Current vacancies

Consultancy Title: Innovation Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Generation Unlimited, Programme Division, NYHQ

Duration: 3March 2025 to 31 July 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:

Under the direct supervision of the Innovation Manager (Generation Unlimited), with overall guidance from the Deputy Director, Partnerships and in collaboration with the partnerships team, the consultant provide expertise to support the overall project manager (Innovation Manager) for the an assessment of implementation of the BeGreen and Engaging Kenyan Youth in Agriculture and Nutrition (EKYAN) pilot initiatives

BeGreen

BeGreen is a green entrepreneurship pilot program co-created by GenU, partners, and young green entrepreneurs. The program builds evidence around youth entrepreneurship in high-impact green sectors, exploring how young entrepreneurs can contribute to circular economies. Young people developed foundational entrepreneurship skills via related GenU programmes (such as ImaGen Ventures and Yoma) and then advanced to an in-depth entrepreneurship program for which a green curriculum was developed. The top 220 young people will receive a grant to incubate their green ventures.  By end of 2025, the pilot initiative is expected to achieve the following key results:

• ~200 young green entrepreneurs in Kenya (and 5 other African countries) have established or grown sustainable green businesses in the waste management sector
• 2.6 jobs created per entrepreneur after one year, with 5.2 additional youth jobs per entrepreneur created in the second year (50% of the youth jobs created shall be for women entrepreneurs)
• more than $2 million of revenue generated by the young green entrepreneurs per year
• contributions to green economy measures such as volume of waste recycled, volume of water saved or tons of CO2 averted, by way of tracking the environmental impacts of the green enterprises.

EKYAN

The Global Youth Agriculture Network (GYAN) initiative is a pilot program that leverages the power of technology and provides young people with the skills, mentorship, and resources to build an agribusiness to provide extension services to small holder farmers. UNICEF Kenya Country Office (CO) have co-created EKYAN which serves as a localized example of GYAN. The goal of the programme is to improve the perception and engagement of young people in agriculture and contribute towards the improvement of economic livelihoods, food systems and nutritional status. This will produce a pipeline of young people (10-24) who will grow with knowledge and passion for agriculture and agribusiness, and who will be provided with the skills needed and on-the-job learning opportunities to take advantage of employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in the sector. Each Agripreneur provides extension services to approximately a cohort of 200 smallholder farmers for free, leveraging a digital platform and toolkit. Over a 3-year period this pilot initiative will:

• Improve the economic livelihoods of 51,000+ farmers in a sustainable and climate smart manner;
• Provide 4,000 young people (50% female, 1,000 out of school) with the opportunity to earn a decent livelihood as agripreneurs;
• Create 64 “School Centres of Excellence“ across Kenya to provide community training hubs; and,

Generate a pipeline of an estimated 40k young people with the passion and skills for careers in agribusiness

Scope of Work:

The consultant will be responsible to:

• Advise on the implementation and results to date of BeGreen, including guidance on how to:
  • Provide recommendations for an incubation programme for entrepreneurs depending on their risk profile and investment-readiness.
  • Provide recommendations on key updates and adaptations to future iterations of the programme model.
  • Assess the results and learnings from the mentorship programme.
  • Assess key programme learnings and advise on a concept for a learning workshop to document the key lessons learned for the donor
• Advise on the strategic approach and implementation of EKYAN, including guidance on how to:
  • Provide recommendations on key updates and adaptations to future iterations of the programme model
  • Review learnings and advise on an update MERL framework
  • Analyze youth agriculture programme models and advise on key success factors

Carry out a stakeholder analysis and provide recommendations on strengthening nutritional, food security and regenerative agriculture outcomes in future iterations of the programme

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/ Deliverables/Outputs/ Delivery deadline

BeGreen Africa

1. Provide recommendations for an incubation programme for entrepreneurs depending on their risk profile and investment-readiness

• Incubation programme proposal
• 07 March 2025

2. Provide recommendations on key updates and adaptations to future iterations of the programme model

• Programme model adaptations report
• 18 April 2025

3. Assess the results and learnings from the mentorship programme

• Mentorship programme report
• 23 May 2025

4. Assess key programme learnings and advise on a concept for a learning workshop including key stakeholders

• Learning workshop report
• 31 July 2025

Engaging Kenyan Youth in Agriculture and Nutrition (EKYAN)

1. Provide recommendations on key updates and adaptations to future iterations of the programme model

• Programme model adaptations report
• 21 March 2025

2. Review learnings and advise on an updated MERL (monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and learning) framework

• Updated MERL framework
• 09 May 2025

3. Analyze youth agriculture programme models and advise on key success factors

• Progamme model adaptations report
• 30 May 2025

4. Progamme model adaptations report

• Stakeholder analysis and outcome report
• 31 July 2025

Travel

• International mission to Kenya

 Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s degree in International Business, International Relations, or related field
• Fluency in English is required, strong written
• Working knowledge of another UN language an asset

 Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• At least three years of experience in programme management at the cross-sections of innovation, entrepreneurship, green and youth engagement
• At least seven years of experience in managing projects across multiple geographies and sectors
• Experience planning and carrying out key events in the environmental sphere (mainly COP)
• Proven planning and M&E experience

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.