VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

E-Zone HRM Limited is a management consulting group providing one-stop solutions to clients who seek improved and sustainable profitability through the effective use of their people and resources. We specialize in delivering innovative and value added services that promote revenue growth and cost containment.

E-Zone HRM Limited has a formal agreement with one of the United Nations Agency to provide outsourcing services under a third party contract.

E-Zone HRM Limited is now accepting applications from Bangladeshi Nationals for the following vacancies under third party outsourcing contract modality:

Consultant- Social Listening

Duty Station: Dhaka

Contract Duration: 11 months

Number of Vacancies: 1 (One)

Contract Type: Contract with E-Zone

Contract Start Date: 24 November 2022

Reporting to: SBC Manager, SBC Section

A. Background: :

The fundamental mission of UN AGENCY is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. Social and Behavior Change results are central to the SDGs, and to UN AGENCY’s work and mandate. It would contribute to the realization of UNSDCF strategic results, SDGs, and UN AGENCY Strategic results that the different UN AGENCY section programme would contribute to.

Social and Behaviour Change (SBC), previously known as Communication for Development (C4D), is defined in UN AGENCY as “Social and behaviour change (SBC) aims to empower individuals and communities, and lower structural barriers that hinder people from adopting positive practices and societies from becoming more equitable, inclusive, cohesive and peaceful.” Drawing on various disciplines (from sociology and psychology to communication and behavioural economics), SBC encompasses any set of strategies and interventions that influences drivers of change and supports local action towards better societies.” It helps development practitioners and policymakers design more effective programmes for reducing poverty and inequity. And it blends scientific knowledge with community insights, most importantly, to expand people’s control over the decisions that affect their lives.

SBC is positioned in the Bangladesh Country Programme (CP) 2022-2026 as a key cross-cutting component. SBC implement and coordinate across the sector programmes to employ a child centered approach and achieve behavior and social change results of the health, nutrition, protection, education, WASH, and social protection programme. All these changes are SBC results and contribute to achieving Human Rights.

Bangladesh made an impressive progress to COVID-19 vaccination, already been globally recognized. In this vaccination programme, along with Health section, Social and Behaviour Change Programmes have substantially supported on vaccination communication with robust Risk Communication and Community Engagement component of Social and Behaviour change interventions.

According to Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), about 76.06% of population received first dose COVID 19 vaccines and about 71.48% of population received second dose vaccines where SBC section played a crucial role in mobilizing mass communities by creating vaccine awareness & vaccine demands, building community trust on vaccination, facilitating connecting communities with vaccination sites, promoting COIVD 19 protective behaviours and supporting Government to deal with vaccine related mis/disinformation nationwide. However, DGHS reported that the progress of 3rd dose vaccines is low, only 26.72% compared to the population covered for first and second dose. The vaccine communication programmes included robust community & mass media engagement, social mobilization, media monitoring, multimedia engagement, social mobilization etc. 

In addition to adult vaccination, Government has recently inaugurated pediatric COVID-19 vaccination programmes for 5-11 years children in August 2022. The first phase of the pediatric vaccination covered 12 city corporation areas which further expanded to rural areas in October 2022.  The coverage of first phase pediatric vaccination also reportedly low compared to the target sets by DGHS.

Implementation of community feedback mechanisms is one of the key global UN AGENCY Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) programme response to COVID 19 Risk Communication and Community Engagement and vaccination to enable monitoring of knowledge, attitude, practices and myths/rumors, vaccine hesitancy and refusal and prompt attention to concerns. 

In late 2021, UN AGENCY HQ approached BCO Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) section to explore the possibility of its being one of few countries to establish a Vaccine Demand Observatory under a joint collaboration of UN AGENCY HQ, with a specialized technical agency the Public Good Projects (PGP) and the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH), The VDO is a digital dashboard which utilizes the most up-to-date social listening methods to address vaccine related communication including misinformation in the media. With the technical support of PGP under a PCA contract with UN AGENCY HQ, PGP provided support for the establishment and monitoring of the VDO for Bangladesh that was established in early 2022.

As a result of the technical assistance from the PGP over the past eight months, UN AGENCY Bangladesh was able to strengthening social listening through the VDO dashboard, UN AGENCY staff and partners orientation, content designing and monitoring of vaccine misinformation.

Therefore, considering the above context and in view of the continued need for the operationalization and customization of the VDO based on the pilot experience plus to develop technical capacity of government for its sustainability, UN AGENCY SBC Section facilitating hiring of the services of PGP to continue to support the VDO and to train and build capacity of government staff. The purpose of this position is to provide technical assistance to the partners and UN AGENCY for implementing and utilization of VDO services for Bangladesh, capacity building, monitoring of social media, and others as needed.  S/he will closely be working with partners, UN AGENCY and relevant team members to support the VDO programmes.

B. Objectives:

The objective of this consultancy is to ensure dedicated and ongoing support to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Directorate General of Health (DGHS) for the operationalization and monitoring of the Vaccine Demand Observatory and for strengthening Social Listening on vaccination and any other topical issue of interest in Bangladesh

The consultant will work closely under the technical guidance of the Social and Behaviour Change Officer and report to the SBC Manager. The incumbent will be responsible for operationalizing Vaccine Demand Observatory Services (VDO) in close coordination with the implementing partners, Ministry/Department  and UN AGENCY. 
S/he will provide technical support to the Government partners to monitor the Vaccine Demand Observatory Dashboard, analyze data, social media conversation on vaccination, mis/disinformation that appears in the dashboard and provide technical support to the Government to address this mis/disinformation. S/he will facilitate monitoring, reporting and on time follow-up with the Vaccine Observatory Demand Dashboard, Public Good Project (PGP) teams and other necessary social media platforms to inform SBC programmes for evidence-based vaccine communication plan and implementation by implementing partners.

