Risk Communication and Community Engagement Officer

The Risk Communication and Community Engagement Officer leads and coordinates risk communication and community engagement activities for Bundibugyo Virus Disease readiness and possible response in the assigned high-risk county. The role supports the County Health Department to provide timely, accurate, and trusted information, establish community feedback and rumour-management systems, strengthen community-based surveillance and referral, and ensure meaningful community participation in preparedness and response actions.

Responsibilities

• Lead development, implementation and regular updating of the county BVD risk communication and community engagement action plan, aligned with national guidance and the county incident action plan.
• Establish or strengthen the county RCCE coordination mechanism and ensure clear roles, activity mapping, reporting arrangements and regular coordination with government and operational partners.
• Conduct rapid community assessments and stakeholder mapping to identify high-risk populations, trusted information channels, social and cultural practices, language needs, barriers to care-seeking and groups at risk of exclusion.
• Adapt, pre-test and disseminate approved BVD messages and materials in plain language and appropriate local languages, using communication channels suited to the local context.
• Engage chiefs, religious leaders, women’s and youth groups, teachers, transport associations, market leaders, border communities, returnees, refugees, persons with disabilities and other trusted community networks.
• Support community-based surveillance by promoting immediate reporting of suspected illness, unexplained deaths, unusual clusters and rumours through agreed alert channels.
• Establish and maintain a functional community feedback and rumour-management system, including collection, verification, analysis, response, documentation and escalation of priority concerns.
• Provide daily feedback summaries and recommendations to the county coordination team so that operational decisions respond to community concerns and misinformation.
• Support health facilities and points of entry to communicate screening, triage, isolation, referral and visitor-control procedures in a clear, respectful and non-stigmatizing manner.
• Work with surveillance and contact-tracing teams to prepare communities for alert investigation, contact identification, daily follow-up and referral, while protecting confidentiality and dignity.
• Support communication and community engagement around infection prevention and control, hand hygiene, safe care-seeking, avoidance of unsafe contact with body fluids, and safe management of suspected deaths.
• Support readiness for safe and dignified burial by engaging community and religious leaders, explaining procedures, and helping teams address family concerns while respecting cultural and religious practices.
• Develop and maintain a directory of community leaders, media outlets, radio stations, local organizations, translators, mobilizers and other RCCE resources in the assigned county.
• Plan and support radio programmes, community dialogues, mobile announcements, school and faith-based engagement, market outreach, and other locally appropriate communication activities.
• Train and mentor community mobilizers, health promoters, hotline operators, media personnel, partner staff, and local leaders on approved messages, interpersonal communication, feedback collection, and referral of alerts.
• Monitor the reach, quality, timeliness, and acceptance of RCCE activities and use findings to improve targeting, methods, and messages.
• Maintain accurate records of activities, participants, locations, feedback, rumours, referrals, partner coverage, and agreed performance indicators.
• Submit concise daily updates, weekly reports, and urgent alerts through the agreed WHO and county reporting channels.
• Support communication for other concurrent outbreaks and public health emergencies when directed, ensuring that BVD readiness does not weaken essential risk communication functions.
• Promote protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, safeguarding, accountability to affected populations, inclusion, confidentiality, and do-no-harm principles in all community engagement activities.
• Perform other incident-specific duties assigned by the supervisor.

Requirements

• First university degree in communication, social sciences, public health, health promotion, community development, behavioral sciences, journalism, sociology, anthropology or another relevant field from a recognized institution.
• Advanced university degree or specialized training in risk communication, community engagement, health promotion, social and behaviour change, outbreak communication, humanitarian communication or emergency response is desirable.
• At least two years of relevant professional experience in risk communication, community engagement, health promotion, social and behaviour change, public health communication, or community-based emergency work.
• Experience in planning and implementing community engagement activities with government, local authorities, community leaders, civil society, or humanitarian partners.
• Experience collecting and analyzing community feedback, rumours, perceptions, or behavioral information and translating findings into operational actions.
• Experience preparing clear reports, activity plans, and communication materials for diverse audiences.
• Experience supporting outbreak preparedness or response, particularly viral hemorrhagic fever, cholera, mpox, measles, or other epidemic-prone diseases is desirable.
• Experience with WHO, a Ministry of Health, UN agencies, national or international NGOs, or community-based organizations is desirable.
• Experience working in South Sudan, border areas, displacement settings, or other fragile and conflict-affected environments is desirable.
• Experience working with radio, community media, hotlines, digital communication platforms, or social listening systems is desirable.
• Experience in training and supervising community mobilizers, volunteers, or partner personnel is desirable.
• Strong knowledge of risk communication and community engagement principles in public health emergencies.
• Ability to translate technical information into clear, practical and culturally appropriate messages.
• Ability to listen to communities, analyse concerns and propose practical solutions.
• Strong facilitation, interpersonal communication, negotiation and conflict-sensitive engagement skills.
• Ability to coordinate partners and work effectively with local authorities, health workers and community structures.
• Ability to plan, organize and deliver activities under pressure and within short timelines.
• Strong writing, reporting and presentation skills.
• Sound judgement, discretion and respect for confidentiality.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently and work in remote or difficult field conditions.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, especially Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Ability to use mobile data-collection and communication tools such as KoboToolbox, ODK, WhatsApp or equivalent platforms.
• Experience using social listening, media monitoring or basic data-visualization tools is an asset.
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English.
• Working knowledge of Arabic and relevant local languages used in the assigned duty station is an asset.

Skills

• Risk Communication
• Community Engagement
• Health Promotion
• Social and Behavior Change
• Outbreak Communication
• Emergency Response
• Community Feedback Analysis
• Report Writing
• Activity Planning
• Public Health Communication
• Training and Supervision
• Partner Coordination
• Facilitation Skills
• Interpersonal Communication
• Negotiation Skills
• Conflict-sensitive Engagement
• MS Word
• MS Excel
• MS PowerPoint
• Microsoft Outlook
• Mobile Data Collection
• KoboToolbox
• ODK
• WhatsApp
• Social Listening Analysis
• Media Monitoring
• Data Visualization

Languages

English