International Consultancy for the evaluation of the UNICEF Afghanistan’s SBC community structures and interventions (remote for 3.5 months)

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UNICEF Afghanistan is commissioning an evaluation of UNICEF Afghanistan’s SBC community structures and interventions. The evaluation will serve as a critical learning and accountability exercise, generating evidence on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and coherence of the SBC interventions and community structures. It will identify lessons learned, best practices, challenges, and opportunities for improvement to inform future programming.

Background, Context, and Rationale

A. Afghanistan Context

Afghanistan, located in South Asia, is a landlocked predominantly mountainous country. No recent census has been carried out with population estimates varying by data source. While the majority of the population (73 per cent) live in rural areas, the country is rapidly urbanizing with annual urban migration rate of over three percent driven by limited services in rural areas, frequent natural disasters, economic opportunities and returning migrants. Progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is among the lowest globally; Afghanistan ranks 160 out of 167 countries ranked with progress on most indicators stagnating or improving only marginally. An exception to these trends in in SDG where Afghanistan has made notable progress in expanding access to basic drinking water services (SDG 6.1), coverage has increased substantially over the past decade, rising from around half of the population (52 per cent) to 82 per cent using at least basic services by 2024. Despite this progress, the country remains unlikely to achieve the 2030 target of universal access to safely managed drinking water. While the previous government reaffirmed commitment to the 2030 Agenda, current national policies curtailing women’s rights, including bans on girls’ and women’s access to secondary and higher education and the “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” introduced in 2024, directly contravene commitments to achieving SDG 5 and SDG 4. These restrictions further increase the risk of uneven service access and disproportionate burdens on women and girls. According to the Afghanistan Gender Index, women exercise only 17.3% of their potential rights and freedoms.

The collapse of the government in Afghanistan in 2021 marked a significant turning point, with policy decisions by the de facto authorities (DfA), alongside political and economic isolation by international actors, jointly constraining servicedelivery and limiting scope for mitigation efforts. Prior to the transition, aid accounted for 40 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supported over 50 per cent (approximately US$6 billion) of the annual national budget, covering around 80 per cent of total public expenditure. The subsequent suspension of most international aid significantly worsened the country’s economic situation. While the economy has stabilized somewhat, state capacity for service delivery remains limited. The general security situation and rates of civilian casualties have largely improved since the DfA takeover, with former “white areas” now accessible to de facto government and international actors for the first time in decades. However, as discussed above, restrictions on the participation of women have intensified since the political transition. These measures have significantly limited the ability of women and girls to participate in community level processes. In addition, mass cross-border returns, with more than 2.52 million Afghans returning from Iran and Pakistan in 2025 alone, coupled with a significant reduction in international aid, including drastic cuts in funding from the United States beginning in January 2025, constitute compounding shocks that have further strained the capacity to respond to rising humanitarian needs, and place sustained pressure on basic services and livelihoods.

The sustainability of healthcare delivery has been threatened since 2021, compounded by shortages of health professionals (especially female), the brain drain of Afghanistan, and disruptions in community-based delivery. Preventable diseases, including measles and acute watery diarrhea, exacerbate risks of morbidity and mortality, with under-five mortality estimated at 55 deaths per 1,000 live births. Children under 15 represent roughly 43% of the population, forming a large cohort with significant health, developmental and nutritional needs. Approximately 66.9% of children (nearly 15 million) live in multidimensional poverty. Poverty is significantly higher in rural areas (70.8%) compared to urban settings (37.4%). This economic instability has severely compromised family coping mechanisms, forcing many into harmful strategies such as child labour, child marriage, and hazardous migration, while 90% of young children now lack an adequate diet due to food poverty. Furthermore, restrictions on women’s employment and girls' post-primary education not only diminish current household purchasing power but are projected to cause a substantial long-term economic impact, potentially costing the country’s GDP billions of dollars by 2030.

B. Social and Behavioral Change at UNICEF Afghanistan

The Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) Section of UNICEF Afghanistan is a cross-cutting function that combines scientific evidence, behavioural science, social and behavioural data, and community knowledge to understand and address the factors that influence people’s behaviours, social norms, access to services, and engagement with programmes. SBC works across UNICEF programme areas to create an enabling environment in which children, families, communities, service providers, and local structures can contribute to positive and sustainable change.

