Current vacancies

Consultancy Title: Adolescent Girls’ Learning Agenda Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Global Programme Division, Gender Equality Team

Duration: 9 March 2026 – 9 March 2027

Home/ Office Based: 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:

The UNICEF Gender Equality Action Plan (UGEAP), 2026–2029, aligned with the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2026–2029, articulates a bold organizational vision to advance gender equality and the empowerment of all girls and women across UNICEF’s five Impact Results. The UGEAP places a specific and sustained emphasis on adolescent girls, recognizing their leadership, wellbeing, learning, protection and economic empowerment as essential to achieving results at scale. A dedicated adolescent girls accelerator underscores the need for intentional, multisectoral approaches, supported by strong community and front-line systems, partnerships, and institutional enablers

Delivering on this requires more than programmatic investment alone. It depends on robust learning, evidence generation, synthesis and knowledge management, as well as effective coordination across sectors, regions and global initiatives. The UGEAP 2026–2029 explicitly calls for strengthened institutional mechanisms, partnerships and learning systems that enable countries to translate evidence into action, track progress through aligned indicators, and adapt approaches based on what works for adolescent girls in diverse contexts.

In this context, UNICEF’s Gender Equality Section is seeking an Adolescent Girls’ Learning Agenda Consultant to support the design, coordination and delivery of a strategic learning agenda for and with adolescent girls during the 2026 period. Under the supervision of the Senior Advisor, Gender Equality, and in close collaboration with relevant programme specialists, the consultant will contribute to:

• strengthening internal and external learning on adolescent girls’ empowerment, and what works (and does not work) to advance girls’ rights across different platforms, including through quarterly learning events, evidence briefs and knowledge products, compilation of reports;
• supporting the global POWER4Girls initiative through learning, reporting, technical deep dives, knowledge management and transition support;
• ensuring continuity, institutional memory and learning across advisory mechanisms, including the Global Girl Leaders Advisory Group (GGLAG), as well as the Multi-Sectoral Working Group (MSWG); and
• reinforcing linkages for information sharing and knowledge management between adolescent girls’ programming and complementary agendas, including adolescent boys and masculinities, social norms change, financing and systems strengthening.

A high-quality, dynamic learning agenda is essential to ensuring that UNICEF’s investments in adolescent girls under the UGEAP 2026–2029 translate into measurable, scalable and sustainable results for girls’ rights, wellbeing and leadership.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks

1. Learning agenda:
   • Delivery of the adolescent girls’ learning agenda, with a strategic and dynamic set of quarterly learning events in 2026, delivered in partnership with internal and external actors, and focused on priority solutions, including adolescent girls’ empowerment, learning, protection, health, social protection and economic empowerment.
   • Contribute to the adolescent girls’ research agenda, with a focus on supporting POWER4Girls countries.
   • Roll out quarterly Evidence in Minutes issues with highlights and insights from latest resources, evidence, and tools on adolescent girls, and maintain an updated online library of learning materials in the POWER4Girls Knowledge Hub.
2. Global Girl Leaders Advisory Group (GGLAG): Facilitate the GGLAG including follow-up on Women Deliver action plans, supporting the transition and selection of the third cohort and facilitating GGLAG engagement with on-going programmes.
3. Global POWER4Girls initiative: Facilitate preparations of the 2026 POWER4Girls report for resource mobilisation, contributing to technical deep dives, developing knowledge products (such as a practice brief on programme models) and support inception workshops in priority countries. Support onboarding and transition of POWER4Girls programme management work including annual work-planning, reporting and information management.
4. Adolescent boys and Masculinities:Coordinate the adolescent boys/masculinities workstream, reviewing documentation, and identifying priority areas for learning events and related work.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Travel – Estimated $15,000

Qualifications

• Education: A Masters Degree in a relevant discipline such as Social Sciences, International Development/Relations, Economics.
• Some gender specific aspect to academic study is desirable but not essential, such as a strong gender dimension to research undertaken, or a module taken with a gender focus.

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• At least 4 years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience in international development, including analysis and research, and programme experience of gender equality work and work targeting adolescent girls - including work directly with girl leaders and knowledge of appropriate safeguarding measures.
• Experience designing and delivering capacity-building and events management (especially learning events with UN agencies);
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English including report writing for donors with gender equality/adolescent girls content;
• Experience in education and/or social protection sectors a desirable asset.
• Experience in work environment of an international agency, UN, or international institutions is desirable; prior experience in UNICEF is 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.