Social and Behavioural Communications Officer - Kano at Save The Children

ROLE PURPOSE: 

Under the guidance of the ACSM Coordinator, the SBC Officer will be responsible for field implementation of the community mobilization and social and behavioural communication activities as captured in the workplan, with focus on strategies and approaches targeting communities with zero-dose and under-immunized children. S/he will support the ACSM Coordinator to implement innovations in the delivery of primary health care with focus on improving quality and access to immunization services, strengthening the health system, enabling policy and social environment, community involvement and removing the social, cultural and behavioural barriers to immunization service uptake.  

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Programme Quality

• Contribute to the planning, costing and implementation of ACSM components of the project and contribute to the overall key programme planning, coordination and reporting activities.
• Support the ACSM Coordinator in documenting success stories and contribute to the writing of reports, case studies, briefing papers and presentations for internal and external audiences as relevant
• In collaboration with the MEAL coordinator, support the ACSM Coordinator in collecting data and analyzing the progress of project’s ACSM activities.
• Use and adhere to available implementation technical documents (ToRs, tools, SoPs, training manuals, guidelines and protocols) assiduously to ensure programs are of high quality and comply with the country, SCI standards and best practices. 
• Actively contribute to the process of learning, evaluation, capturing and disseminating lessons from the programme for continuous improvement of programme performance and overall outcome

Social and behavioural communication (SBC)

• As part of the ACSM strategy, contribute to the development and implementation of a tailored SBC approach that will foster an improved individual and community understanding and perception around vaccination and health services
• Support the conduct of caregiver profiling, community and stakeholders mapping and lead in the development and production of evidence-based and audience-sensitive communication messages and materials (e.g posters, jingles, leaflets, scripts etc) on promoting the benefits of immunization over social barriers and misconceptions
• Implement dissemination and monitoring plans for communication materials and messages, including mass and social media broadcast and community events and campaigns either as stand-alone or to mobilise for an outreach programme
• Contribute to the development of communication training materials and support the conduct of training for relevant influencers and change agents such as traditional and religious leaders, CBOs, CSOs, journalists, professional bodies etc
• Support the ACSM Coordinator to build and maintain excellent relationships with relevant journalists, broadcasters and commentators in the local, national and international media and widen interest in immunization of under-immunized and zero-dose children
• Support innovations aiming at increasing community participation in and ownership of quality immunization and health service delivery
• Lead in engaging with platforms to improve positive social and gender norms to create an enabling environment for positive practices within households and at community levels. These platforms include but not limited to forums for men and women, mother-to-mother support groups, cooperative societies, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) etc 

Social Mobilization

• As part of the ACSM strategy, contribute to the development and implementation of social mobilization approach to increase the participation of an all-inclusive traditional and religious institutions (TRI), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Faith Based Organizations (FBO )in immunization planning, activities and accountability
• Conduct capacity building in form of training, awareness creation and mentorship for social groups and individual champions (including children) on the dissemination of immunization messages

Safeguarding

• Support safeguarding team in carrying out safeguarding risk assessment and develop a mitigation plan when needed.
• Flag safeguarding concerns noticed during programme implementation as well as share good practices identified in the field.
• Ensure that all children and programme beneficiaries are provided with ongoing, age-appropriate verbal or written information in relevant languages about Save the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct

QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in the social or behavioural sciences, public health, health education, health promotion, development studies, development economics, rural development/sociology or other related fields. 
• Any training on Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization be an added advantage
• Minimum of 3 year-experience in health financing, health governance, enhanced voice and accountability or similar roles, three of which should be at managerial level
• Fluency in English language. Knowledge of local languages (Lagos-Yoruba and Kano-Hausa) will be an added advantage
• Strong analytical framework to clearly articulate and communicate our policy positions
• Ability to be proactive when required to be able to keep communication plans dynamic and aligned to new policy and cultural developments
• Ability to clearly communicate and easily relate to federal and state authorities 
• Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment
• Comply with the requirements of Save the Children’s commitment to protect children in accordance with the Child Safeguarding Policy.