ย About UNICEF
If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.
Consultancy: SBC Social and Community Listening (SCL) Consultant
Duty Station: Programme Group, Social and Behavior Change Unit
Duration: 15 November 2025 - 15 December 2026
Home/ Office Based: Remote
BACKGROUND
Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:
The purpose of this individual consultancy is to strengthen UNICEFโs Social and Community Listening (SCL) capacity of UNICEF SBC teams at global level. The consultancy is hosted by the Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) PG HQ team, transitioning into the new Global Programme Division. The expert is meant to provide targeted advisory support to leverage SCL within specific global programme priorities, with a focus on immunization demand, public health emergencies & climate, and a third sectoral priority to be determined, while supporting ROs and COs with, training, technical support, and knowledge products.
The support and expected deliverables will enable UNICEF to systematically capture, analyse, and act on community and digital insights, while also integrating misinformation management and sectoral applications. This work builds on the progress made by SBC teams globally in scaling up SCL and will support the mainstreaming of the frameworks, guides, and technical guidance developed by the SBC HQ team in 2024โ2025. By combining strategic positioning of SCL to inform global and country programmes and the provision of capacity building, evidence generation, and knowledge management technical support, the consultant will ensure that SCL becomes an operational tool for decision-making, and programme design across global, regional, and country levels.ย
Backgroundย
Over the past few years, SBC teams globally have invested in scaling up SCL systems and developing technical frameworks, guides, and tools to support institutionalisation. UNICEFโs SCL Global Action Mapping Survey 2025 shows that over 80% of UNICEF offices are already investing in SCL. The next step is to move from piloting and knowledge generation toward mainstreaming and action, ensuring that listening outputs directly inform programme design and action. A key priority emerging from country and regional teams is the application of SCL to misinformation management. In many contexts, misinformation is the entry point across sectors, that first motivates SBC staff to adopt SCL, as it offers a tangible and urgent use case where insights must translate rapidly into corrective messaging, dialogue, and programme responses.ย ย
By focusing training and webinars on misinformation management alongside core SCL capabilities, this activity ensures that SCL is not positioned as an academic or research exercise alone, but as an operational tool that drives decision-making and immediate programmatic action. This is also a timely opportunity. While this consultancy will focus on sectors beyond immunization, the upcoming update to the UNICEF Vaccine Misinformation Management Field Guide provides a perfect moment to strengthen the integration of SCL into misinformation management practice. Embedding SCL methodologies into the guide, into programming in child protection and climate, and supporting teams to apply them through tailored trainings, webinars, and technical support will accelerate institutional adoption and help position SCL as the backbone of UNICEFโs misinformation response.
Scope of Workย
The scope of the individual consultancy contract is to deliver a defined set of activities and products that:ย
Design and deliver three misinformation management trainings (immunization demand, public health emergencies and a third priority to be determined) for UNICEF staff and partners, including development of training curricula, facilitation of sessions, and provision of follow-up technical guidance. Conduct three tailored SCL trainings for selected countries (clustered by time-zone or country typology), following a needs assessment, and covering query design, data analysis, reporting, and programme integration, with coaching support provided after delivery. Organize and facilitate three global SCL webinars for UNICEF Global and COs teams, including design of preparatory briefs, moderation of interactive sessions, and development of post-webinar outputs. Produce two sectoral deep-dive SCL reports and analyses applying SCL to priority thematic areas (e.g., immunization demand, adolescent SRH, public health emergencies), including consultations with sectoral specialists, data analysis, and presentation of actionable insights.ย Provide technical support and knowledge management, including management of the SCL Community of Practice, I Hear U implementation in at least 5 countries, curation of tools and guidance, and documentation of learning through reports.Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:
Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline
1. Design and deliver misinformation management trainings with a focus on immunization demand, harmful practices and climate for UNICEF staff and partners, including development of training curricula, facilitation of sessions, and provision of follow-up technical guidance.ย
-ย 1.1 Misinformationย Training focusing with materials, case examples, and documentation on immunization demand and PHEs, reviewed by SBC HQ and Immunization Demand teams and approved, noting that the misinformation training on immunization misinformation will have to be adapted from the package being developed by IRIMI
15 Jan 2026
-ย 1.2 First misinformation management training conducted focusing on immunization demand. Recordings uploaded to UNICEF SharePoint
27 Feb 2026
-ย 1.3 Second misinformation management training conducted focusing on public health emergencies. Recordings uploaded to UNICEF SharePoint
29 May 2026ย
-ย 1.4 Third misinformation management training conducted focusing on adolescent SRHR in Eastern and Southern Africa, linked to the insights collected and displayed through the Together4SRH dashboard. ย Recordings uploaded to UNICEF SharePoint
30 Sept 2026
2. Conduct tailored SCL trainings for selected Country or Regional Offices, following a needs assessment, and covering query design, data analysis, reporting, and programme integration, with coaching support provided after delivery
-ย 2.1 First customized SCL training completed on immunization demand.ย Needs assessment conducted.ย Follow-up technical support provided.ย Training materials delivered.ย
30 Mar 2026
-ย 2.2 Second customized SCL training completed on public health emergencies.ย Needs assessment conducted.ย Follow-up technical support provided.ย Training material delivered
30 Jun 2026
-ย 2.3 Third customized SCL training completed on adolescent SRH and Harmful Practices.ย Needs assessmentย conducted.ย Follow-up technical support provided.ย Training material delivered.
