Social and Behavior Change Advisor

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A. Summary Statement

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

PHI was distinguished as one of the top 50 “Best Non-Profit Organizations to Work For” by the Non-Profit Times in a national search.

We are hiring for positions under the Global Health Training, Advisory, Support Contract (GHTASC) in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health (GH). These roles deliver institutional support services in a wide range of technical areas at the junior, mid-, senior, and expert levels.

B. Position Summary:

The Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Advisor (Advisor) will primarily support the Policy, Evaluation and Communication Division of the Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH), Bureau for Global Health (GH) as a PHI Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). The Office of Population and Reproductive Health (PRH) provides strategic direction, technical leadership, and support to programs in population, voluntary family planning, and related reproductive health. It manages programs that advance and apply state-of-the-art technologies, expand access to quality services, promote healthy behaviors, broaden contraceptive availability and choices, and strengthen policies and systems to address family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH) needs.

USAID is the largest bilateral donor in the health sector in the world, and the Office plays a technical leadership role for the Agency at international conferences and high-level consultations with other donors on health, population, voluntary family planning, and reproductive health. The Office 1) provides input to decisions concerning the strategic allocation of financial and human resources in the sector and assists in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs; 2) provides a broad range of technical assistance to USAID Missions; 3) ensures compliance with congressional and Administration priorities, directives, and restrictions; and 4) provides information on USAID’s population, family planning and reproductive health programs. PRH is committed to advancing and supporting a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, anti-racist and learning community and to integrating these values into Office operations, functions and programming. PRH believes having a diverse workforce benefit and enriches the developpment of all staff and our work.

The Policy, Evaluation and Communication (PEC) Division creates the enabling environment for voluntary family planning in low- and middle-income countries. The Division (with Bureau-wide responsibilities) works across the entire portfolio of Global Health activities to improve the collection, analysis, and use of data in policy making and program planning; and promotes policies, behavior change and community norms that result in improved reproductive and health outcomes.

In this role, the selected candidate will work as part of the SBC Team and will provide technical Advice to GH/PRH’s SBC project(s) and activities; provide technical assistance to the PRH Office and USAID Missions on SBC and field implementation; and collaborate with other SBC technical staff to address questions and issues concerning social and behavior change. The Advisor will receive day to day guidance and technical direction from the SBC Team Lead, as the USAID point of contact.

C. Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Providing technical guidance to SBC projects and other PRH projects as applicable:

• Providing independent technical guidance on key activities of SBC project(s) and other projects managed out of PRH.
• Providing active support to SBC project management teams to ensure technical soundness of key planning activities, including review of project scopes of work, work plans, and budgets; monitoring of project performance against objectives; and oversight support of project reporting.
• Participating on design teams for new projects and providing technical guidance in the implementation and evaluation of these programs.

Providing SBC support to Missions:

• Supporting USAID Missions in designing, assessing, and evaluating behavior change-focused programs, including SBC and demand-side activities associated with social marketing, through virtual and in-country technical assistance.
• Developing and implementing innovative and effective approaches to strengthen the capacity of Mission staff in designing, assessing, and evaluating high-quality SBC interventions.
• Facilitating sharing of SBC materials and best practices across US Government programs in different countries, including to other USAID HQ operating units.

Providing SBC expertise to PRH and GH Bureau:

• Developing recommendations for new areas of SBC research & programming, and promoting innovation in social and behavior change.
• Providing USAID country health teams and implementing partners with informed input and ongoing technical support to ensure best practices in social and behavioral interventions and communication campaigns.
• Responding to information requests from PRH leadership and staff on USAID-supported SBC programs.
• Together with other senior technical staff in PRH, guiding development of Office-wide strategies for SBC research and programming.

Providing technical expertise:

• Independently liaising with a range of external stakeholders active in behavior change programming, including donors and members of technical consortia to guide development of shared agendas and areas of collaboration.
• Together with other senior technical staff in PRH and GH, guiding development of Bureau-wide strategies for SBC research and programming.
• Maintaining knowledge of current literature in all areas of FP/RH-related behavioral research with particular attention to determinants of individual behavior change, including providers, and broader transformation of social norms, effectiveness of diverse behavioral approaches, including individual, small group, community and mass media interventions; and the state-of-the-art in design and evaluation of SBC activities.
• Collaborating with relevant PRH staff to plan, participate, facilitate, and present at international and domestic meetings, workshops and conferences dealing with social and behavioral aspects of FP and RH.
• Deepening knowledge of cutting-edge FP/RH-related behavior change practices.

