Consultancy to Provide Risk Communication and Community Engagement Technical Support to National and County Coordination and Preparedness against Infectious Diseases at UNICEF

MAJOR TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

• National Planning and Coordination: Develop of national Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) Plan. Support the government in the facilitation of RCCE Technical Working Groups and coordination with other relevant working groups. Develop RCCE plan for vaccine introduction and multi-media campaigns in consultation with the MOH National Vaccine and Immunization Programme to ensure acceptance by the affected communities.
• Data generation and usage: Review recent data (administrative data, KAP studies, social listening data and others), strategy documents and plans. Conduct interviews with key stakeholders to identify bottlenecks and resources. Design social science data generation to understand the behavioural barriers and drivers.
• Messaging materials: Develop community-informed messaging matrix for the generation of key messages and IEC materials in consultation with the MOH including pre-testing and finalization with affected populations and key audiences
• Capacity building: Map the capacity gaps and propose specific activities to build capacity among MOH personnel at national and county levels. This may include, but not limited to establishing a coordination mechanism to improve the communication among key stakeholders, build capacity in the County Health Management Team to proactively communicate to the communities, and preparing for crisis communication in case of Adverse Event Following Immunizations. Build capacity of health workers on the skills related to RCCE and inter-personal communication skills to instill confidence in the public health measures.
• County Support: Support the County Health Management Team and County Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) to adapt and implement the National-level RCCE plan for the affected communities based on the available data and local context. This will require careful coordination with the CHMT, to ensure joint planning with other relevant actions such as case management, infection prevention and control, and vaccine supply management activities.
• Risk Communication: Engage with national and community media and selected digital influencers to raise awareness about the public health risks associated with the disease in question. Build their capacity to highlight the importance of accurate and timely communication during the public health emergencies.
• Community Engagement: Develop and sustain partnership with local leaders, community leaders, youth groups, professional associations (e.g. truck drivers) and religious leaders to create opportunity for dialogue to minimize the impact of outbreaks by ensuring adherence to the public health measures. Monitor the RCCE activities and provide supportive supervision to connected CHMT and community leaders in affected counties. Ensure equity considerations in prioritizing high-risk groups (e.g. elderly, frontline workers, people with comorbidities), geographical locations and gender equality.
• Infodemic management: Monitor the infodemics (myths, misconceptions and misinformation) and trigger response action by the MOH and partners.
• Knowledge management: Facilitate documentation and dissemination of good practices and lessons learned
• Accountability to Affected populations: Support advocacy, networking and capacity building for improved understanding of and adoption of AAP principles and approaches for humanitarian programming and implementation at county level.
• Responsibilities of the Consultant: Consultant will use own laptop and communication devices.
• Responsibilities of UNICEF: If the assignment office based, UNICEF will facilitate access to the UNON compound and provide desk and chair.

Travel

• The consultant may be requested to travel to complete assignments. Therefore, the consultants are requested to include two types of fees in the financial proposal:
• Fee for remote service
• Fee for services including travel (factoring travel costs related to travel insurance and visa).
• At a later stage, when the PO is raised for an assignment including travel the office will use the Fee for services including travel and add the travel line for the estimated cost of tickets and DSA to be reimbursed on actuals.
• ESTIMATED DURATION OF LTA
• Duration of LTA is 2 years, with additional 1 year based on successful performance. The actual contract duration is expected to be between 3 months to 12 months based on the breadth of services and deliverables required.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and promote collaboration among key stakeholders in the face of pressures and tensions.
• Strong analytical skills to understand data, anticipate changing priorities and identify solution, openly sharing knowledge, insights and effective practices.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required. Knowledge of local language will be considered an asset.
• Capacity development skills to augment the capacity of County Health Management Team in risk communication, Community engagement, social listening and crisis communication.
• Willing to travel frequently within Kenya as per UNICEF travel rules, regulations and procedures.

Academic qualifications:

• Advanced university degree in Public Health, Behaviour Science, Social Science, Data Science, medicine and other relevant areas.

Work experiences:

• At least 8 years of professional work experience in RCCE, health communication, immunization, outbreak response, health system strengthening, county health management, and other relevant areas.
• Proven expertise in planning, coordinating, implementing and monitoring health communication/community outreach activities.
• Solid knowledge of immunology, vaccine delivery and key characteristics of the disease in question.
• Prior experience in working with the government is desired
• Previous work experience in the UN is an asset