30 Sept 2026
3.ย Organise and facilitate global SCL webinars on immunization demand, harmful practices and climate for UNICEF HQ, regional, and CO teams, including design of preparatory briefs, moderation of interactive sessions, and development of post-webinar outputs.
-ย 3.1 First global webinar conducted on SCL for Immunization Demand.ย Preparatory briefs and post-webinar emails produced. Webinar recordings archived for institutional use ย
30 Mar 2026
-ย 3.2 Second global webinar conducted on SCL for Public Health Emergencies.ย Preparatory briefs and post-webinar emails produced. Webinar recordings archived for institutional use
30 Jun 2026
-ย 3.3 Third global webinar conducted on SCL for a third global priority (e.g. climate, harmful practices or SRH).ย Preparatory briefs and post-webinar emails produced. Webinar recordings archived for institutional use
30 Nov 2026
4. Produce sectoral deep-dive SCL reports and analyses applying SCL to priority thematic areas (e.g., immunization, harmful practices and climate), including consultations with sectoral specialists, data analysis, and presentation of actionable insights.ย
-ย 4.1 Sectoral deep-dive report produced on public health emergencies.ย Data visualisations and slide decks developed.ย Validation sessions with sectoral specialists conducted.ย Findings shared with sector leads with recommendations.ย
29 May 2026ย
-ย 4.2 Four quarterly brief reports on adolescents SRHR in eastern and southern Africa leveraging insights collected and displayed in the Dashboard ESAR SBC Dashboard - Development topicsย produced.ย Data visualisations and slide decks developed.ย Validation sessions with sectoral specialists conducted.ย Findings shared with sector leads with recommendations
30 Nov 2026ย
5. Provide ongoing technical support to I Hear U implementation in five COs, curation of tools and guidance, and documentation of learning through reports.ย
-ย 5.1 Five reports produced detailing technical support provided to at least five COs subscribing to I Hear U.
30 Mar 2026
6. Social Listening: Enhance social listening mechanisms to improve proactive detection and analysis of misinformation andย disinformation with a focus on immunization.
-ย 6.1 Social listening monitoring expansion to cover RI and disease outbreaks:
Expand the social listening dashboard to incorporate immunization specific priorities including country contexts (including discovery and onboarding of data sources, integration of immunization focused taxonomies and ongoing system optimization for visibility with access to the immunization team
15 Jan 2026ย
-ย 6.2 Infodemic Watch Dashboard (real-time):
Integrate immunisation related narratives, sentiments, signals and misinformation markers into a digital platform through key work mapping, entity recognition and AI driven thematic clustering.Conduct automated trend detection, geo temporal analysis and near Realtime reporting on immunsation related digital discourse.
30 Mar 2026
-ย 6.3 Taxonomy Review:
ย Conduct 12 periodic taxonomy reviews and update accordingly. Harmonise the immunisation taxonomy aligned with UNICEFโs broader misinformation and Behaviour insights framework.Integrate AI models and content pipelines
30 Jun 2026
-ย 6.4 AI Classification used for narratives:
Deploy and optimise AI driven classification engine to enable the automated implementation of the immunisation taxanomy across geographies and multimodel data sets. Leverage advanced machine learning models. Conduct scalable tagging, clustering and classifications of social listening data in real time. Originate content from structures resources including social media, news articles, messaging apps and any other across sources (as possible).Deploy and update the AI model to detect immunization-specific misinformation typologies, sentiment shifts, behavioural signals and contextual risk markers across linguistic and cultural environments
30 Sept 2026
-ย 6.5. Twelve Monthly Insights Integrated report:
Integrating immunizations related narratives, sentiments signals and misinformation markers into a common platform through keywork mapping, entity recognition and AI- driven thematic clustering.Conducting trend detection, geo temporal analysis and new real-time reporting across immunization related digital discourse.
15 Dec 2026
Qualifications
Education:
Masterโs degree in social science, Behavioural Sciences, International or Public Affairs, Monitoring and Evaluation, or similar areas is required.
Language Proficiency:
Oral and written proficiency in English is required. Working knowledge of French is an advantage
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:
At least 8 years of proven experience in SCL, social media and digital monitoring, social media management, or digital data analysis.ย Proven experience in designing and delivering in-person and remote technical trainings for global multilingual audiences.ย Solid experience in the design and implementation of interventions on SCL, DCE, and misinformation management.ย Excellent writing skills, planning and coordination skills, with proven ability to work independently.ย Previous work with UNICEF in SCL at HQ or RO level is an added advantage.ย Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:ย Careย Respectย Integrityย Trustย Accountabilityย SustainabilityยRequirements:
Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and
- Upload copy of academic credentials
- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :
the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference. travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR. Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable. Indicate your availability- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
U.S. Visa information:
With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultantโs household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.ย ย
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process
For every Child, you demonstrateโฆ
UNICEFโs core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at:ย Here
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.ย
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.ย
Remarks:ย ย
Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered โstaff membersโ under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEFโs policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.ย
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.ย