Consultancy for inclusive SBC in SRHR: operational guidelines”

Technical Unit

Global Inclusive Health division – HQ

Location

Online

Function

Consultant

Technical field

Global Health / Environmental Health and SRHR

Name of HR advisor

Name of technical unit director

Alessandra ARESU

Length of the mission

From Sept 2023 to 14 Dec 2023

Name of technical specialist

Davide ZIVERI, Johanna DIBIASI, and Landy KUS

Duration of funding of the position

10 days of consultancy

Reason for recruitment

Supporting implementation of HI SBC framework

Job reference

Inclusive SBC in SRHR: operational guidelines

Preferred start date

15/09/2023

PRESENTATION OF HUMANITY & INCLUSION:

Outraged by the injustice faced by people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, we aspire to a world of solidarity and inclusion, enriched by our differences, where everyone can live in dignity.

Humanity & Inclusion / Handicap International (HI) is an independent and impartial aid and development organization with no religious or political affiliations operating in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable people to help meet their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. For further information: www.hi.org

CONTEXT OF THE CONSULTANCY

The Inclusive Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (iSRHR) department is part of HI’s Inclusive Global Health division and works on universal access to SRHR (including Maternal Newborn Health) information, education and services by addressing the historical exclusion of persons with disabilities and vulnerable populations from SRHR services. HI’s approach to iSRHR is following a twin track approach of mainstreaming inclusive SRH practices by taking into account the intersectionality of disability, gender and age and is grounded in Human Rights.. HI does this with meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and particularly women and girls with disabilities and their representative organizations, by supporting governments to develop and implement disability inclusive SRHR policies, providing disability inclusive SRHR trainings to service providers, raising awareness on disability and SRH-rights and gender norm transformations through inclusive SBCC, and supporting health facilities to become more accessible. HI works to promote the empowerment of persons with disabilities and especially of women and girls with disabilities on advocacy, comprehensive sexual education, and health literacy.

Humanity & Inclusion is carrying out Social Behavioral Change (SBC) within diverse sectors of intervention and programs and it is reinforcing its expertise and technical guidance to support field programs in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) to ensure quality and effectiveness of those activities leaving no one behind. In addition to dedicated trainings, at the end of 2022, HI published a document titled “Inclusive Social Behavioral Change (iSBC) strategic framework” that presents the main concepts, added-value, pre-requisites and recommendations, and a map of key resources for capacity building and designing SBC strategies and projects across different sectors of the organization. The Health Division would now like to take this a step further by looking specifically at inclusive SBC activities within the SRHR sector.

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONSULTANCY

This consultancy aims to elaborate a concise and action-oriented guidance for designing, implementing, and evaluating SBC activities in inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) proposals and projects, starting from HI lessons learnt and external study-cases. This guidance aims to show:

• The rationale and added-value for using inclusive SBC in SRHR and MNCH projects;
• Achievable goals of inclusive SBC in SRHR;
• Examples and tips of using inclusive SBC to change social norms;
• Example of and tips for a theory of change of inclusive SBC in SRHR field;
• List of pre-requisites for considering inclusive SBC in a SRHR project (do/don’t);
• Examples of and tips for methodologies of disaggregated data collection and examples of indicators for evaluating inclusive SBC programs in SRHR projects;
• The implications of adopting a gender approach and intersectionality lens in inclusive SBC activities.

DESCRIPTION OF TASKS:

• Three coordination meetings online with HI specialists focal points for this activity;
• Four key informant interviews for collecting lessons learnt from HI field programs engaged on those topics;
• Carrying out a desk review of key documents about SBC in SRHR, creating a commented bibliography with 10 key resources, adding those documents in a shared online repository
• Writing the draft guide (format: HI tool-sheet). The structure of contents should be discussed and validated with the focal points for this activity: overall, it will describe a study-case (or a mix of cases) retrieving recommendations and tips according to the objective described above.
• Finalize the guide integrating comments and feedback from the review by HI specialists (focal points for this activity) with concrete recommendations and tips for implementers;
• Presenting the guide in an online call (1 hour) to the HI SBC Community of Practice.

DELIVERABLES

• SBC & SRHR guidance document in English or French, 25 pages (±2pp), edited in HI format (tool-sheet), with clear highlighted recommendations and practical tips, including study-cases, updated links to external resources when relevant, and annexed commented bibliography (beyond the page limit).

NB:

• All activities deliverables should demonstrate concrete efforts to decolonizing knowledge, including critical views as well as Global South voices and sources; they should promote disability-inclusion; they should consider gender issues.

PROFILE REQUIRED

The consultant(s) should possess relevant experience in undertaking a task of similar nature and magnitude, and shall have the following qualifications and experience:

• Background in social sciences, or: psychology, public health, SRH, Maternal and Child health, Gender studies, or similar;
• At least 5 years of experience in designing, implementing, and/or evaluating SBC programs;
• Sound track of research publication on SBC;
• Proven expertise in SBC within SRHR and maternal health care (MHC);
• Previous experience with HI and/or in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) or humanitarian settings is an asset;
• Commitment and knowledge of health equity, inclusion, and participation under disability, gender and age lens;
• Strong intercultural skills;
• At ease with distance and autonomous work, respecting the deadlines;
• Excellent written English and/or French.