ThaiNGO

Organisation: APCOM Foundation

Title :  Communication Consultant to Facilitate TestXXX Regional Dialogue

Deadline: 6 April 2018

1.POSITION DETAILS

Position Title:  Facilitator of TestXXX Regional Dialogue

Contract Period: a maximum of 20 days between April and June 2018

Reports to:  APCOM Senior Campaigns Coordinators

Location: home-based but able to visit APCOM secretariat office on ad-hoc basis during the contract period

2. ABOUT APCOM

Founded in 2007, APCOM is a coalition of members – governments, UN partners, non-profits and community based organisations – from Asia and the Pacific. APCOM represent a diverse range of interests working together to advocate on, highlight and prioritise HIV and human rights issues that affect the lives of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) and other communities affected by HIV in Asia and the Pacific. Our goals are to improve the well-being of the key affected communities in the region through increased investment, coverage and quality of sexual health services and human rights protection.

3. ABOUT TESTXXX

Many countries within Asia are recording alarmingly high numbers of HIV infection among MSM population. This is particularly evident in large urban areas like Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Manila where prevalence has been reported between 15-31%. Where data is available, the rate of HIV testing among young MSM aged 18 to 29 is less than 50%. TestXXX is conceived by APCOM to close this gap.

TestXXX is designed to empower the existing community-based clinics to reach wider YMSM audience and to generate more promising behaviour change by harnessing the power of cuttingedge communications and creativity that resonates with today’s culture of YMSM, such as the popular use of mobile sexual networking apps and other online platforms to regularly find new sexual partners. TestXXX tailors strong and provocative messaging to dissociate HIV testing with fear, stigma and/or discrimination. TestXXX employs and integrates online and offline outreach strategies to ensure that YMSM sustainably access HIV prevention and treatment cascade.

TestXXX was piloted in Bangkok, named TestBKK, in 2014 with the support from LINKAGES Thailand led by FHI Thailand funded by USAID and PEPFAR. With the support of Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) in 2015, TextBKK received additional resources for three years (2015-2018) and TestXXX expanded to three new cities:  Ho Chi Minh City (TestSGN), Manila (TestMNL), and Jakarta (TestJKT). Each of these expanded campaign received a one-year grant.

While TestBKK is directly implemented by APCOM, the other TestXXX campaigns are implemented by country-level partners: CARMAH (TestSGN), Love Yourself Inc. (TestMNL) and Jaringan GWL-INA (TestJKT) under APCOM’s supervision and guidance.

TestXXX campaign has the following four (4) goals: 1. to develop an innovative, sex positive campaign in four cities that normalize HIV testing, ensuring the integration to the continuum of treatment, care and support, and prevention for young MSM; 2. to encourage young positive MSM to access treatment care and support services, by breaking through negative social norms, stigma regarding HIV and to dispel myths and misconceptions around "severity" of HIV treatment; 3. to foster an environment that values innovation and creativity, allowing the sharing of knowledge and best practices between cities, building a sustainable city-based community-led response to HIV through improved collaboration across the region; and 4. to engage and link local community organisations with clinical services, municipal governments and private sector towards developing a sustainable city-based partnership model that adequately responds to the needs of YMSM.

4. ABOUT TESTXXX REGIONAL DIALOGUE

TestXXX Regional Dialogue serves as a platform for each TestXXX campaign implementers to exchange lessons learned, good practices and examples, and innovations that help the Campaign reach the target of the Campaign’s abovementioned goals. This includes answering whether online outreach, as innovative communication tools, is effective in reaching out to wider YMSM population. The Regional Dialogue aspires to document internal and external challenges and barriers that hinder the Campaign from reaching the goals, identify arising new issues among YMSM, and enumerate recommendations to improve TestXXX online campaigns

Expected to run for three (3) days from the 23rd to the 25th of May 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Dialogue will be attended by APCOM staff managing EJAF’s TestXXX regional and Bangkok country activities and key staff from other non-Bangkok TestXXX campaign – a total of, at least, eight (8) campaigners. The invitation may also be extended to external stakeholders of each Campaign, such as representative from the clinic and academician partners.

