Youth Engagement Officer (Climate), (NO-2), Fixed-Term, UNICEF ROSA, Kathmandu, Nepal #127445
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Job no: 572964
Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment
Duty Station: Kathmandu
Level: NO-2
Location: Nepal
Categories: Adolescent Development, Social Policy, Innovation, Programme Management, Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
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For every child, a future
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children and young people. 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. The UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022-25 recognizes the whole spectrum of young people, including young adults or youth over 18, and includes in its Change Strategies “supporting young people and children as agents of change.”
UNICEF Values on Youth Engagement in Climate Action
The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. In South Asia, children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Pakistan are at extremely high risk of the climate crisis. UNICEF’s Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) outlines organizational response to this crisis as well as focus areas for action and partnerships – delivering the best results cannot be achieved by UNICEF working alone. Our vision statement calls for UNICEF “to galvanize a global commitment to ensure a sustainable world and to protect the most vulnerable children from the worst impacts of climate change so that every child has an opportunity to survive, grow, and thrive.” UNICEF recognizes that young people have a critical role to play in the transition to a more sustainable future. By taking practical environmental action and developing green and transferable skills, they will benefit themselves and their communities and the planet.
Adolescent and Youth Engagement can be defined as: “The rights-based inclusion of adolescents and youth in areas that affect their lives and their communities, including dialogue, decisions, mechanisms, processes, events, campaigns, actions and programs – across all stages, from identification, analysis and design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.” The fact that the children’s and adolescents’ rights are the heart of UNICEF’s mandate, combined with this momentum around young people’s issues, has led to adolescent and youth engagement being central to UNICEF’s current and 2022-2025 Strategic Plans.
UNICEF South Asia employs a comprehensive approach to address climate challenges for children and young people, leveraging a wide-ranging network of government, civil society, private sector partners and young people. This includes disaster reduction and climate-resilient programming in key sectors such as water, sanitation, hygiene, health, nutrition, and education. Through youth-led initiatives, UNICEF engages young people as partners in civic and youth engagement, with young people carrying out initiatives in their local communities on issues that are relevant to them. UNICEF works on changing behaviors through community mobilization and engaging key community stakeholders on climate change and environmental issues.
How can you make a difference?
UNICEF South Asia is looking for a motivated professional with experience in youth and adolescent engagement in climate and environmental action.
Under the direct supervision of the Regional Adolescent Advisor, with dotted reporting lines to the Regional Climate Advisor, the purpose of this position is to strengthen meaningful youth and adolescent engagement and participation in climate and environmental actions, strengthen their resilience to the climate crises and support the development of the climate change and adolescent/youth engagement work. The incumbent will be responsible for the development of a South Asia Youth Climate Action and Engagement Strategy. The strategy and action plan should be in line with the new UNICEF Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) and the Green Rising initiative. Moreover, the focus will be on supporting youth-led advocacy to build public will for concerted action and influence decision makers to shape sustainable public policies. This will include developing evidence-based policy and advocacy guidance and toolkits, supporting partnerships, evidence generation, planning and implementation of advocacy campaigns.
UNICEF supported actions are to align to and inform SDG implementation in the region, South Asia’s participation to COP objectives, as well as the UNICEF Strategic Plan and Core Corporate Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action. Each component of UNICEF’s work presents opportunities to act on climate, energy and/or the environmental issues to deliver more sustainable results, inherent is to apply both equity and gender equality lenses. Promoting cross sectorial programming is therefore essential.
Summary of key functions/accountabilities:
- Strategic programme planning, coordination, and implementation support.
- Technical support to mainstream youth-led climate change and environmental issues across SAR programming
- Evidence generation, policy and positioning of UNICEF youth engagement and climate change in South Asia
- Support external partnerships and linkages to regional and global efforts
- Capacity Building, Youth-led climate innovation and knowledge management
Strategic programme planning, coordination, and implementation:
Coordinate strategic planning, coordination, and implementation of UNICEF-supported youth-led climate change interventions. Liaise with regional and country teams. Mapping of existing stakeholder and potential partners and interventions relevant to UNICEF’s focused areas on defining pathways for young people to be more effective champions for sustainability, aligned to the SCAP and Green Rising.
- Support in developing a Regional Adolescent and Youth Engagement strategy and action plan on sustainability and climate action, including implementing, and monitoring the regional strategy. Lead the creation of the SAR Young Climate Activists Toolkit and regional training package.
- Identify, support and promote youth-driven evidence generation activities and research to enhance understanding on how climate change and environmental degradation are affecting children and young people in South Asia and inform advocacy to mitigate climate, and environmental risks on children’s and young people’s welfare and development
- Participate in cross-substantive area technical dialogue, common strategic visioning, mainstreaming, programming and role of youth engagement and other collaboration within the regional team. Identify any recurrent problems or trends and identify and suggest remedies and solutions such as training, guidelines, etc. Promote gender equality/empowerment disability and indigenous groups inclusion in climate and cross sector programming coordination.
- Support the development of strategic UNICEF position papers and internal briefing notes on climate change, environmental issues and involvement of children and young people as agents of climate change as envisioned by SCAP and Green Rising.
