Save the Children Consultant: social and behavior change for family planning in fragile and crisis settings

Breakthrough ACTION is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by USAID to lead their SBC programming around the world. Breakthrough ACTION ignites collective action and encourages people to adopt healthier behaviors—from using modern contraceptive methods and sleeping under bed nets to being tested for HIV—by forging, testing, and scaling up new and hybrid approaches to social and behavior change (SBC). Breakthrough ACTION is a partnership led by Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in collaboration with Save the Children, ThinkPlaceUS, ideas42, and Camber Collective with specialized support from the International Center for Research on Women and Viamo.

Rationale for this consultancy

Family planning (FP) projects in fragile and crisis settings incorporate SBC activities. However, a robust understanding of SBC for FP during each phase of crisis (preparedness, emergency response, pre-crisis, early onset, mitigation, suppression, and recovery), among a range of actors, is needed. In these settings, and according to the crisis phase, FP projects often emphasize expanding access to quality FP services and expanding the method mix to include long-acting reversible contraceptives. While clinical tools exist to strengthen FP service quality and to support FP provider supervision and mentorship in humanitarian and crisis contexts, Breakthrough ACTION hopes to understand how SBC for FP is used to support access to high quality FP services in fragile and crisis settings, particularly during pre-crisis and early onset of an emergency.

Save the Children wishes to engage a consultant to conduct a desk review of what is known and what has been done to date in SBC for FP in humanitarian and crisis settings, globally, with a particular focus on South Sudan and Niger. The desk review will also identify crucial community stakeholders in South Sudan and Niger facing instability due to climate change and natural disasters, conflict and political instability. The consultant will also participate in a virtual global consultation with the project team (in coordination with the hiring manager and Senior Advisors) to share the findings of the landscape analysis and to further articulate and understand the needs for SBC resources and tools to support FP access before and in the early stages of a crisis.

Required Qualifications of the Consultant:

• Proven expertise in research techniques, including conducting desk reviews and synthesizing large volumes of grey literature.
• Experience working in SBC for FP
• FP, particularly in fragile setting and crisis settings.
• Expertise in using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint for submission of deliverables.