C. Scope of work:

In line with the Annual Rolling Work Plan 2022-23 and emerging needs for continued operation of the VDO and the localization of capacity to do so, Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) Section is proposing to hire one consultant for SBC Social Listening at NO2 level, to provide technical support to the Government partners and UN AGENCY.
The specific assignment will be to provide operational and technical support in the following areas:

1. Support to strengthen social listening related to vaccination, monitor vaccine conversation including misinformation using Vaccine Demand Observatory Dashboard (VDO) and other social media platforms to inform evidence-based SBC vaccine communication plan and implementation
2. Support evidence informed creative messages and SBC materials development and dissemination to tackle vaccine related mis/disinformation
3. Support partners to strengthen vaccine related social listening, monitoring and addressing of vaccination mis/disinformation    
4. Support implementation of vaccination related community engagement interventions by relevant partner

Knowledge products (print an audio-visual documentation, activity reports, lessons learned, success story, interviews, human interest stories, photo-features) etc. developed.
If required, conduct necessary field monitoring where vaccination coverage is low, assess local barriers and inform SBC interventions to improve vaccine coverage

D. Deliverables and Schedules:

Following are the expected specific areas of deliverables:

1. Strengthening Social Listening: Provide technical support to expand the ability of Government partners to monitor vaccine conversation including misinformation using Vaccine Demand Observatory (VDO) and through other social media monitoring platforms and investigative techniques which are visualized in the dashboards of VDO and support Government to address them on time.
2. Content development: Provide technical support to the Government and UN AGENCY for evidence informed creative message development to address vaccine related mis/disinformation/myths and support dissemination through different channels and medias
3. Social Listening SBC capacity building of implementing partners: Engage with and provide technical support to government counterparts, in the development and appropriate use of VDO platforms, develop SBC strategies based on the VDO dashboard monitoring & other media-based data/information and support implementation of evidence-based SBC strategies and on vaccine communication.
4. Track vaccine low performing Upazila’s/Pockets: Assess community perception/ practices in low vaccine coverage areas through local SBC tools, and propose appropriate SBC interventions to increase vaccine coverage in low performing areas
5. Community engagement: Support partners to implement vaccination related community engagement interventions and ensure application of community engagement standards
6. Field Monitoring: Conduct field visit with focused on the areas of low vaccination coverage and provide support to the partners improving vaccine coverage by addressing SBC issues in the community.  Assess social barriers and inform SBC interventions to improve vaccine coverage
7. Support COVID 19 RCCE communication, community engagement and communication monitoring
8. Liaison with relevant Government partners, civil society organization and individuals, elites and other influential to engage them removing vaccine related rumors/mis/disinformation and in other SBC work

Liaison with relevant VDO/PGP contact persons, Government officials and other relevant partners for effective implementation of VDO in the country etc Facilitate vaccine related pretesting and contextualization of SBC packages

If required conduct field monitoring of vaccine related UN AGENCY interventions and activities and write monitoring reports in line with UN AGENCY standard. 

E. Reporting requirements:

• Detailed overall action plan and timeline prepared for the whole assignment in the first month of assignment.
• Monthly activity plan and report of previous months activities and key outputs shared for approval.
• Provide timely input and information to facilitate the implementation of VDO related planned activities by the hiring agency
• If required, and depending on the field trip, reports submitted within 15 days of end of trip and action points followed and closed in timely.
• Other necessary reporting as per need of the hiring agency.

F. Consultancy Cost:

• Consultants will receive a renumeration of 225,000 BDT per month.

G. Administrative issues:

• Consultant will be based in Dhaka
• Computer and relevant IT equipment and UN AGENCY email account will be provided to the consultant by UN AGENCY
• If required, consultant is expected to conduct necessary field trips.
• Consultant will be responsible to pay all taxes as per government rules and regulations. E-Zone will make statutory deductions towards income tax as per fovernment rules and regulations.

H. Profile Requirements & Qualification Skills:

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: IT, social and behavioural science, sociology, journalism, communication, anthropology, psychology, public relations or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: Demonstrated working experience in social listening and media monitoring, Social and behaviour change/communication for development, social development programme planning, Social and Behaviour Change creative content development, public advocacy or another related area.
• Skills in preparing social media monitoring analytical report, quality documents in English and Bangla.
• Experience in vaccination programmes, community engagement, addressing vaccine related mis/disinformation etc.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset
•  Experience in material development for print and multi-media, and community engagement.
• Fluency in English and Bangla is required.

This position is open for Bangladeshi Nationals only. All candidates, irrespective of gender, religious and ethnic backgrounds can apply for the vacancies.

The UN Agency prides itself as fostering a multicultural and harmonious work environment, guaranteed by a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected consultants will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Candidates with the required profile and proven experience, who meet these qualifications, are invited to submit their application in English clearly mentioning the Job Title along with a meaningful cover letter, updated CV, recent PP size photographby email to:

jobs.un@e-zonebd.com

Last Date of Application: 05 November, 2022

Please mention the Applied Position Name on the subject line of your email

No phone calls please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. All applications will be treated according to the merit and with strict confidentiality.