Social Norms Exploration Consultant (Ebonyi) at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading global independent organisation for children. Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

We do whatever it takes for children - every day and in times of crisis - transforming their lives and the future we share.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Social Norms Exploration Consultant

Location: Fairfax Ebonyi
Employment Type: Contract
Consultancy: Preventing and mitigating consequences of violence against women and girls and addressing possible drivers of child early and forced marriage
Period of Performance: April 1, 2021 – September 30, 2021

Description of Services

• Save the Children US (SCUS), as part of the USAID funded MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, is hiring a consultant based in Nigeria who will work with three implementing agencies to lead formative assessments needed to unpack the specific, social factors that drive gender-based violence (GBV), child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and early adolescent pregnancy to inform the social and behavior change action plans to be implemented by local partners.
• The consultant will work directly with implementing organizations based in Ebonyi state to conduct participatory exercises to identify key influencers and the social norms that drive the key behaviors of interest.

Scope of Work for Consultant:

• The consultant will work closely with the implementing organizations to unpack, understand and analyze the various social norms that influence the adoption of family planning among adolescents and youth, prevention of gender-based violence (GBV), child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and meet the specific norms, context and needs in the communities using the participatory, qualitative approaches outlined inThe Social Norms Exploration Tool (SNET).
• The implementing organizations will lead the SNET, community entry and engagement activities under the scope of MCGL with close collaboration with the consultant in Ebonyi state.

To support the SNET, the Consultant will:
Provide technical and capacity development assistance on SNET through series of workshops, ongoing mentorship and engagement with the implementing partners. Specifically, the consultant(s) will:

• Conduct a series of workshops with the local partners to train them on the SNET:
  • Lead orientation workshop on social norms as it relates to intimate partner violence (IPV), adoption of early family planning, CEFM with the local partners
  • Develop and review SNET workshop training plans with key stakeholders in the implementing states.
  • Supervise the screening and identification of participants for the SNET training workshop.
  • Lead a 5-day training and piloting of tools and the use of SNET for the local partners
• Support implementation of the SNET through collaborative adaptation of the SNET tools to the specific target populations and behaviors of interest by:
  • Supporting MCGL with development or adaptation of exploration exercises and assessment tools to be used for the SNET
  • Co-developing IRB protocol and tools with MCGL and facilitating submission of IRB documents to local ethics review body
  • Assisting local partners with selecting main populations and determining number of communities and participants to engage in the SNET, for each of the behaviors of interest
  • Leading the development of work plans and timelines for SNET field work
  • Overseeing the data collection process to ensure information is being gathered per the protocol
  • Contributing to and supporting MCGL with the development of analysis tools and plan
  • Leading participatory data analysis workshop to support local partners with analyzing information gathered for each behavior of interest
  • Leading synthesis of findings to identify the priority norms and reference groups that emerge to inform programming.
  • Validate and disseminate findings from the SNET field work with wider stakeholders.
  • Support activities to capture and translate SNET and other formative assessment frameworks into SBCC strategies
  • Support the co-creation process for interventions.

Deliverables:

• Research protocol and tools
• Social norms orientation workshop
• SNET training workshop
• Fieldwork plan
• Supervise data collection activities
• Participatory data analysis workshop
• Report of key findings

Consultant Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Public Health, Gender or related field, or equivalent relevant experience
• Minimum 5-7 years’ relevant experience
• Familiarity with local context (Ebonyi state) and willingness to travel and work in the state
• Expertise on social and gender norms, gender-based violence, child and early forced marriage and family planning research and programming
• Strong interpersonal communication skills
• Ability to collaborate, learn and adapt programme interventions in varied contexts
• Excellent social and emotional intelligence skills
• Demonstrated experience developing qualitative research protocols and tools
• Demonstrated experience conducting qualitative data collection and analysis
• Experience with partnering with community-based organizations/civil society organizations/faith-based organizations to implement research studies and interventions at community level
• Demonstrated workshop planning and facilitation experience
• Experience designing and facilitating capacity strengthening workshops
• Familiarity with USAID and USAID’s adolescent and youth priorities.

Application Closing Date
15th March, 2021.