National Community Mobilization Coordinator – KENPHIA II at The Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (CIHEB)

Job Summary

This position will coordinate all aspects of demand creation and community mobilization of selected communities and counties for the survey working with multi-sectorial stakeholders at national, county and community levels. S/He will work to support the coordination and implementation of the KENPHIA II community engagement/mobilization strategies that encourage awareness, trust, participation, assuring the community of confidentiality, safety and security. S/He will work very closely with the Senior Technical Advisor to ensure that the mobilization strategies are fully understood and reflected in the implementation plans by all persons they oversee. S/He will conduct monitoring to ensure that the communities are aware of the survey and willing to participate. S/he will ensure that the surveillance and tracking system put in place to identify any messages that may be misleading or harmful to participants on the survey is functional.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Identifies stakeholders, opinion leaders and community gatekeepers in target communities and Lead community mobilization efforts at the county, sub-county and community level
• Fully understand community structures to enable appropriate design and mobilization strategies that will leverage on these structures
• Working with other key stakeholders to recruit community mobilization personnel at county and sub-county levels within their catchment areas
• Have regular engagement with the Senior Technical Advisor to ensure that real time demands for community sensitization and awareness are reflected in micro plans
• Provides guidance and inputs to develop culturally sensitive content and specific mobilization products that will encourage and increase survey participation and mobilize targeted communities, create awareness and use creative messaging to disseminate messages using local media and other innovative strategies
• Partners with networks of people living with HIV and civil service organizations or other entities that can mobilize and ensure active participation in the survey
• Ensure community entry procedures are completed and due process followed through the counties as well as actively advocates for the project with the National Government Administrative Officers (NGAOs), ward administrators, village elders, and civic/ religious leaders and develop and implement a plan to monitor community acceptance of survey activities
• Conducts knowledge, attitude and practice surveys to provide inputs for developing the questionnaires and methodology.
• Oversees the Media and graphics officers in terms of some key outputs and coordinates and provides guidance on the development of survey theme song, fliers, other key communication products
• Coordinate the recruitment and day-to-day support of community mobilizers in target communities and Motivate and encourage survey teams and provide constructive feedback and oversight
• Foster good working relationships between the community mobilization teams and the field implementation teams
• Ensure the team is adequately equipped and responsible for logistics and track the teams progress to ensure efficient completion of demand generation assignments at households

Qualifications, Qualities & Abilities:

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences with knowledge of Kenya’s health sector and Community Health Strategy and 5 – 10 years’ experience working in a similar role on field surveys in LMIC
• Extensive experience in implementing Community-Based Programs and development and planning of community mobilization strategies as well as a solid understanding of integrated community health programs including HIV/AIDS and community structures to enable development of strategies that can facilitate penetration of survey messages
• Ability to conduct accurate stakeholder mapping exercises and excellent stakeholder engagement skills
• Ability to design a crisis communication plan as well as design plans to mitigate negative public opinions with knowledge of social media tracking software’s to track survey participation, negative opinions and provide key interventions. Knowledge of local media organizations and media personnel will be an advantage
• Self-starter, problem solver, innovative individual with a strong work ethic and excellent analytic skills coupled with good report writing, ability to multitask and work with multidisciplinary teams with minimal supervision and able to maintain high levels of confidentiality
• Demonstration of planning and organizing, interpersonal skills (active listening, empathy, social awareness, emotional awareness) with cultural sensitivity
• Leadership skills with the ability to direct, delegate, motivate and inspire other team members and be flexible, willing to travel to any part of Kenya and work weekends and public holidays during the survey implementation period.