Social & Behavior Change Specialist, Polio Outbreak Response (NO-3), TA (364 days), #137832, Abuja - Nigeria, WCAR

Organizational Context

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. We are committed, passionate, and proud, offering diverse opportunities for professional and personal development. Promoting the rights of every child is a calling, fostering a diverse and passionate culture.

Job Purpose

As the Social and Behaviour Change Specialist, you will support the planning, implementation, monitoring, quality improvement, and coordination of SBC/ACSM interventions. Your primary focus will be on increasing caregiver acceptance of polio vaccination, reducing missed children, addressing refusals and hesitancy, countering misinformation, and strengthening community engagement. You will also work to improve the performance of community-based mobilization structures. Under the guidance of the UNICEF Polio Team Lead, you will collaborate closely with key partners like NPHCDA, WHO, AFENET, Solina, Rotary, and the Gates Foundation to bolster polio eradication efforts at national, state, and local levels. This role provides national-level technical and operational support to the Government of Nigeria, particularly the NPHCDA and National Emergency Operations Centre, ensuring improved quality of polio eradication activities and their integration with routine immunization and primary health care.

Responsibilities

The Social and Behaviour Change Specialist will lead strategic planning, programme development, and outbreak response, ensuring robust frameworks are in place for effective interventions. This involves meticulous microplanning, operational readiness, and comprehensive campaign preparedness to maximize impact. During campaign implementation, the specialist will provide critical field supervision and drive quality improvement initiatives, ensuring adherence to best practices. A core responsibility is fostering strong community engagement, social mobilization, and trust-building among target populations, which is vital for programme success. The role also specifically addresses refusal conversion, proactive misinformation management, and strategies for reducing missed children in vaccination efforts. Furthermore, the specialist is responsible for diligent data use, monitoring, reporting, and knowledge management to inform evidence-based decision-making and programme adjustments. Effective coordination, partnership building with key stakeholders, and advocacy are essential to leverage resources and support. The specialist will also focus on capacity building, promoting innovation, and continuous improvement within the team and partner networks, while ensuring accountability and undertaking additional duties as required to achieve polio eradication objectives.

Work Experience

At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in social and behaviour change, health communication, community engagement, immunization, public health, or emergency response is required. This includes experience in SBC/ACSM planning, implementation, monitoring, coordination, supporting immunization/polio eradication campaigns, working with community mobilizers/leaders, and addressing vaccine hesitancy/misinformation.

Skills

Advocacy, Interpersonal communication, Campaign preparedness, Monitoring, Reporting, Problem solving

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