almost 30 percent increase from the same season last year (14.5 million people). This was mainly driven by drought, the collapse of public sector services, severe economic crisis, and increased food prices, with a direct impact on the nutrition situation of women and children.

Rates of acute malnutrition among children and women remain above the emergency threshold in large parts of the country. The drought declared by the former Government of Afghanistan in June 2021 and intensifying conflict up to August 2021 have driven the need for lifesaving health and nutrition services, especially for children aged under-five and Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLWs). In 2022, 4.7 million people are projected to be in need of humanitarian nutrition treatment services, including 1.1 million children under five with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). A recent Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) screening conducted by UNICEF in 26 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) settlements in 14 provinces in November 2021 demonstrates a critical level of acute malnutrition with up to 42 percent of children aged 6-59 months requiring immediate assistance.

The efforts will continue prioritizing lifesaving treatment of severe acute malnutrition while, at the same time putting more emphasis on prevention and promotion efforts to reduce the burden of undernutrition on children and their families. This will consist of expanding on services that protect and promote appropriate MIYCF practices, especially complementary feeding for the toddlers, investing in social behavior change communication, providing specialized nutritious food, strengthening community outreach support, and further widening the response with services addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition.

Therefore, in order to address the challenges and concerns of affected communities and various service providers including the provincial level De facto authority and humanitarian communities, UNICEF is looking for motivated and qualified social and community mobilization agents able to work in remote areas The scope of the social mobilizer covers strengthening community engagement and social and behavior change interventions to generate demand for services and promote key behaviors during both development and emergency periods. Besides they are needed to promote key behaviors and sustain them for a longer period of time with contextualized, tailor-made, and language-appropriate messages and information.

·Conduct orientation or training sessions for actors on key SBC and AAP packages.

·Conducting and facilitating follow up meetings with community influential people and networks within the communities.

·         Conduct and facilitate community engagement sessions with households and communities on life-saving behaviours as well as healthy and protective behaviours related to health, nutrition, WASH, education, and child protection.

·Tracking and collecting and sharing the rumours from the community.

·Provide information about the availability and utilization of services to communities.

·Inform communities about the available mechanisms and channels to provide feedback on available services.

·Engage community structures/ key influencers and communities in collecting/responding to community feedback.

·Raising awareness and mobilising and engaging community structures and communities in communication activities during diseases outbreak, and health emergencies national/international Campaigns.

·Monitor and supervise the SBC interventions and ensure the implementation of the activities base on the plan SBC and

·Follow up on the distribution of relevant supplies to households.

·Ensure local coordination and collaboration with key actor(s) such as the de-facto authority, CSOs and others.

1.   Prepare activity report according to the established format and submit it to his/her supervisor.

2.   Identify the best success stories of SBC interventions, collect testimonies from beneficiaries and submit them to the supervisor for further documentation.

·Experience working on a humanitarian project is an asset.

·Skills in documenting activities (writing short articles, activity reports, taking pictures...).

·Proven ability to manage multiple tasks in a result-oriented manner under demanding working conditions, often with short deadlines.

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(Qualified Afghan female applicants are encouraged to apply)