5. SCOPE OF WORK

Under the supervision of APCOM’s Senior Campaigns Coordinator, the facilitator is expected to do the following assignments: a) develop the syllabus, and thus, the agenda of the Dialogue; b) develop the presentation and feedback forms as well as facilitate or co-facilitate some of the sessions in the Dialogue; c) plan the format of the report of the Dialogue, which will act as a knowledge product on how TestXXX campaign can improve their performance, specifically; and how other similar HIV-related behaviour change campaign can increase the uptake of HIV services among urban MSM, generally; d) administer the rapporteur(s) of the Dialogue; and e) produce the report of the Dialogue.

6. METHODOLOGIES

 The methodology to conduct the abovementioned assessments is suggested to be a mixed of the following methods:  

1. desk review of the following documents:
2.  a) TestXXX master workplan that lays out the grant’s goals, key indicators, subindicators and their three-year activities
3.    b) first-year activity guideline to set up and implement TestXXX and its supplement documents
4.   c) biennially TestXXX progress reports1 from APCOM to EJAF
5.    d) quarterly country progress reports2 from country partners to APCOM
6.    e) Campaign’s assessment report which evaluates the penetration of the Campaign into the target audience and assesses the change in the target audience’s sexual health-related attitudes and behaviors – submitted by the Campaign’s research partner (if the assessment is conducted externally) or the country partner (if the assessment is conducted internally) to APCOM
7. key informant interview via phonecall, skypecall or email exchange with either of the following stakeholders:
8.    a) APCOM staff who are directly involved in the implemention of TestXXX regional grant
9.    b) key staff of TestBKK and other country partner’s campaign (TestSGN, TestMNL and TestJKT)
10.    c) the Campaign’s clinic partners
11.    d) the Campaign’s academician partners

 7. DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE

 The consultant hired under this assignment should provide the following outputs within a certain timeline of submission:

8. CONSULTANCY PAYMENT

Based on the number of days proposed by the consultant and further negotiated and agreed with APCOM, the fees will be paid against satisfactory deliverables as per the below schedule:

9. KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

 The consultancy service under this assignment should provide the following output:

 8.1 Education a minimum of Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Communication, Social Science, Development, or other academic equivalents

8.2 Professional Experience

1.     a) more than three (3) years of professional experience on HIV, health or behaviour change communication – preferably with expertise on Asian countries;
2.    b) good understanding of behaviour change communication campaign/programming for young gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM)
3.    c) proven experience in designing and/or facilitating a knowledge exchange forum/dialogue;
4.    d) proven experience in working with civil society, non-governmental and/or community-based organisations;
5.    e) proven experience in writing a community-centric knowledge product

8.3 Functional/Technical Knowledge

1.   a) excellent English writing and communication skills; knowledge of Indonesian, Vietnamese, Tagalog and/or Thai language is an added advantage
2.   b) ability to analyze and consolidate information from multiple sources and prepare technical briefs 
3.   c) ability to work efficiently under pressure, with limited or       adequate day-to-day support and a willingness to take on different projects and tasks as need arises
4.   d) possess well-developed professionalism, tactfulness, personal discipline and impartiality
5.   e) able to work as a team, open to sharing information and excels in coordinating efforts
6.   f) possess sensitive and professional approach to diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics

10.  PREPARING APPLICATION

The applicant is required to state how his/her skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications relate to the position. It is recommended that he/she addresses each criteria in Section 7: Requirement separately in point form in a separate document.

The applicant should mention the number of the proposed days for him/her to finish the outputs mention in Section 6: Deliverables, including three days for the facilitation of the Dialogue, as well as the proposed daily rate in the Cover Letter.

To apply for this position, the applicant should submit his/her CV and Cover Letter and other relevant documents to the APCOM Secretariat by emailing JoinUS@apcom.org no later than the deadline of this vacancy.

For questions or enquiries for the position, please contact APCOM’s HR Officer Rangsit Sanguansak at RangsitS@apcom.org

--

The information contained in this document is confidential information intended for your use only. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you receive this information in error, please notify us by emailing the original to the sender.  Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of APCOM unless otherwise specifically stated. If the content of this email is to become contractually binding, it must be made on paper and signed by a duly authorized representative of APCOM.