Program Officer II - Strategic Communication at Breakthrough ACTION

Reports to:                 Deputy Project Director

Project Activity:        Risk Communication (COVID)

Duration:                   1 year – extension contingent on funding.

Project Description

Breakthrough ACTION is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead their social behavior change (SBC) programming around the world. Breakthrough ACTION is a partnership led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in collaboration with Save the Children, ThinkPlace, ideas42, Camber Collective, International Center for Research on Women, and Viamo.

In Nigeria, Breakthrough ACTION (Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria) focuses their efforts on malaria; maternal, newborn, and child health, including nutrition (MNCHN); family planning/reproductive health; TB; priority zoonotic diseases; and the COVID-19 response. In addition, Breakthrough ACTION supports capacity strengthening of key stakeholders to design, implement, and evaluate SBC activities.

With recently awarded funding from USAID, BA-Nigeria is recruiting positions to lead and implement Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Global Health Security Agency (GHSA), and COVID-19 activities.

Summary

This position will provide technical guidance and capacity strengthening for SBC to the project in the application of SBC approaches in the design and rollout of high-quality SBC interventions, especially discovery, definition, and design of activities. S/he should have knowledge in communication theory, behavioral economics, or human-centered design.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the messaging development and distribution related to COVID vaccination, prevention, and testing, with an understanding of the unique state contexts and diverse audiences in close collaboration with SBC and Innovations Advisor;
• Coordinates at the national level and works with state-level teams to develop strategic Risk Communication messaging for the targeted audiences;
• Support diverse stakeholders in the design, planning, implementation, and monitoring of social and behavior change and risk communication programming (including integrating gender);
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in Social and Behavior Change, programming for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting training and workshops, and mentoring and coaching.
• Participate in forums relevant to SBC to collect and share best practices and promote Breakthrough ACTION’s work.
• Lead the development, review, pretesting, refinement, and finalization of SBC materials and tools for vaccine demand creation in partnership with a design firm;
• Ensure timeliness and high integrity of activity implementation in accordance with the work plan;
• Generate media briefs, reports, success stories, and other program documentation in collaboration with the knowledge management unit;
• Other duties as identified by supervisor and/or Abuja country office program leads.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities.

 Minimum Qualifications and Skills

•  Minimum of an HND/Bachelor’s degree in arts, Social Sciences or Health Sciences.
• A master’s degree in communications is an advantage.
• Minimum of six (6) years of experience in SBC programming, audience segmentation, message development, and communication channels.
• Previous work experience implementing USAID-funded or donor-funded health programs is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in social and behavior change, communication, or social marketing is required.
• Previous experience of community engagement is an added advantage.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Working knowledge of MS Office Packages and database software and applications.
• Well-organized, with ability to track multiple activities and deadlines
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English
• Ability to travel within Nigeria and work successfully within a cross-cultural, multi-sectoral, multi-project team-based environment.