Current vacancies

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...innovate 

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

As the custodian of the UPSHIFT the Office of Innovation (OoI) continues to engage daily with country offices implementing UPSHIFT and is developing subsequent tools, knowledge products and lessons learned to further support the UPSHIFT community of practice accelerate the delivery of results for children and young people globally.

About UPSHIFT

UPSHIFT is a UNICEF global skills development solution. It draws from best practices from non-formal education, experiential learning, and business education to create a learning journey that consists of workshops, mentorship, and an entrepreneurial challenge. Participants learn how to identify and analyze problems that they care deeply about and how to create products or services that address them. At the end of the 25 hours course (phase I), all the solutions are evaluated, and the most promising ones receive seed funding and further mentoring and learning support for their implementation (Phase II). This encourages young people to keep coming up with big ideas as they can see the selected ones become reality.

UPSHIFT is currently operating in 56 countries with 5 million young people having completed over 120 million learning hours since UPSHIFT started in 2014 with one million young people having finished a full UPSHIFT learning journey in 2024 alone.

How can you make a difference? 

With UPSHIFT scaling rapidly across 56 countries there is a need to develop strong communication assets, campaigns to document it’s results to date, including the integration of its delivery into education systems across 12 countries with more expected to follow suit in 2025. To this end, the Office of Innovation is seeking a communication consultant to lead to work in close collaboration with the Partnerships and Communication team as well as with Country Offices, Regional Offices to assist in planning, development and creation of UPSHIFT advocacy and communication materials and systems.

Your main responsibilities will be:

 • Produce editorial content (e.g. articles, press releases, human interest stories and other advocacy/information materials) for both web-based and traditional media, as appropriate.

• Follow up on the production of advocacy and communication materials (e.g., films, videos, audio-visuals, etc.), and oversee the qualitative aspects of production (e.g., quality control, translations, reviews of layout and graphic design etc.).

• Work closely with the UPSHIFT Global lead to update the SharePoint deployment toolkit.

• Work closely with the UPSHIFT Global lead and OoI communications team to identify opportunities to showcase UPSHIFT in OoI / UNICEF events.

• Maintain and regularly update the existing communication asset data base (HIS, Videos, Sites) and develop database of additional communication assets including social media assets, publications referencing UPSHIFT, press releases and clippings, photographs, audio-visual materials, web resources, etc.

• Develop template to document most successful projects developed by Upshifters and work with country offices to document the top 50 such projects.  

• Recommend appropriate information and communication materials for use in media and other advocacy and communication activities.

• Perform other content development duties, as well as other communication officer duties as assigned by the Supervisor.

For more information, please review the ToR:  ToR - UPSHIFT Communications Consultant_Final.docx

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

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in education, information technology, or another relevant field.
• A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in communication, content creation, editorial planning and social media management, including planning and implementation.
• Proven ability to write engaging, flawless copy for media on tight deadlines in English including web content.
• Strong interpersonal skills in being able to develop and maintain effective working relations with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently, be proactive and possess strong organizational skills, with good attention to detail.
• Proven experience in developing engaging visual design assets including presentation decks, infographics and documents.  
• Demonstrated experience in supporting and/or managing projects to completion, including developing and implementing clear processes.
• Experience in leading the development and implementation of communication campaigns is an asset.
• Knowledge of children’s rights, public policy, international development and humanitarian issues is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Travel:

• The consultant is not expected to travel through the duration of the assignment

Payment details and further considerations

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed 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. 

How to apply:

• Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. Please see the financial proposal template.
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance
• Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered.   Consultancy Financial Offer template.docx

General Terms and Conditions:

Please review UNICEF's General Terms and Conditions for Consultants here for important information regarding contract obligations, including medical insurance, SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) vaccination, and income tax requirements.

For every Child, you demonstrate…  

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

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.

Remarks:  

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors 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.