The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is looking for qualified and dynamic Sierra Leonean to fill the position of Bilingual Risk Communication and Community Engagement Officer

 

Job Title: –               Bilingual Risk Communication and Community Engagement Officer

No. of Post: – One (1)

Duration: 18 months

Duty Station: – Freetown

Organizational context (where the job is located in the Organization)

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 192-member National Societies. The overall aim of the IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by National Societies with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”  The IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises.

 

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of the IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas.  IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

Background

The IFRC Membership and Africa CDC/Mastercard Foundation entered into an ambitious partnership to support 55 Africa Union Member States in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. This partnership was built upon the Africa CDC/Mastercard Foundation – Save Lives and Livelihoods Program (SLL) – a continental-wide initiative, which objective is to scale up COVID-19 vaccination in the Africa Union Member States by end of 2022. The SLL program consists of several pillars, including RCCE, that together will support delivering the goal of “reaching at least 60% of the African Population with COVID19 vaccines by end of 2022”.

The IFRC and Africa National Societies (ANS) were selected by AfCDC and Mastercard as an implementing partner to deliver the RCCE component of the SLL Program. Programme consortiums were established per Sub-Region, and ANS will work under the leadership of 4 National Societies (lead applicant) and the IFRC. Lead applicants are the contract holders and responsible for management and reporting of the program for that sub-region. The regional division is as follows:

• IFRC – Contract-holder for Northern Africa and Nigeria (with a continental technical and coordination support role included).

• Cameroon Red Cross – contract holder for Central Africa

• Kenya Red Cross – contract holder for Eastern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands

• Botswana Red Cross – contract holder for Southern Africa

• Cote d´Ivoire Red Cross – contract holder for Western Africa (except Nigeria)

This partnership identifies the IFRC and Africa National Societies to project themselves as leaders in delivering RCCE programs and lead the efforts on the continent to reduce the vaccine hesitancy. As part of the “Agenda for Renewal”, the programme establishes a first Pan-African partnership with Africa CDC (and Africa Union) and an important donor such as MasterCard Foundation. It will also entail greater level of scrutiny and risk, hence requiring an “all of IFRC” support approach to program management, accountability, and governance, at all levels of the organization.

Job Purpose

The Bilingual RCCE Officer will be responsible for the technical design and coordination of RCCE support provided by the IFRC to the Freetown Country Cluster Delegation which includes Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau that will deliver the SLL programme at national level/cluster level. To this end, the RCCE officer will work closely with the CEA and Community Health teams in the National Societies focal points and the Head of program management unit cluster in-country delegations to ensure the technical quality of the RCCE programme.

Job duties and responsibilities

The Bilingual RCCE Officer is responsible for providing consistent quality work and support to the four National Societies while engaging all relevant team members including Federation members (Regional/Country), NS counterparts, Partner National Societies, and external partners. The postholder is therefore accountable for the following tasks:

 

RCCE Technical Support in RCCE design and implementation :

• Provide technical support in developing tools, topic guides, training and sampling methodologies for the perception surveys and qualitative assessment
• Support in setting up community feedback systems in country/cluster level (with an emphasis on qualitative data), conducting perception surveys, strengthening inter-agency coordination, and ensuring that tools, guidance and resources are shared to support NS to respond appropriately in promoting COVID-19 vaccine uptake
• Capture a thorough understanding of the community context and existing knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, practices, and rumours circulating in the community around COVID-19 and health responses.
• Review, adjust, and improve the programme/response regularly, based on community feedback and monitoring
• Support a culture of learning and sharing within the National Society/Cluster, including ensuring previous successes and failures are used to inform new programmes and responses
• Work with communities to identify community-led solutions to address challenges, improve behaviours and/or reduce the spread of infection.
• Support to capture and document examples of RCCE best practices at country/cluster level, including community-driven approaches to COVID-19 prevention and management, for example physical distancing, hand washing, isolation etc
• Ensures existing RCCE materials and resources including strategies, guidance notes, key messages and tools from ARO are properly shared and available at country/cluster level in a diversity of accessible and applicable formats and common languages

Capacity Building:

• Train the IFRC and National Society RCCE teams on the program technical component, ensuring a sound understanding of the activities and deliverables, emphasizing on the agreed technical RCCE/CEA standards for the SLL program.
• Supports the development/adaptation and rolling out of Risk Communications and Community Engagement tools, methodologies, trainings and capacity building activities to support vaccine uptake.

Programmatic Coherence, Quality and Accountability:

• Ensures that the AfCDC RCCE programme is implemented at country/cluster level in accordance with the Movement-wide commitments and minimum actions for Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA), and relevant policies and guidelines
• Works closely with technical colleagues across the region, as well as inter-agency partners, to lead in the rolling out and ensuring use of the most relevant social science research, impact surveys and perception data to support the design of comprehensive and evidence-based community engagement strategies for vaccine uptake at country/cluster level.
• Ensures RCCE socio-cultural research, analysis and key findings are integrated into the programme country/cluster level
• Assist the National Society and regional team in the routine data collections from the community feedback mechanisms and social listening channels to inform the RCCE strategy and key messages.
• With the support of the PMER/IM team, build the RCCE data and reporting system, and share with the regional team.
• Support National Societies of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Bissau in defining risk management frameworks, mitigation, and control measures.

