Behavior Change Advisor, Ghana SAGES at Creative Associates International

Job Description

Creative seeks a Behavior Change Advisor to collaborate with the project team to design a behavior change strategy and capacity strengthening plan with counterparts within the Government of Ghana to improve accountability in the education sector. Activities will take place at the MOE/GES and parastatal levels, and at the Regional, District and community/school (SMC, Head Teacher, Teacher, SISO, student, and community) levels. S/he will be responsible for providing overall strategic direction to these activities, developing inputs for the annual work plan, staffing activities with qualified people, providing guidance and oversight to project staff and consultants and embedded staff working on specific assignments, and monitoring and evaluating organizational culture change.  

The Behavior Change Advisor will also be responsible for ensuring that SAGES approaches for cultural and behavioral change and gender sensitivity are used where appropriate in designing and implementing activities, and that local languages are used as and when appropriate. This involves providing consultation to the project team to ensure modeling cultural and behavioral change and gender sensitivity practices.  

The position will report to the  Chief of Party and will work closely with the team members. 

Responsibilities

• Provide on-the-ground technical and operational oversight to project activities related to behavior change. 
• Lead design, implementation and quality assurance of SBC activities. 
• Develop tools for the design and implementation of specific SBC technical components; ensure project implementation adheres to the appropriate global strategies and remains technically sound. 
• Review, analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of SBC activities and make recommendations for improvement. 
• Ensure that SBC strategies and implementation align with technical standards and best practices. 
• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) team to establish indicators for SBC and monitor/assess implementation performance according to those indicators. 
• Design and implement individual capacity assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses in  knowledge, attitudes and practices that must be addressed to support successful implementation of SBC interventions. 
• Develop and implement plans for addressing the gaps in organizational and individual SBC capacity and integrate these into the overall program.  
• Design and facilitate SBC leadership development programs, retreats, team-building programs, and strategic planning initiatives when appropriate. 
• Ensure that interventions include a behavior change component and are relevant to the Ghanian context.  
• Select and prepare staff and consultants for specific assignments.  
• Assist subject matter specialists in the SBC capacity building aspects of work plan activities. 
• Use a training-of-trainers approach with the Ministries to ensure sustainability. 
• Supervise SAGES staff and consultants in SBC implementation.  
• Monitor and evaluate SBC capacity development efforts and use the results to make adaptations to the approach, as necessary.  

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or bachelor’s degree with equivalent education/work experience in a related field (i.e., behavior change management, organizational development, professional development, education, international development, international or multi-cultural communication, international business, or management).  
• Five years’ experience in Behavior Change Management in developing countries, preferably USAID-funded; experience in Ghana preferred. 
• Experience supervising and mentoring a cohesive, integrated team.  
• Project management experience including development of work plans and monitoring and evaluation.  
• Demonstrated skills providing behavior change management support to public entities, preferably in the education sphere.  
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients and colleagues.    
• Familiarity with the education and youth sectors and key issues 
• Written and verbal fluency in English is required, and local Ghanian languages skills are preferred.