Join our team! Consultant for immunizations communications in select English and French-speaking countries

Background

Context

PAHO’s goals for communications to support the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines include successfully planning and implementing risk and communication regarding the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in the Region of the Americas; promoting community engagement, effective communication and legitimacy to generate demand for COVID-19 vaccines, while maintaining credibility and trust of the national route immunization programs; and positioning PAHO as a regional leader and trusted source in immunization technical cooperation, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. Given the role of women’s decision making with respect to person and family vaccination, their engagement will be an integral part of strategies to generate gender equitable demand for vaccination through gender and culturally sensitive communication and community engagement strategies.

About the teams

The Family, Health Promotion and Life Course Department (FPL) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is responsible for providing country-focused technical cooperation addressing several broad thematic areas that are included in its three units and one center: Comprehensive Family Immunization; Healthy Life Course, Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health, and Latin American Center of Perinatology, Women ́s and Reproductive Health.

The mission of the Comprehensive Family Immunization Unit (FPL/IM) is to promote and coordinate technical cooperation and alliances to support, as part of the guarantee of healthcare as a right to all, the efforts from the Member States to achieve the sustainable and equitable reduction of morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) through control and elimination strategies to improve the quality and life expectancy of towns in the Americas.

The actions of the Comprehensive Family Immunization Unit have been framed under the Regional Immunization Action Plan (RIAP), approved by PAHO's Directing Council in 2015, which establishes the following as areas of technical cooperation: sustain the achievements, address the unfinished agenda; tackle new challenges; and contribute to the managerial and operational strengthening of immunization programs in the countries. With this job, the Immunization unit seeks to reduce inequalities, strengthen the public health infrastructure, develop a culture of prevention, secure political commitment and seek excellence in technical cooperation. PAHO communications activities on immunization and related topics are carried out under the Immunizations Communications Framework, which has been validated by the Technical Advisory Group on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (TAG).

Ensuring that the activities planned under the “Providing Access to COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapeutics for Populations in Situations of Vulnerability in the Americas” project in collaboration with Canadian government, are implemented successfully at the country level well as supporting countries to adapt materials and activities to their realities in a gender and culturally sensitive manner, requires human resources that can carry out all the activities mentioned above.

PAHO Member States vary in their technical support needed to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate crisis communication, risk communication, and community engagement activities and products as they relate to COVID-19 vaccination and vaccines. Additionally, countries require support to develop and implement activities to support and increase confidence in vaccines and vaccination, and to generate acceptance and demand for immunization, including against COVID-19. Coordination is required between Ministries of Health, PAHO regional office, PAHO country offices, UN Country Offices, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to develop and implement RCCE activities on this topic to build and maintain the public´s trust in immunization programs and services.

Description

Given the context above, FPL/IM seeks a consultant to support the implementation of a wide variety of activities all related to the project mentioned above as well as the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in select countries. This consultant will collaborate closely with the PAHO regional IM team, immunizations and communications focal points in PAHO country offices, and colleagues in PAHO´s Departments of Communications (CMU) and Public Health Emergencies (PHE). Through close collaboration with IM focal points in country offices, this consultant will work to identify countries´ principle needs and support with the development of plans and activities that could include the following:

 

  • Develop and implement a risk communications plan for covid vaccination, including components of:
    • Social listening on a variety of channels (traditional and social media, engagement with communities, hotlines, etc.) to understand different population groups´ concerns and misinformation about covid vaccines.
    • Engagement with key actors, including community leaders, health workers, etc.
    • Collaboration with the media and journalist training on the topic of covid vaccination and vaccines
    • Proactive, culturally adequate messaging, according to the needs of different audiences, via channels and people they use and trust, targeted communication for health care workers and other priority groups
    • Monitoring on a regular basis to adjust as needed.

 

  • Develop and implement a demand generation and community engagement plan, including components of:
    • Engagement with key stakeholders and leaders (such as religious, from other government sectors, civil society organizations, professional associations, Indigenous community leaders, etc.), including at the local level, to ensure their support of COVID-19 vaccination
    • Bidirectional communication based on audiences´ needs using a variety of approaches and activities in addition to traditional channels
    • Training for health care workers in intercultural and interpersonal communications 
    • Social listening: identifying where social and behavioral data will come from, and how monitoring and adapting of communication to address misinformation will be done

 

  • Prepare a crisis communications plan in the event of an ESAVI, including components of:
    • SOP for crisis management
    • identifying rumors and how to respond to them, especially online 
    • formation of group with key actors for message alignment 
    • media and spokesperson training
    • mapping of audiences, messages, channels, and other communications activities
  • Other activities as assigned related to the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines

 

All these activities must be culturally appropriate and gender sensitive to the national realities of each country, including an especial focus on populations in situations vulnerability such as at-risk women, indigenous populations, afro-descendants and migrant communities.

Professional requirements

  • University degree in communications, public health, or related field
  • National experience in one of the three countries assigned and international experience are a plus.
  • Previous experience working on demand generation for vaccination and/or Risk communications and community engagement.
  • Ability to work in a team, with colleagues in regional and country offices, under tight deadlines
  • Ability to communicate in English and French; ability to communicate in Dutch a plus
  • Ability to handle sensitive information

Supervision: The consultant will report directly to the FPL Communications Specialist, and will be under the supervision of the unit chief of the FPL/IM department.

Duration: 30 July, 2021 – 30 September, 2022

Compensation: US $4,305 monthly

Location: Remote. Applicants considered for various consultancies.

For more information, please contact Lauren Vulanovic, FPL Communications Specialist, at brownlau@paho.org. To apply, please send CV and cover letter.