Social & Behavior Change Specialist, Polio Outbreak Response (NO-3)

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Social & Behavior Change Specialist, Polio Outbreak Response (NO-3)

Job Requisition ID: 594136
Location: Abuja
Employment Type: Full-time
Contract type: Temporary Appointment
Level: NO-3
Categories: Social and Behavior Change

How Can you Make a Difference?

• As the Social and Behaviour Change Specialist, you will support planning, implementation, monitoring, quality improvement and coordination of SBC/ACSM interventions, with a focus on increasing caregiver acceptance of polio vaccination, reducing missed children, addressing refusals and hesitancy, countering misinformation, strengthening community engagement, and improving the performance of community-based mobilization structures.
• As the SBC Specialist, you will provide national-level technical and operational support to the Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the National Emergency Operations Centre, and work closely with State Emergency Operations Centres and partners to improve the quality of polio eradication activities and their linkages with routine immunization and primary health care.
• Under the overall guidance of the UNICEF Polio Team Lead, you will work closely with key partners, including the NPHCDA, WHO, AFENET, Solina, Rotary and the Gates Foundation, to support polio eradication efforts at the national, state, and local levels.

Major Responsibilities

• Coordination, partnership building and advocacy
• Accountability and additional duties
• Microplanning, operational readiness and campaign preparedness
• Refusal conversion, misinformation management and missed-children reduction
• Community engagement, social mobilization and trust building
• Campaign implementation, field supervision and quality improvement
• Strategic planning, programme development and outbreak response
• Data use, monitoring, reporting and knowledge management
• Capacity building, innovation and continuous improvement

Minimum Requirements

• Language Requirements: Proficient/Fluent level of English is required.
• Work Experience: At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in social and behaviour change, health communication, community engagement, immunization, public health, emergency response or related areas is required. Relevant experience should include:
  • Experience in SBC/ACSM planning, implementation, monitoring and coordination is required.
  • Experience working with community mobilizers, civil society organizations, religious and traditional leaders, and local influencers is required.
  • Experience supporting immunization, polio eradication, outbreak response or other public health campaigns is required.
  • Experience addressing vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, refusals, missed children or low service uptake is required.
• Skills: Advocacy, interpersonal communication, campaign preparedness, monitoring, reporting and problem solving skills are required.
• Education: Master's or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Social and Behavioural Science, Communication for Development, Public Health, Health Promotion, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Development studies or another relevant field is required.

Desirables:

• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish), or a local language (Hausa or another language spoken in polio priority states in Nigeria) is an asset.
• Experience in social data, community feedback and monitoring findings for programme improvement, experience working with government counterparts, UN agencies, NGOs and development partners, experience in routine immunization, zero dose programming or integrated PHC services is an asset.
• Relevant experience at country level, Northern Nigeria, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts is an asset.