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UNICEF globally considers the second decade of life through a life cycle approach to human development, especially for girls and boys. UNICEF has been investing in programming with and for adolescents through engagement and service delivery across multiple sectors, including health, nutrition, education, child protection, WASH, and social protection.  The Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) agenda upholds adolescent-centric programming as reflected in UNICEF’s Second Decade Guidance, the Engaged and Heard Guidance and IASC Guidance for Working with and for Young People and various other policy mandates for investment and advocacy for adolescent related policies and programmes, and adolescent engagement and participation.  ADAP’s primary focus is putting adolescents at the centre of holistic, multi-sectoral programming for and with them, with their participation at the centre.

Bhutan has a young population with about 42 percent below the age of 18, and adolescents (10 – 19 years) comprise about 24 percent of the population. This has significant implications for the country’s present and future. On the one hand, the young population brings with it many opportunities with huge potential to contribute to society, commonly known as the demographic dividend. On the other hand, adolescents and youth are a vulnerable group who are making a difficult transition to adulthood.  . This phase marks, in more than one way, a definitive shift in the life of every individual – physical, psychological, and social changes that define how the child will grow into an adult. Some emerging issues confronting adolescents and youth in Bhutan include increasing rural to urban migration, limited opportunities for learning to earning, youth unemployment, urbanization, and changes in the traditional family structure, to changing social and cultural environment.

 

The UN in Bhutan, under the Delivering as One programme works with a range of governmental and nongovernmental agencies to promote and protect the rights of adolescents and youth. Broadly, the One Programme works on (1) employment and employability of youth; (2) youth friendly health services and addressing mental health issue; (3) strengthening the protection and safety nets for adolescents and youth; and (4) promote youth participation, and civic engagement in governance including young people with disability. UNICEF in its 2019-2023 Country Programme emphasized greater focus on adolescent development and participation. Building on work done during the previous Country Programme in different sectors to develop adolescent related evidence, policies, and programmes, during the current programme cycle 2024-2028, UNICEF Bhutan’s commitment is to scale up and strengthen adolescent programme as a part of cross sectoral programming especially engagement of adolescent and youth in some of the sectoral priorities such as mental health, climate, skilling programme, and adolescent girls. Despite the opportunities present in delivering as one approach, it is observed that coordination and collaboration amongst UN agencies on adolescent and youth issue is limited. Within UNICEF too, there is limited coordination amongst the various programmes.

 

Given the need to promote convergent programming within UNICEF programme to amplify agenda of second decade of life, it is imperative for the country office to have in place a comprehensive cross-sectoral strategy for Second Decade that will serve as a framework for action to accelerate results for adolescent girls and boys.

 

Purpose of Assignment:

The main purpose of the assignment is to develop a comprehensive inter-sectoral Second Decade Strategy for UNICEF Bhutan based on the systemic review and sectoral priorities and opportunities for convergence with Education, WASH, Health, Child Protection, and Social Policy, Technology for Development, and other areas as relevant. Based on a systematic review of UNICEF’s current engagement on adolescent and youth programming, provide strategic recommendations for strengthening;

• Programme interventions and its alignment to government's priority for adolescent and youth in 13th five-year plan.
• Coordination within UNICEF as well as with other UN agencies to ensure enhanced results for adolescents and youth.

Approaches and Methodology

The assignment will be carried out by the international consultant using the most current information/data available on adolescent and youth’s programme. Data and information gathering could be both primary and secondary methods. Primary through key informant interviews including with young people, focus group discussions, stakeholders’ consultation, and secondary through literature review, desk review of the global documents related to adolescents, relevant studies conducted in South Asia, previous UNICEF Bhutan’s Country Programme Document (CPD) 2019-2023 and the new CPD for 2024-2028, United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2024-2028 and other relevant programme reports and documents on adolescent programme.

The overall duration for the assignment is 27 days out of which, consultant will be in Bhutan for five (5) working days excluding travel days to conduct interviews, focus group discussions and consultation with UNICEF staff, other UN agencies, national partners, and young people.

Scope of Assignment

The consultant is expected to develop a concise and comprehensive Second Decade Strategy that provides direction for convergent planning and programming on adolescents and youth including distinct strategies for accelerating progress for adolescent girls in line with the Adolescent Girls’ Framework for South Asia 2022-25. The consultant is expected to seek input from all programme and cross-sectoral teams including young people, partners, and other UN agencies to make the strategy relevant and provide strategic vision for programming. Additionally, the strategy is expected to cover recommendations for funding and resourcing strategies, evidence generation/data, monitoring and evaluation and office wide accountability mechanisms.

Main tasks:

1. Desk review;
   1. Global and regional literature related to adolescents and youth including from a disability lens.  
   2. All relevant research on adolescents and youth in Bhutan.
   3. Available inclusive policy and legislative provisions for adolescents and youth.
   4. UN and UNICEF Country Programme related documents, annual reviews/reports etc.
   5. Existing programme information (programme mapping) from UNICEF, UN, RGoB and nongovernmental partner organizations
2. Develop a methodology and workplan to facilitate analysis of cross sectoral priorities and develop a comprehensive Second Decade Strategy (see some of the reference documents for desk review)[1].
3. Interview with adolescent and youth, national partners, UNICEF programme staff including other UN agencies and identify constraints and opportunities for enhancing holistic adolescent programming for BCO.
4. Research institutional and programmatic support available for adolescent and youth development especially in thematic areas including education, skilling leading to employment, water sanitation and hygiene, child protection, social protection, nutrition, health, climate change, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and social norms including efforts on deconstructing gender values.
5. Identify concrete opportunities and gap for programmatic convergence with existing cross sectoral initiatives and approaches for adolescents’ meaningful civic engagement and participation as one cross-cutting priority across all programmes.
6. Suggest a coordination and accountability mechanism that suits the needs of UNICEF Bhutan for effective implementation of the identified programme priorities.
7. Suggest medium to long term partnerships (across sectors - government, development partners, CSOs/NGOs, and the private sector) to work on diverse issues related to adolescents in a cross-sectoral approach.
8. Recommend methodology and tools for monitoring and evaluation for enhanced accountability and finalize strategy.

Key Assignment, Deliverables and Timelines:

1. Draft detailed methodology and plan of implementation, and submit inception report – 3 days
2. Conduct desk review of the existing literature, official documents /publications /strategies, and mapping of relevant stakeholders for interviews and question guide (s) and submission of the analysis of desk review and workplan, and list of stakeholders to be consulted for strategy development – 7 days
3. Conduct interviews and meetings with relevant external and internal cross sectoral partners as per the agreed methodology and workplan, and transcription and analysis as a document – 5 days excluding travel days
4. Draft final comprehensive Second Decade Strategy with clearly defined strategic priorities for UNICEF Bhutan and set of overarching activities that need to be undertaken. Submit the following final reports with gap analysis and required outputs as outlined in the terms of reference, as well as outlined in the workplan prepared in consultation with UNICEF. – 8 days

1. Comprehensive Second Decade Strategy  
2. Report with data visualisation and clearly articulated key findings.
3. PowerPoint-A visually compelling presentation for dissemination with internal and external stakeholders.

5. Review and incorporate revisions and submit Final Comprehensive Second Decade Strategy - 4 days

 Payment Schedule: 

1. Completion of deliverable 1 - 10%
2. Completion of deliverable 2 - 20%
3. Completion of deliverable 3 - 30%
4. Completion of deliverable 4 - 30%
5. Completion of deliverable 5 - 10%