Technical support to mainstream and accelerate youth-led climate change and environmental issues across SAR programming:
- Provide technical support to UNICEF Country Offices to mainstream and accelerate the youth engagement and empowerment activities of the SCAP and Green Rising. Develop materials and trainings to guide country offices to mobilise and empower youth on climate action.
- Support Country offices in maintaining and coordinating networks of young people in Climate Action and link them with opportunities for participation, social and civic engagement initiatives at country and regional levels
- Coordinate cross-sectoral integration of youth-led environment and climate change and development of effective programmatic response at all levels from strategy development to design and costing specific interventions.
- Provide technical support to country office engagements with internal and external partners, donors related to climate action, contributing to the preparation and follow-up of documentation, evidence generation analysis’s/ studies.
- Contribute to the coordination of UNICEF engagement in existing climate change adaptation and environment specific interventions and assist in the integration of these dimensions in programs.
- Assist in the identification of potential donors and projects for resource mobilization to support youth engagement, risk mitigation and climate adaptation.
- Liaise with potential agencies and institutions that UNICEF should partner with in the context of delivering integrated results at the country level on Climate Change, environmental issues and DRR.
Evidence generation, policy, and positioning of UNICEF in youth engagement and climate change in South Asia:
- Support country offices, young people and partners to engage meaningfully and contribute to national and international climate and environment policy decision making, including the UNFCCC processes, national climate change strategies, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), national adaptation plans (NAPs), climate financing decisions, etc.
- Coordinate identification and addressing of gaps in the evidence base around the impact of climate change on child rights across all UNICEF programs, with mainstreaming of youth engagement and green skills fully embedded.
- Track international, regional and country level climate and environment policy processes, UNFCCC key decisions relevant to youth. Prepare briefings and regular update to ROSA and country offices.
- Provide technical guidance to programme sections on mainstreaming youth-voices and engagement on climate into all programme areas.
Support external partnerships and linkages to regional and global efforts
- Support in establishing and maintaining partnerships with centers of excellence in Climate Awareness of children and youth, and youth-led Climate Action across the region.
- Liaise with other stakeholders active in climate change and environmental sustainability in South Asia for coordination, lessons learned and good practices and ensure linkages/knowledge exchange with national, regional, and global stakeholders.
- Support communication, dissemination of evidence, and awareness raising regarding climate change, environmental degradation and child rights and provide grounded inputs into key national climate and environment policy dialogues. Ensure youth engagement as a cross-cutting issue.
- Participate in inter-agency and development partner discussions, interact with national, global and regional initiatives and partnerships for climate adaptation and ensuring that child rights and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the planning and agenda setting.
- Participate in development partners’ and joint UN youth and climate action working groups.
Capacity Building, Youth-led climate innovation and knowledge management:
- Lead the management of knowledge on Climate Action & Youth Engagement in the region, including such actions as organizing webinars/trainings and documenting case studies and lessons learned.
- Facilitate youth-led advocacy campaigns and initiatives, promoting the meaningful participation of young people in climate related decision-making processes at local, national regional, and global level as relevant
- In collaboration with the Communications & Advocacy, develop/contextualize communication materials and tools to raise awareness and mobilize youth engagement in climate change activities, including on blogs, call to actions, digital campaigns, etc.
- Identify and promote innovative approaches and interventions to enhance youth resilience and adaptation to climate change, considering the specific needs and challenges faced by young people.
- Support the design and implementation of pilot projects engaging young people in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities, including community-based initiatives and youth-led innovations.
- Facilitate knowledge sharing and learning exchanges among young people, enabling them to share best practices, lessons learned, and success stories.
- Conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of the implemented projects, documenting results and identifying opportunities for scale-up and replication.
Impact of Results
The efficiency and efficacy of support provided by the Youth Engagement Officer (Climate):
- In partnership with young people and development partners, mobilized youth in the South Asia region to take concrete sustainability and climate action to increase the resilience of their communities.
- Country offices mainstream and implement programmes for and with young people to act on climate change, maximizing existing platforms and initiatives
- Strengthened advocacy, planning and formulation of adolescent development and participation programmes. This in turn contributes to maintaining/enhancing the credibility and ability of UNICEF to provide program services for children and young people that promotes greater social equality and inclusion in the country.
If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: 
Youth Engagement Officer (Climate), (NO-2), Fixed-Term, ROSA, Kathmandu, Nepal #127445-v1.pdf
Minimum requirements:
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, climate change, development studies or social sciences is required. Professional training in youth and adolescent development is a strong asset.
Work Experience:
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At least two (2) years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience in climate change, environmental studies, development studies, social sciences or youth and adolescent development is required.
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Experience in development and implementation of youth engagement strategies, with specific, measurable and timebound objectives and performance indicators is preferred.
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Prior experience and knowledge of climate policies and activities is an asset.
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Experience in communication or advocacy is an asset, including strong network of stakeholders and partners.
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Proactive and resourceful, with good communication skills in negotiating and liaising with counterparts and partners.
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Knowledge of children’s rights, public policy, international development and humanitarian issues.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English and good writing skills is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset.
Desirables:
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency.
For every Child, you demonstrate...
UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values
The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
- Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
- Works Collaboratively with others (1)
- Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
- Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
- Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
- Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
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. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will 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.
UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.
Remarks:
As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.
UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.
Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.
UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.
All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.
Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.
Advertised: Nepal Standard Time
Deadline: Nepal Standard Time