Social & Behavior Change Specialist – Polio Outbreak Response

UNICEF Nigeria is recruiting a Social and Behaviour Change Specialist to support the country’s polio-outbreak response.

The position is based in Abuja and is classified at the NO-3 level. It is a temporary appointment for 364 days.

Role Purpose

The Social and Behaviour Change Specialist will support the planning, implementation, monitoring, quality improvement and coordination of social and behaviour change and advocacy, communication and social-mobilisation interventions.

The position will focus on increasing caregiver acceptance of polio vaccination, reducing the number of missed children, addressing refusals and vaccine hesitancy, countering misinformation and strengthening community-based mobilisation structures.

The specialist will work under the overall guidance of the UNICEF Polio Team Lead and collaborate with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the National Emergency Operations Centre, State Emergency Operations Centres, WHO, AFENET, Solina, Rotary, the Gates Foundation and other partners.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Planning and Outbreak Response

• Support the development and implementation of evidence-based social and behaviour change strategies for polio-outbreak response.

• Contribute to national, state and local-level outbreak planning.

• Ensure that community-engagement activities are aligned with polio-eradication priorities.

• Strengthen connections between polio-outbreak activities, routine immunisation and primary-healthcare services.

Microplanning and Campaign Preparedness

• Support the preparation and review of campaign microplans.

• Ensure that social-mobilisation, communication and community-engagement activities are included in operational plans.

• Identify high-risk communities, missed settlements and population groups requiring targeted engagement.

• Assess campaign readiness and support corrective actions before implementation.

Campaign Implementation and Supervision

• Provide technical and operational support during vaccination campaigns.

• Conduct or support field supervision and monitoring.

• Review the performance of community mobilisers and mobilisation structures.

• Identify implementation gaps and recommend practical improvements.

• Support rapid action in locations reporting low acceptance or high numbers of missed children.

Community Engagement and Trust Building

• Strengthen engagement with caregivers, community leaders, religious leaders, traditional leaders, civil-society organisations and local influencers.

• Develop approaches that build community trust in vaccination and public-health services.

• Promote appropriate interpersonal communication and community dialogue.

• Ensure that community-engagement activities are locally appropriate and responsive to community concerns.

Vaccine Refusal and Misinformation Management

• Analyse the causes of vaccine refusal and hesitancy.

• Develop and support refusal-conversion strategies.

• Track misinformation, rumours and community concerns relating to vaccination.

• Support timely and evidence-based responses to false or misleading information.

• Improve follow-up systems for missed children and resistant households.

Data, Monitoring and Reporting

• Use social data, community feedback and campaign-monitoring results to improve implementation.

• Monitor agreed social and behaviour change indicators.

• Support analysis of caregiver acceptance, refusals, missed children and mobilisation performance.

• Prepare technical reports, programme updates, briefing notes and presentations.

• Document lessons learned, good practices and programme innovations.

Coordination and Partnerships

• Coordinate with government institutions, UN agencies, civil-society organisations and development partners.

• Participate in technical working groups, emergency-coordination structures and campaign-review meetings.

• Build and maintain partnerships supporting polio eradication and immunisation.

• Advocate for evidence-based social and behaviour change interventions.

Capacity Building and Innovation

• Strengthen the technical capacity of government personnel, partners and community-mobilisation teams.

• Develop or adapt tools, training materials and operational guidance.

• Promote innovation and continuous quality improvement.

• Support testing and scaling of approaches that improve vaccine acceptance and campaign performance.

Minimum Requirements

Education

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in Social and Behavioural Science, Communication for Development, Public Health, Health Promotion, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Development Studies or another relevant field.

Experience

• At least five years of progressively responsible professional experience in social and behaviour change, health communication, community engagement, immunisation, public health, emergency response or a related area.

• Experience planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating SBC or advocacy, communication and social-mobilisation interventions.

• Experience supporting immunisation, polio eradication, outbreak response or other public-health campaigns.

• Experience working with community mobilisers, civil-society organisations, religious and traditional leaders and local influencers.

• Experience addressing vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, refusals, missed children or low uptake of services.

Skills

• Strong advocacy, interpersonal communication and partnership-building skills.

• Campaign-planning and operational-preparedness skills.

• Strong monitoring, reporting, analysis and problem-solving abilities.

Language

• Fluency in English is required.

Desirable Qualifications

• Knowledge of Hausa or another language used in Nigeria’s polio-priority states.

• Knowledge of another official UN language.

• Experience using social data and community feedback to improve programmes.

• Experience working with government, UN agencies, NGOs and development partners.

• Experience in routine immunisation, zero-dose programming or integrated primary healthcare.

• Experience working in Northern Nigeria, humanitarian operations, fragile environments or other complex settings.

UNICEF Competencies

The selected candidate will be expected to build and maintain partnerships, demonstrate ethical awareness, achieve results, embrace innovation, manage complexity, think strategically and work collaboratively.

Additional Information

UNICEF encourages eligible and qualified female candidates to apply. Selected candidates will undergo reference, academic, employment-history and background checks.