Professional Development

• Participating in professional continuing education, skills training, and professional meetings to enhance relevant technical skills and career development.
• Completing and executing an Individual Learning Plan and Annual Work Plan.

D. Qualification Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree and 6 years of relevant experience, Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 10 years of relevant, OR High School and 12 years of relevant professional experience in public health, social psychology, health communication, behavioral economics, or other relevant behavioral/social science field.

Other Qualifications

• At least 5 years of professional experience in two or more technical disciplines (such as SBC, Social Marketing, and Family planning/reproductive health), with job duties/responsibilities specifically related to the position description requirements.
• At least 2 years’ experience working in an international or resource challenged setting.
• Formal training in and demonstrated understanding of theories and frameworks relating to individual behavior change and broader social responses, the evidence base for SBC interventions and best practices, and familiarity with the current SBC literature.
• Hands-on experience designing, implementing and evaluating SBC interventions, with experience in FP/RH-related behavior change strongly preferred.
• Experience working on multi-sectoral programming, including cross-cutting aspects such as gender and population, environment, and development (PED) programming, preferred.
• Strong project management skills.
• Excellent analytical, written and oral communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross-cultural teams.
• Experience with USAID programming and evaluation functions and procedures both in USAID/Washington and in USAID missions preferred.
• Ability to travel internationally approximately 15-20%
• US citizenship or US permanent residency with the ability to obtain and maintain Facility Access required.

E. Competencies

• Innovation: Employee takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work.
• Customer Service: Handles customer questions and complaints, communicates with customers, handles service problems politely and efficiently, always available for customers, follows procedure to solve customer problems, understands company products and services, maintains pleasant and professional image.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met. Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to Organization policies and procedures.
• Interpersonal Skills: Employee demonstrates ability to work in cooperation with others and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, and other outside contacts.
• Continual Learning: Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues professional development that is aligned with organizational role, contribution, and goals. Proactively shares knowledge with others to foster learning across the Organization.

F. Application Information:

Prior to submitting your application your resume must include relevant paid and non-paid experience showing dates held with month, year and hours worked per week for each position. Please ensure that all relevant experience and education is documented on your resume. There is no limitation to resume length; updates to resumes will not be accepted during the interview and selection process.

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (FLSA) STATUS

This position is classified as exempt based on the job duties. However, based on the FTE, salary level of the employee, or federal/state/local laws, the employee may be classified as nonexempt.

PHI WORKFORCE MANDATORY COVID-19 VACCINATION POLICY

Per the PHI Workforce Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, it is a condition of employment for all domestic based employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, unless they are granted a reasonable accommodation under applicable law.

New hires need to provide proof of full vaccination prior to their start date or apply for an exemption/accommodation within three business days after their start date. Depending on the circumstances, new hires who do not comply with this Policy, or who cannot be reasonably accommodated, will either have their employment suspended or terminated. Candidates who are non-compliant will have their offers rescinded.

EEO STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to a policy that provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and to make all employment decisions so as to further this principle of equal employment opportunity. To this end, the PHI will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition including genetic characteristics, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identification and expression, sexual orientation, and will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are offered employment and employees are treated during employment without regard to these characteristics.

For further information regarding Equal Employment Opportunity, copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

ADA STATEMENT

The Public Health Institute is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, activities and employment for individuals with disabilities. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Recruitment Team at least 48 hours in advance at Recruitment@phi.org.

This position described in this announcement falls under a contract with the Federal Government, and therefore is subject to the provisions put forward in OMB Circular A-76 which prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions.  Specifically, employees placed in agency positions will not perform inherently governmental functions, nor supervise any personnel other than the contractor’s own staff, nor make final decisions or sign documents that commit the U.S. Government