US Agency for International Development
Overview
Global Health Technical Professionals (GHTP) is a US Agency for International Development (USAID) program that offers early- to mid-career global health professionals the opportunity to advance their careers supporting the USAID Bureau for Global Health and its implementing partners. GHTP is helping USAID improve global health outcomes in communities around the world by building a new generation of global health technical professionals who reflect the diversity of the American people.
Credence Management Solutions, LLC (Credence) is seeking Social and Behavior Change Advisor within USAID’s Bureau for Global Health, Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) under GHTP.
Note: The application closing date is on Wednesday, July 20,2022.
Summary Statement
The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Advisor position is located in the Policy, Evaluation and Communication Division of the Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH), Bureau for Global Health (GH). The Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) provides strategic direction, technical leadership, and support to programs in population, voluntary family planning, and related reproductive health. It manages programs that advance and apply state-of-the-art technologies, expand access to quality services, promote healthy behaviors, broaden contraceptive availability and choices, and strengthen policies and systems to address family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) needs. USAID is the largest bilateral donor in the health sector in the world, and the Office plays a technical leadership role for the Agency at international conferences and high-level consultations with other donors on health, population, voluntary family planning, and reproductive health. The Office 1. provides input to decisions concerning the strategic allocation of financial and human resources in the sector and assists in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs; 2. provides a broad range of technical assistance to USAID Missions; 3. ensures compliance with congressional and Administration priorities, directives, and restrictions; and 4. provides information on USAID’s population, family planning and reproductive health programs. PRH is committed to advancing and supporting a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, anti-racist and learning community and to integrating these values into Office operations, functions and programming. PRH believes having a diverse workforce benefits and enriches the development of all staff and our work.
The Policy, Evaluation and Communication (PEC) Division creates the enabling environment for voluntary family planning in low and middle income countries. The Division (with Bureau-wide responsibilities) works across the entire portfolio of Global Health activities to improve the collection, analysis, and use of data in policy making and program planning; and promotes policies, behavior change and community norms that result in improved reproductive and health outcomes.
Job Requirements
The SBC Advisor (Advisor) will work as part of the SBC Team and will provide technical Advice to GH/PRH’s SBC project(s) and activities; provide technical assistance to the PRH Office and USAID Missions on SBC and field implementation; and collaborate with other SBC technical staff to address questions and issues concerning social and behavior change. The Advisor will receive day to day guidance and technical direction from the SBC Team Lead, as the USAID point of contact.
Responsibilities
The SBC Advisor will be responsible for:
Providing technical guidance to SBC projects and other PRH projects as applicable:
- Providing independent technical guidance on key activities of SBC project(s) and other projects managed out of PRH.
- Providing active support to SBC project management teams to ensure technical soundness of key planning activities, including review of project scopes of work, work plans, and budgets; monitoring of project performance against objectives; and oversight support of project reporting.
- Participating on design teams for new projects and providing technical guidance in the implementation and evaluation of these programs.
Providing SBC support to Missions:
- Supporting USAID Missions in designing, assessing, and evaluating behavior change-focused programs, including SBC and demand-side activities associated with social marketing, through virtual and in-country technical assistance.
- Developing and implementing innovative and effective approaches to strengthen the capacity of Mission staff in designing, assessing, and evaluating high-quality SBC interventions.
- Facilitating sharing of SBC materials and best practices across US Government programs in different countries, including to other USAID HQ operating units.
Providing SBC expertise to PRH and GH Bureau:
- Developing recommendations for new areas of SBC research and programming, and promoting innovation in social and behavior change.
- Providing USAID country health teams and implementing partners with informed input and ongoing technical support to ensure best practices in social and behavioral interventions and communication campaigns.
- Responding to information requests from PRH leadership and staff on USAID-supported SBC programs.
- Together with other senior technical staff in PRH, guiding development of Office-wide strategies for SBC research and programming.
Providing technical expertise:
- Independently liaising with a range of external stakeholders active in behavior change programming, including donors and members of technical consortia to guide development of shared agendas and areas of collaboration.
- Together with other senior technical staff in PRH and GH, guiding development of Bureau-wide strategies for SBC research and programming.
- Maintaining knowledge of current literature in all areas of FP/RH-related behavioral research with particular attention to determinants of individual behavior change, including providers, and broader transformation of social norms, effectiveness of diverse behavioral approaches, including individual, small group, community and mass media interventions; and the state-of-the-art in design and evaluation of SBC activities.
- Collaborating with relevant PRH staff to plan, participate, facilitate, and present at international and domestic meetings, workshops and conferences dealing with social and behavioral aspects of FP and RH.
- Deepening knowledge of cutting-edge FP/RH-related behavior change practices.
Professional Development
- Participate in professional continuing education, skills training, and professional meetings to enhance relevant technical skills and career development.
- Complete and execute an Individual Learning Plan and Annual Work Plan.
Qualifications
- Master’s degree and 7 years of relevant experience or Bachelor’s degree and 9 years of relevant experience in public health, social psychology, health communication, behavioral economics, or other relevant behavioral/social science field.
- At least 5 years of professional experience in two or more technical disciplines (such as, SBC, Social Marketing, Family planning/reproductive health etc); job duties/responsibilities specifically related to the position description requirements.
- At least 2-3 years’ experience working in an international or resource challenged setting.
- Formal training in and demonstrated understanding of theories and frameworks relating to individual behavior change and broader social responses, the evidence base for SBC interventions and best practices, and familiarity with the current SBC literature.
- Hands-on experience designing, implementing and evaluating SBC interventions, with experience in FP/RH-related behavior change strongly preferred.
- Experience working on multi-sectoral programming, including cross-cutting aspects such as gender and population, environment, and development (PED) programming, preferred.
- Strong project management skills.
- Excellent analytical, written and oral communication skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross-cultural teams
- Experience with USAID programming and evaluation functions and procedures both in USAID/Washington and in USAID missions preferred.
- Ability to travel internationally approximately 15-20%
- US citizenship or US permanent residency with the ability to obtain and maintain Facility Access required.