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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, hope.

 

Consultancy Title: Climate, Environment, Energy and DRR (CEED) Policy and Evidence Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Programme Group, Climate Environment Energy & Disaster, UNICEF NYHQ

Duration: November 15, 2024, to November 15, 2025

Home/ Office Based: NYHQ / Remote

 

About UNICEF 

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

Analyze key climate and environmental policies and plans for the inclusion of children and young people, maintain existing data platforms and expand outreach and communication through engagements with key stakeholders, including organizational partners, children, and young people.

Virtually every child on earth is already affected by climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and disasters. So far, international climate action has fallen short, which means that the impacts upon children and young people will only worsen in the coming decades. The best investments we can make for children now are to ensure the services they need to survive, grow, and thrive are resilient to climate and environmental shocks and to support them to be drivers of change. To do so, international climate and environmental policies and plans must reflect the perspectives, needs and vulnerabilities of children and young people, and children and young people must be engaged and empowered.

Despite contributing the least to the climate crisis, children bear the brunt of its impacts. Despite this, children and young people are all too often excluded from the climate and environmental policies and plans, which will shape the world they inherit. Less than half of active Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) globally are considered child- and youth-sensitive. A mere 30 percent of NDCs mention that the plan’s development was participatory and involved young people; even less, only three percent mentioned that the process involved children. State Parties to the Paris Agreement have agreed that States should, when taking climate action, respect, promote and consider the rights of children as well as intergenerational equity. However, this commitment has yet to translate into significant climate policy initiatives or investments. UNICEF analyses key climate and environmental policies to assess where countries are centering children and young people and where they could be doing better.

These data provide UNICEF offices, governments, youth advocates and other key stakeholders the necessary knowledge and support to meaningfully include children and young people’s perspectives, needs and vulnerabilities in climate policy. These data must also be communicated, so that young people are engaged and have the capacity to drive change through climate policy development. These crucial steps enable stakeholders to optimize their approach to child- and youth-sensitive climate and environmental policy engagement. In addition, demonstrating increased capacity and readiness as a climate partner is increasingly essential for securing additional finance, which is crucial for maximizing the impact of our initial investment in sustainability and climate action.

UNICEF is seeking a dedicated and proactive consultant to continue UNICEF’s analysis of climate and environmental policies, maintain existing data platforms and expand outreach and communication through engagements with key stakeholders, including organizational partners, children, and young people.

Scope of Work:

Under the guidance of the policy lead, climate, energy, environment and DRR the consultant will perform the following duties:

1.      Policy Analysis

• Analyze and record the child- and youth-sensitivity of climate and environmental policies, such as Nationally Determined Contributions
• Evaluate and update child- and youth-sensitivity analysis methodologies.
• Work with country and regional offices to ensure that the SCAP policy tracker is updated.

2.      NDCs for every child Data Platform Maintenance

• Perform maintenance and quality control to ensure the NDCs for every child Data Platform remains operational and meets UNICEF standards.
• Manage the uploading of NDC analyses to the NDCs for every child Data Platform.
• Coordinate platform updates with external developers.

3.     Climate, Environment and DRR Policies Helpdesk

• Support country and regional offices and headquarters divisions with NDCs, NAPs and other national climate, environment and DRR policy-related queries.
• Support logistical coordination of meetings, including the preparation of presentation materials and coordination of speakers.

4.     Youth Engagement

• Engage with children and young people on climate and environmental topics, communicating technical information accessibly and building the capacity of young climate advocates.
• Support the coordination of youth engagement opportunities.

5.     Development of Capacity Building Materials

• Develop and revise capacity building materials to ensure all necessary key stakeholders have access to relevant climate and environmental information for child and youth sensitivity.

6.      Policy Evidence Generation Support

• Support country and regional office and headquarters colleagues with policy evidence generation questions or difficulties. 

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Policy Analysis.

4 policy analysis readouts, including: The number of policies analyzed and a summary of the results. Any changes made to analysis methodologies. Proposed plans for future changes to methodologies. Summary of updated inputs to SCAP policy tracker.

Deadline: Q1: 15 March 2025, Q2: 15 June 2025, Q3: 15 September 2025, Q4: 15 November 2025

NDCs for every child Data Platform Maintenance.

2x reports highlighting: Updates including all new NDC policies and analysis made to the data platform during time period up to the two deliverable deadlines. Detail any risks avoided or issues that were resolved regarding the data platform in same time period up to the two deliverable deadlines. Detail a maximum of 10 recommendations for future updates to the data platform from 2026 onwards.

Deadline: 15 January 2025, 15 July 2025

Climate, Environment and DRR Policies Helpdesk.

2X progress report detailing: NDCs and other climate/environment/DRR policy queries/support events (i.e. emails, meetings, webinars, trainings) in the time period leading up to the two deliverable deadlines. A list of all requests received to inform future outputs. Any limitations of current helpdesk support offered and providing a maximum of 10 recommendations for future helpdesk activities for 2026 onwards.

Deadline: 15 April 2025, 15 October 2025

Youth Engagement.

1X progress report detailing: Opportunities (i.e. meetings, events, webinars, etc.) participated in and list the key stakeholders engaged including the date and time. A compendium of frequent requests, questions and comments for future engagements with young people on CEED policies for consideration in 2026. Include a 1-page table with a mapping of key partners for youth engagement in 2026 and identify opportunities for increased collaboration with these partners. Develop up to a maximum of 5 metrics to evaluate the reach of youth engagement opportunities pursued thus far.

Deadline: 15 February 2025

Development of Capacity Building Materials.

1X internal capacity development guidance on NDCs and NAPs, building on the recently released child- and youth-sensitive NDCs toolkits and booklets.

Deadline: 15 May 2025

Policy Evidence Generation Support.

Conduct 5 training sessions on policy evidence generation for UNICEF colleagues. Conduct 24 surveys for Identification of bottlenecks and priority areas for internal capacity building initiatives.

Provide 5 key recommendations for addressing bottlenecks and prioritizing priority areas for internal capacity building.

Deadline: 15 December 2025

Qualifications

Education: 

Advanced university degree (Masters or higher) in the area of environmental science, environmental policy, political science, communication, international relations, or related degree. 

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *: 

• Minimum of 2 years of experience with climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction and young people.
• Prior UN experience would be a considerable asset.
• Demonstrated advanced policy assessment capabilities, especially across climate, environment, energy, and disaster risk reduction contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate and use of Microsoft Office 365.
• Excellent coordination, communication, and partnership development skills.
• Strong writing and communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate technical climate concepts, both in writing and verbally is required. 
• Fluency in English is required. knowledge of another official UN language is considered as an asset.

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

• • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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. 

Remarks:  

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.