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….

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyze UNICEF and partners’ expertise and resources to solve key challenges facing children and young people, with a view to sourcing, accelerating and scaling the most effective solutions to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. To achieve this the Office of Innovation uses an innovation portfolio management approach and leverages support from a range of stakeholders including from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector, young people and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

Our team
We're an interdisciplinary team around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling new technologies and practices. With our partners, we focus on convening and collaborating on new and different solutions, low- and high-tech, by:

• Looking at the 2–5-year horizon to evaluate emerging and trending technologies and to see how UNICEF can work with the private sector on doing better business while improving essential services for children.
• Investing in early-stage solutions that show great potential to positively impact children in the 02-year future including the Venture Fund that invests in open-source technology solutions from start-ups based in UNICEF’s programme countries.
• Identifying proven solutions that can be implemented at national scale in multiple countries – taking the ideas that help thousands in one country, bringing them to dozens of countries across multiple sectors, and impacting the lives of millions of children.”

The consultant will be working under the Knowlege Management Specialist in the Office of Innovation’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)/Knowledge Management (KM) team. Our goal is to maximize the impact of UNICEF's innovations globally through rigorous, data-driven evidence. In short, we care about what works in innovation, and why. And we care about bringing these insights to UNICEF globally and beyond.

Our work spans across an expansive range of initiatives, from generating direct evidence on our innovation initiatives, to providing thought leadership in innovation scaling and providing corporate guidance on measurement and evidence in innovation.

How can you make a difference? 

OOI is seeking a dynamic and experienced consultant with expert writing, communications, partnership-building, and knowledge management skills. You will play a key role in enriching, disseminating, and building on the collection of evidence generated on innovation. Your work will directly contribute to strengthening UNICEF’s innovation knowledge base and ensuring that lessons learned are widely shared, both internally and externally.

Writing and Editorial: You will deliver key write-ups, reports, and knowledge products to build the knowledge base for UNICEF and the wider global innovation and social impact ecosystem about best practices and successes related to innovation, drawn from OOI’s direct experience in the work. This includes crafting clear, engaging, and high-impact reports, thought leadership pieces, blog posts, and articles (as laid out under Deliverables 1-3). You will work closely with UNICEF’s broader communications teams and data colleagues to amplify products across digital channels, newsletters, and external publications, while also ensuring that outputs are tailored and accessible for relevant audiences.

Webinars and Learning Events: You will be responsible for organizing and hosting virtual learning events, webinars, and roundtables to share knowledge, facilitate peer learning, and engage UNICEF staff and external partners. This will include collaborating with technical experts, innovation leads, and guest speakers to curate meaningful discussions on scaling innovation, evidence generation, and impact measurement. You will also manage the content and any relevant resources after events to ensure insights from these events reach a broader audience (as laid out under Deliverables 4-5).

Other Knowledge Management and Communications Support: You will contribute to advancing the knowledge management and communications agenda by supporting additional ad hoc tasks as needed. This includes (but is not limited to), writing and copyediting reports and communications materials, maintaining knowledge management platforms, providing inputs on communications and knowledge management strategies, supporting the development of presentations and briefing documents, and assisting with the curation of content for internal and external knowledge-sharing platforms (as laid out under Deliverable 6).

Your main responsibilities will be:

The consultant will be responsible for generating strategic and high-quality writing outputs.

1. Create an editorial calendar for the MEL/KM team, through research and consultations with relevant stakeholders.
2. Develop, copyedit, and disseminate 9x strategic write-ups on OOI's work for external consumption.
3. Develop a strategic report highlighting strategic wins of innovation initiatives funded.

The consultant will be responsible for managing webinars and learning events.

4. Develop the full year's schedule of webinar content, through research and consultations with relevant stakeholders.
5. Coordinate and conduct >5x webinars and learning events, and manage and develop related resources and content, while managing queries.

The consultant will be responsible for helping to advance the knowledge management and communications agenda for the team through other tasks.

6. Conduct other additional knowledge management and communications tasks as needed, including but not limited to writing, copyediting, maintaining platforms, and providing inputs on strategies.

 Please access the full ToR with additional information here  KM and Content Creation Specialist TOR.pdf

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

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in writing, editing, copywriting/editing, journalism, communications, and/or knowledge management.
• A master’s degree, in a relevant field.
• An additional 2 years of relevant work experience in lieu of a master’s degree.
• Experience in producing published high-quality written outputs with excellence for a range of audiences including public audiences, donors, internal stakeholders, and high-level decision-makers.
• Experience in coordinating webinars and online events, particularly in a global and multinational environment.
• Knowledge of communications, content development, and knowledge management approaches, particularly for online mediums and large international organizations and companies.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with the humanitarian and international development sector is considered 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.

Modality and Travel

• No work-related travel is required for the role.
• The role is a remote-based consultancy, with no expectation of in-person or office presence. No specific preference is given to the candidate’s location, as long as the candidate is willing and able to attend several regular meetings in Central European time zone.
• The consultant will report to the Innovation Specialist (Knowledge Management and Analytics) as part of the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)/Knowledge Management (KM) team.

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.
• 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. 

In case of any questions, please contact swe-ooi-recruitments@unicef.org