Social and Behavior Change Advisor

Job Description

Save the Children seeks a Social and Behavior Change Advisor who will serve on the upcoming Burkina Faso Integrated Health Services Activity (IHS) Program. This program, funded by USAID, will contribute to the Government of Burkina Faso’s overarching goal of improving the health and well-being of the Burkinabe population. The project’s objectives are to: 1) Reduce the burden of malaria through the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) by scaling up and intensifying the implementation of proven and effective malaria prevention and control interventions; 2) Strengthen the national health system so that it is prepared for effective prevention, detection, and response to public health threats under the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) program; 3) Improve women, adolescents, newborns and children’s health through increased access and utilization of family planning, maternal, neonatal, nutrition, adolescent and child health; and 4) Reinforce high impact interventions including service delivery, social behavior change communication, commodities’ supply chain management, and strengthening of the community health system.

The post-holder will ensure that all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child safeguarding, safety and security, code of conduct, equal opportunities and other relevant policies are in place.

This position is contingent upon donor approval and funding.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Advisor serves as part of Save the Children’s core project staff for IHS under the project overall leadership. The person in this position will:

• Support the strategic vision for social and behavior change and the use of communication to create change linked to improved women, adolescents, newborns and children’s health outcomes;
• Develop an SBC strategy with project technical staff to ensure that behavioral objectives are being addressed in program activity plans at community level;
• Oversee qualitative research, including small formative studies and pretesting all materials with their intended audience—this research will help refine concepts or implementation strategies (as needed) to guide strategic program choices for SBC approaches and tools;
• Work with government and other partners to design and develop media campaigns on topics required such as malaria, family planning or nutrition
• Develop and manage terms of reference and budgets for consultants (individuals and agencies) provide supervision over the life of the contract ensuring high quality deliverables;
• Coordinate the development of the project’s SBC communication activities that will range from print and audio supports, to advocacy materials to promotional print & TV to mobile technologies;
• Develop creative briefs and terms of references and work with the creative agencies/consultants/media houses hired by IHS to develop and disseminate the project materials ensuring that the agency has what it needs to produce and disseminate materials in a timely manner and the agency is providing timely and quality deliverables;
• Organize efforts to pretest materials to ensure quality and resonance of the subjects within the target community;
• Support project staff to plan, coordinate, and disseminate all IHS materials required for project activities in a timely manner;
• Work with monitoring and evaluation experts to develop and help track critical indicators of SBC implementation and uptake and behavior change at the community level, and use of quality benchmarks
• Support the development of a network of SBC Advisors (or similar position) of other USAID and donors’ development and humanitarian projects, participating in context analyses, sharing experience and lessons learned, potential synergy and collaboration, and supporting the CLA approach in consultation with other USAID existing partners
• Liaise with universities and professional schools (health and human sciences studies) to develop potential collaboration and exchange around SBC topics (curriculum, joint researches or studies, debate, information to students about development projects)
• Liaise with and support existing SBC initiatives such as those currently being developed under the Breakthrough ACTION program.
• Identify potential SBC capacity needs of IHS partners and support development of short trainings and/or reviews of SBC implementation in IHS with strong learning objectives;
• Support proposal development and program design in SBC components for any subsequent funding or future funding opportunities with USAID
• Travel as needed (at least 30%) between project work sites in the targeted regions of Burkina Faso.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in health, communication or social marketing or social science such as sociology, anthropology; will accept degrees in other fields if there is evidence of sustained experience in the fields noted above.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience in social and behavior change related work, including but not limited to strategic engagement, development communications or campaigns, or commercial marketing/advertising and community engagement. Preference for SBC experience in health field;
• Experience managing creative, strategic communication design and media/materials development (mobile phones, print and/or television). This includes pre-testing and production of communications materials;
• Experience working at community level in programs that require active engagement with families and the community
• Knowledge of the public and private sector (marketing/advertising) communication landscape in Burkina Faso;
• Experience with designing and implementing qualitative anthropological/ sociological research and/or communication monitoring and evaluation a plus.
• Strong capacity to write including but not limited to: strategies, reports, documentation, success stories
• History of engagement with USAID or development donor funded initiatives is highly desirable
• English proficiency a plus

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom Save the Children is in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of child abuse. All our representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation. Any violations of this policy will be treated as a serious issue.

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

About the Organization

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom Save the Children is in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of child abuse. All our representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation. Any violations of this policy will be treated as a serious issue.

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.