In Afghanistan, Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) supports community systems strengthening, community engagement, youth and adolescent participation, social and behavioural evidence generation, Accountability to Affected People (AAP), grievance and feedback mechanisms, advocacy, and resilience-building. It works closely with programme sections, local authorities, civil society and faith-based organizations, community structures, youth networks, academia, and other partners to strengthen local capacity, inclusion, ownership, and sustainability. Through these partnerships and community platforms, SBC brings programmes closer to communities and creates opportunities for people to participate in and influence decisions that affect their lives.

In 2025, SBC reached 14.1 million people with life-saving information, including 51% females, and engaged 3.6 million people in structured behaviour change interventions, including 55% females. It strengthened the capacities of 10,720 religious scholars and community influencers, 53% of whom were women, to promote health, nutrition, education, hygiene, and child protection practices. Capacity strengthening further extended with capacitating 4879 community networks, frontline workers, implementing partners and 12810 youth across the country. In 2025, more than 50,000 grandmothers were active nationwide, working alongside religious leaders, youth networks, community health workers, and other community structures to strengthen trust, promote positive behaviours, and support access to essential services.

SBC also strengthened accountability and emergency response by expanding opportunities for communities to access information, raise concerns, and obtain referrals. In 2025, UNICEF collected 231,392 pieces of feedback through 134 Community Engagement and Feedback Centres and other channels, with 55% of respondents being female and a reported response and closure rate of 91%. At major border crossings, community engagement and feedback centres supported 973,778 returnees with life-saving information, referrals, and opportunities to share feedback. These efforts helped identify service barriers, inform programme adjustments, and support more responsive assistance for children and families.

SBC goes beyond communicating information or promoting individual behaviour change. It seeks to understand and address the social, cultural, institutional, community, and structural factors that enable or constrain positive behaviours and access to essential services. This includes influencing social norms, strengthening community structures, supporting service delivery systems, promoting gender-transformative approaches, and ensuring that programmes are informed by the perspectives and experiences of affected people.

The SBC vision and TOC in Afghanistan are designed to create an enabling environment where change can happen. It works to strengthen community systems/structures and services so that positive, healthy, and supportive behaviours for child survival, development, and protection become the norm. It works on community accountability and ownership to ensure the sustainability of this change. The Theory of Change illustrates how strengthened community systems, accountability to affected populations, and sustained advocacy, engagement, and capacity building contribute to sector-specific SBC priorities across health, WASH, education, child protection, nutrition, and social policy. These interventions are reinforced through social accountability and social and gender transformation to improve people’s agency, resilience, and access to and utilization of essential services, including polio services. Ultimately, the approach contributes to improved outcomes across UNICEF goal areas, particularly child survival, development, and protection, supported by stronger community structures, empowered social actors, and responsive accountability and feedback mechanisms.

The SBC Section works closely with all programme sections to contribute to the achievement of the six office-wide outcomes. In addition to supporting programme-specific priorities, SBC focuses on the following strategic areas:

• Community Capacity Building: Building on progress made through engagement with community structures, the SBC team continues to strengthen community systems in coordination with all programme sections. While many of these structures remain predominantly male-dominated, SBC has achieved encouraging results in promoting greater inclusion and gender-responsive participation. These efforts continue to strengthen community ownership, participation, and accountability.

• Advocacy and Engagement: SBC continuously engages and advocates with local authorities and other stakeholders to facilitate programme access, strengthen community participation, and support the effective delivery of services for children, women, and vulnerable populations.

• Integration: SBC actively promotes greater integration across its work. Particular emphasis is placed on ensuring coherence and collaboration with other cross-cutting functions within the office, including Polio SBC, Gender, and SPEAR, to maximize efficiency, effectiveness, and collective impact.

• Resilience and Support to HDP Nexus: Recognizing the importance of linking humanitarian action with longer-term development and resilience-building efforts, SBC supports the HDP Nexus through the following actions: 1) strengthening the capacity of communities to withstand, adapt to, and recover from shocks and crises; 2) promoting integrated community engagement and accountability approaches across sectors; 3) supporting cash transfer initiatives in coordination with the Social Policy section; 4) strengthening social cohesion through engagement with community structures and local networks; and 5) enhancing local ownership and community resilience to support sustainable development outcomes.

The Afghanistan context continues to be characterized by humanitarian needs, limited access to services, social and gender inequalities, recurrent shocks, and declining resources. In this environment, the SBC section plays a critical role in strengthening community systems, influencing social and behavioural determinants, generating evidence, and promoting accountability and participation.

