Save the Children is seeking a Behavior Change/Community Development Specialist for an anticipated USAID-funded education program in Senegal. The Behavior Change/Community Development Specialist will use best practices of behavior change communication (BCC) research and social marking techniques across all program components for key target population groups including Ministry of Education staff (teachers, school directors and inspectors), parents, religious and traditional leaders, grandmothers and elders, children and youth. The methodology will address underlying norms and attitudes that may influence parents to remove their children from school prior to finishing at least 9 years of basic education. S/he will work closely with the project team to achieve durable change in parents and children deciding to begin or continue in formal or complementary education programs with the encouragement of key opinion leaders and stakeholders in the community. The BCC strategy will also target teachers, school staff, and non-formal school directors (such as maîtres coraniques) to adopt new practices that will enable all children in targeted communities to have access to equitable access to safe, relevant and high quality learning.
This position is contingent upon donor approval and funding
- Design and use tools to identify key influential actors in each village around the issues of education and issues which may be barriers to enabling children to attend or remain in formal or complementary education programs
- Follow systematic process for involving key groups in each community in a social dialogue around education in their communities
- Design and implement a BCC campaign that will include both social dialogue and multimedia approach to building consensus around community led solutions increasing access for all children to education in targeted communities
- Use a similar process and develop behavior change strategy for appropriate Collectivité Locale, Ministry of Education and school staff (in both formal and complementary education sites)
- Collaborate with MEL team to develop appropriate indicators and measure behavior changes.
- Relevant experience in developing behavior change research tools and developing a community based and communications strategy based on the research.
- Minimum 5 years' field experience in Behavior Change Communications
- Ability to maximize media opportunities including community based media, and social media (using smart phones)
- Excellent understanding of communication strategies, tools, and actors, preferably for INGOs and in Africa
- Excellent written and spoken French (Wolof is a must, Manding is desirable) and excellent written English
- Strong computer graphics skills
- Ability to analyze barriers to behavior change/ design for behavior change
- Experience designing games that encourage behavioral change
Desirable
- Experience writing donor reports and disseminating lessons learned
- Project management and project cycle experience, including project design, implementation and evaluation
- Experience building capacity in communications; demonstrated ability to deliver workshops, provide coaching and mentoring, and support the professional development of others
- Experience with media in Africa, preferably a West African country
- Experience working for an INGO and working across organizational structures