Advisory role  

• Identify and support priority countries at cluster level to update/adapt RCCE interagency plans, according to the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Attend and support country/cluster level RCCE coordination working groups, clusters, pillars and other relevant responders (on demand) with RCCE expertise and ensure support to country/cluster coordination approaches, promoting engagement of national/local organizations that represent the social, cultural, gender, age, and religious distribution of the communities (i.e faith-based organizations, youth organizations, CSO networks, private sectors and other influencers).
• Work with RCCE partners, to develop demand-driven guidance/tools based on assessment of gaps and support needs at country/cluster level.
• Working with the Information Management Officer, Health teams and RCCE Working Group members, supporting the compilation and updating 4Ws (Who does What, Where and When) mapping at country/cluster level.

Coordination:

• Coordination with Africa CDC, MoH and NSs
• Represents the IFRC in technical coordination meeting with Africa CDC, RCCE/Health working groups led by respective MoH and Red Cross Red Crescent African National Societies forums.
• Represenst the IFRC in close coordination with AfCDC Regional Centres and focal points at country/cluster level for the SLL program.
• Ensures IFRC and ANs representation in any relevant technical RCCE forum with partner agencies at country/cluster level to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

• Coordination with other partners and Global teams
• RCCE representative for the country/cluster, leading the coordination of RCCE efforts across National Societies, Partner National Societies and the IFRC
• Work closely with global and regional CEA, Health and PMER colleagues to ensure there is consistency and coordination between RCCE efforts at the country, cluster, regional and global level
• Coordinate RCCE efforts with external partners, including interagency RCCE Working Groups, UN agencies, other NGOs, and Government
• Position the IFRC as a lead actor in RCCE at country/cluster level by capturing and sharing best practices and success stories within the Movement, AfCDC and externally.

Duties applicable to all staff

1. Actively work towards the achievement of the Federation Secretariat’s goals
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager

Position Requirements

Education Required Preferred
A university degree in a relevant area such as community engagement, community development, social and behaviour change communication, sociology, anthropology, health education, or relevant work experience X
IMPACT or equivalent knowledge X
Experience in and knowledge of project management cycle X
Experience Required Preferred
Demonstrable technical experience (3 years+) in risk communications, social and behaviour change communication and community engagement in epidemics, working at a national/cluster level X
Experience in setting up and managing projects with a qualitative data collection focus, with sources such as community feedback mechanisms, interviews, focus group discussions, social media posts, etc. X
Experience in planning and implementing targeted and appropriate behaviour change or risk communication under health approaches and activities X
Experience of designing and delivering/trainings and building the capacity of staff and volunteers X
Experience of supporting social science research and/or community feedback systems, including presenting and advocating for action based on findings X
Experience working with WHO, UNICEF, IFRC and/or other partner organizations X
Experience of working with UN Humanitarian Coordination Teams, clusters and health emergencies coordination systems X
Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team in a challenging and highly fluid environment, handle constant change and stay flexible X
A good understanding of information management (including data flows, protection and analysis), as well as qualitative and quantitative data collection methods X
Experience in designing and developing culturally appropriate and context specific IEC materials and messages, and media campaigns. x
Red Cross Red Crescent experience is an asset X
Knowledge and Skills Required Preferred
Previous working experience in the Africa Continent X
Able to analyse and identify areas for improvements in programmes, operations through the integration of RCCE/CEA approaches and activities X
Excellent interpersonal, communication and networking skills, able to build relationships with people at all levels of the organisation and with external partners and organisations X
Good knowledge of epidemic response, including gender and diversity analysis X
Highly motivated, self-starter and team player able to lead a process, engage others and create ownership, across multiple countries and cultures, both in person and remotely X
Clear and engaging written and verbal communication skills X
Proven good judgment and ability to work with complete integrity and confidentiality X
Programme and project management skills X
Ability to work within multi-cultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary teams X
Languages Required Preferred
Fluently spoken and written English and French X
Good command of another IFRC official language (Spanish or Arabic) X

Application should be sent with the following documents

• Application letter
• An updated C.V. + Names and contacts of three (03) referees to be sent to.

 

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

5C Cantonment Road

Off King Harman Road

 

For the attention of the IFRC Admin/HR Officer.

 

Closing dated for the receipt of applications would be on Friday 19th August 2022.

Disclaimer: Careerical eConsult posts job listings for the convenience of job seekers. We do not endorse or recommend employers, and a posting does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Careerical eConsult explicitly makes no representations or guarantees about positions listed on our website. Careerical eConsult is not responsible for safety, wages, working conditions, or other aspects of employment.  It is the responsibility of applicants to research the integrity of the organizations to which they are applying. We advise you to use caution and common sense when applying for any position with an organization or private party.