Drawing on operational experience, programme learning, and emerging evidence from the past several years, SBC, in line with its strategies, focuses on five interconnected priority areas. These priorities are designed to support the transition from humanitarian response towards more sustainable and resilient systems, while contributing to UNICEF Afghanistan's office-wide outcomes, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), and the achievement of relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Priority 1 - Community Systems and Structures Strengthening (CSS), Including Youth and Adolescent Engagement:

Strong community systems are essential for sustainable programme delivery, community ownership, and resilience. Building on existing community structures and networks, SBC continues to strengthen local capacities to identify, prioritize, and address issues affecting children and families. This includes leveraging trusted and established platforms, such as Grandmother Groups (GMG), the Qahramanan youth network, TAVOON religious and community leaders’ group, and Community Engagement and Feedback Centers (CEFC). These structures provide important entry points for two-way communication, community dialogue, dissemination of information, feedback collection, and action to address barriers to essential services. Particular attention is given to increasing the meaningful participation of youth and adolescents and promoting more inclusive community engagement processes, including opportunities for women and marginalized groups to contribute to decision-making and local development initiatives.

Priority 2 - Social Transformation and Behaviour Change for Programme Outcomes:

SBC supports programme sections in addressing the social, behavioural, and normative factors that influence access to and utilization of essential services. This includes efforts to improve practices and behaviours related to health, nutrition, immunization, WASH, child protection, education, and social protection. Through evidence-based interventions, SBC contributes to positive, equitable, and sustainable outcomes for children, women, and communities while addressing barriers that prevent the adoption of beneficial practices.

Priority 3 - Accountability to Affected People (AAP) and Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRM):

Ensuring that communities are informed, heard, and able to influence programme delivery remains a core priority. SBC continues to strengthen AAP approaches by promoting two-way communication, community feedback mechanisms, and responsive grievance redress systems. These efforts enhance programme quality, increase trust between communities and service providers, and ensure that community perspectives inform decision-making and programme adaptation.

Priority 4 - Behavioural Science (BeSci) and Social Analytics:

SBC strengthens the generation and use of social and behavioural evidence to inform programme design, implementation, and monitoring. Through behavioural science approaches, social research, audience insights, perception studies, and data analytics, SBC supports programmes to better understand barriers, motivators, social norms, and community perspectives.

Priority 5 - SBC Support to Polio Eradication:

Given Afghanistan's continued commitment to polio eradication, SBC maintains dedicated support to polio programming through community engagement, social mobilization, demand generation, behavioural insights, and trust-building efforts. Close collaboration between the Polio SBC team and broader SBC functions maximize synergies, strengthen integration, and promote the use of common community engagement and accountability platforms where appropriate.

If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here: International Consultancy for the evaluation of the UNICEF Afghanistan’s SBC community structures and interventions.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...

Minimum requirements: |(Qualifications/Experience/ Knowledge/Expertise/Skills)

• Education: An advanced university degree (Master’s degree required, PhD preferred) in social studies, social sciences, social and behaviour change, evaluation, research, public policy, international development, or another relevant field.
• Work Experience: At least 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in evaluation, research, and social and behavior change programming
• Language Requirements: English
• Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:
  • Strong technical expertise in SBC programming.
  • Demonstrated experience similar evaluations.
  • Demonstrated experience applying mixed-methods approaches, including desk reviews, surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations and analysis of administrative and secondary data.
  • Demonstrated experience to analyze quantities and qualitative data.
  • Demonstrated experience with statistical tools and sampling methodologies.
  • Excellent analytical, report-writing, facilitation and presentation skills.
  • Experience working with UNICEF and/or other United Nations agencies, humanitarian and development partners, or civil society organizations is a strong asset
• Desirables: Experience working in complex, fragile, or humanitarian contexts is highly desirable.

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This position has been assessed as an elevated risk role for Child Safeguarding purposes as it is either a role with direct contact with children, a role that works directly with identifiable children’s data, a safeguarding response role, or an assessed risk role. Additional vetting and assessment for elevated risk roles in child safeguarding (potentially including additional criminal background checks) apply.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System):

• An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• A separate financial proposal (only acceptable in the format of the linked template) Financial proposal SBC Evaluation Consultant.docx
• A detailed technical proposal should contain:
  1. Context and understanding – max 1 page
  2. Methodology and Technical Approach – max 1 page
  3. Workplan and deliverables – max 1 page