Vacancy: Social Behavior Change Specialist

Company Profile

Since 1963, ACDI/vOCA has empowered people in 145 developing and transitional nations to succeed in the global economy. Based in Washington, D.C., ACDI/VOCA is a non profit international development organization that delivers technical and management assistance in agribusiness, financial services, enterprise development, community development and food security in order to promote broad-based economic growth and vibrant civil society.

Job Description

Overview:

The USAID-funded Ghana Market Systems and Resilience Activity (MSR) is a five-year, $35.9M follow-on project to USAID/Ghana ADVANCE II. MSR will leverage over a decade of experience linking smallholders to markets, inputs, and services in Ghana. The project will strengthen commercial relationships between market actors, improve the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem to enable greater market participation, particularly for women and youth, expand the availability of agribusiness services, and link targeted policy initiatives to improved local economic governance. These activities will result in competitive, stronger, and more resilient markets, thus increasing inclusive agriculture-led economic growth in northern Ghana.

Pursuant to its mission, ACDI/VOCA is seeking experienced and talented professionals for the Social Behavior Change Specialist position. The position will be based in Tamale and reports to the Resilience and Social Inclusion Director. The SBC Specialist reports to the Resilience and Social Inclusion Director. The SBC Specialist leads MSR's Social Behavior Change programming, including support to Team Leads, Technical Specialists and field teams implementing SBC activities. Works with partners to design effective SBC capacity strengthening strategies, appropriate tools for SBC design and implementation, campaigns and lead implementation with partners, government agencies, local NGOs, and other stakeholders. Develops collaborative relationships with relevant government agencies, partners, donors and others to promote innovation across SBC design, development, and execution. Supports MSR Activity to deliver high-quality periodic reporting in line with USAID and MSR requirements.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Undertakes, collaborates, and supports all MSR field assessments that relate to or have elements of Social Behavior Change (SBC).


• In collaboration with other MSR team members, identifies and prioritizes social behaviors inhibiting market performance, inclusiveness, and sustainability, and designs annual work plan activities targeting positive behavior change.


• Leads the design, implementation and monitoring of social behavior change strategies and campaigns targeted at identified behaviors and specific population segments aimed at initiating discussion and dialogue and eventual behavior change, especially;
  
  
  
  • The instigation of behavior changes of government regulators from policing or directing to consulting and helping farmers and businesses with compliance,
  
  
  • Promotion of behavior changes among service providers from customer-unfriendly practices to a customer-centric approach through targeted training (particularly on-the-job training), strategic communications (media, social media, workshops, etc.), and mentoring managers,
  
  
  • Changing farmers’ behaviors to proactively obtain services, comply with regulations (such as weights and measures, food safety, grades, and standards), and actively and regularly provide feedback to the service providers.
  
  
  
  


• Supports the activities of the Collaborative Learning and Adaptation (CLA)/Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning department by undertaking the following (but not limited to):
  
  
  
  • Supporting the input, tracking and analysis of business and network records, project indicators, and other useful statistics to prepare quality and timely periodic reports using
  
  
  • Monitoring closely and reporting the performance of assigned actors and documenting all changes (both qualitatively and quantitatively) in line with the program’s M&E framework and guidelines for tracking actor data and performance.
  
  
  
  


• Participating in evaluations, selected research activities, and baseline surveys.

Required Skills or Experience

• A minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Social or Behavioral Sciences, Public Relations, or related fields.


• At least 5 years of Social Behavior Change communication-specific experience in design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SBC communication strategies and communication materials as well as related training.


• Strong organizational skills, and ability to lead a stream of work


• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills.


• Strong interpersonal skills and capacity to engage and influence market actors and stakeholders, especially in the private sector.


• Strong skills in Microsoft business software (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) and the use of smart mobile devices.


• Ability to develop professionally written reports that concisely and clearly state the issues and recommendations.


• Experience working on donor funded projects including USAID funded projects.