Closing date: 07 Oct 2016
Terms of Reference: BCC/Communications specialist
Background
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) is a unique, multi-sectorial partnership within the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) focusing on scaling up efforts to prevent malaria, including achieving universal coverage[1] and use of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) to accelerate countries’ progress towards their malaria control targets and save the lives of millions worldwide.
Scope of Work
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention is seeking a consultant with broad experience in the areas of advocacy, social mobilization and behavior change communication to provide technical assistance to campaigns engaged in the mass distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) to expand its existing roster of technical assistance providers.
Typically, the consultant will work closely with the campaign’s Communication Sub-committee (CSC), composed of a wide variety of partners, which reports to the National Coordinating Committee (NCC) led by the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP). During an assignment, the consultant will work in close coordination with the NMCP and the Ministry of Health, as well as with representatives of groups such as the President’s Malaria Initiative, the Global Fund and other implementation, technical and financial partners.
The scope of work for a specific consultancy assignment will vary according to the stage of a campaign’s planning and implementation. The following list represents the types of tasks that may be needed to be undertaken, dependent upon the circumstance of each campaign.
· Assist the CSC in developing its scope of work.
· Assist the CSC in developing a communication, advocacy and social mobilization plan of action, timeline, and budget for a campaign’s pre- distribution, distribution and post-distribution phases.
· Assist the CSC in devising messages and defining channels for messaging around household registration, procedures for net pick up, and the acceptable uses and/or disposal of expired nets, as well as the disposal of net packaging. Also assist in the development of post-distribution net hang-up and communication activities, if these are required.
· Assist the CSC in the development of communication plans and protocols both for countering false rumors and localized pockets of resistance to compliance with the campaign and its objectives. If warranted by circumstance, also assist in the development of a communication plan for responding to crisis situations.
· Assist in the development of social mobilization strategies and other appropriate communication approaches including the use of mass media for target groups with different communication requirements. This would include urban versus rural populations, as well as for internally displaced and refugee populations.
· Provide recommendations for strengthening communication activities in order for a campaign’s net utilization goal to be reached. This may include advising the CSC through a review of research findings about net use and care and the development of strategies to overcome knowledge, belief and behavior gaps that may be negatively affecting use and care. Review the messages, channels and timing to identify strengths and areas that could be further strengthened. If additional research is warranted, provide advice to the CSC on research priorities and approaches that will identify barriers to net use and proper care, as well as opportunities to effectively promote compliance.
· Assist the CSC in conducting an assessment of the malaria program’s existing brand strategy. If there is a determination to strengthen the brand strategy, assist the CSC in developing a creative brief that can be used to competitively contract a public relations or advertising firm to develop and produce a branding package, including products such as a slogan, logo, song, TV and radio spots, key motivational messages and an umbrella narrative capable of inspiring target audiences to help fulfil the campaign’s objectives.
· Provide advice on deploying the educational system (schools) to disseminate messages about the campaign procedures as well as net use and care.
· Assist the CSC in developing advocacy and engagement packages for specific audiences to include key messages, answers to frequently asked questions, and details about the campaign. These audiences may include categories such as elected officials, legislators, ministers, religious organizations and business organizations.
· Provide advice on using SMS text messages and other electronic / social media to remind the public to sleep under a net every night and on engaging telecommunications and other companies to provide in-kind contributions for these SMS / electronic media reminders.
· Assist in the development both of communication modules in a campaign’s training manual for Training of Trainers and of teaching and learning tools for training of supervisors, monitors, and implementers at regional and local levels.
· Assist CSC and the Operations subcommittee in assuring that the job aids for those carrying out social mobilization activities, household registration and LLIN distribution contain strong behavior change components.
· Provide assistance in adapting communication microplanning tools to country specific requirements.
· Provide assistance in developing communication indicators for inclusion in campaign supervision checklists, monitoring guides and evaluative research.
· Undertake observation missions or process evaluations to assess quality of implementation of activities and develop recommendations for future planning.
Key qualifications needed
· LLIN mass distribution experience: any TA provider working with AMP should ideally have worked on a mass LLIN distribution campaigns in the capacity of a planner or an implementer. The individual should have actively participated in the process versus being a member of an organization involved but without a campaign-specific role.
· Ability to work independently: as consultants all TA providers working with AMP are expected to be experts in their area of technical support and are expected to work independently to accomplish the terms of reference they have been hired to complete. TA providers should require minimal assistance from other members of the AMP technical support team to fulfill their terms of reference, but should feel free to use AMP colleagues as resources as needed.
· Ability to work in a team: all TA providers working with AMP are expected to be able to work within a team. The TA provider is expected to work with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) staff and partner organizations and the TA provider is expected to fit within the team as a resource person who adds value to the discussions. In some cases, TA providers may need to work in a team of TA providers (where necessary and requested by the country).
· Ability to communicate effectively: the AMP TA providers communicate regularly with one another and communication lines are established at the outset of the contract signing. The TA provider is expected to provide regular updates to the AMP partnership through a situation report and participation in the AMP weekly conference call.
· Work ethic: the AMP TA providers typically work short-term missions with heavy workloads for completion of the terms of reference (ToR) they have been provided. It is expected that AMP TA providers will work as hard as possible to accomplish all elements of the ToR within the time of their mission. TA providers are under strict deadlines to submit final reports on time within the 7-day reporting deadline.
· Language: all AMP TA providers must be fluent (spoken and written) in either French or English to be able to communicate with the broader AMP team. Additional language skills (Spanish, Portuguese) are an advantage.
Validation of a TA provider in the AMP system
Once a TA provider has been identified for a support mission, they will receive a terms of reference specific to each country mission. If the TA provider accepts the terms of reference, they will be deployed on an initial trial mission to further assess their capacity to deliver. New TA providers will be asked to keep the AMP Senior Implementation Technician in copy on all communication during their first mission in order to assess progress over the course of the mission. The AMP Senior Implementation Technician will also maintain contact with the country and any other TA providers on the same mission to assess the fit of the TA provider within the broader country team working on the campaign.
At the end of the TA mission, the country and partners will be asked to evaluate the mission of the TA provider using a standard evaluation form that has been developed by AMP. Based on the assessment of the country and partners, as well as the AMP Senior Implementation Technician with inputs from other TA providers if it is a joint mission, a decision will be made as to whether the individual has succeeded and should be considered for additional missions or whether the individual has been unable to meet the terms of reference and deliverables. In the latter case, AMP will not deploy the TA provider for future TA missions.
Contractual terms
Since AMP is housed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), IFRC is responsible for issuing consultancy contracts for in-country missions and other work related to AMP. The consultant will be contracted by the IFRC and the standard contractual terms will apply.
How to apply:
To apply, please send a recent copy of your CV and your expected daily rate to melanie.caruso@ifrc.org. Only applications containing both these requirements will be considered.