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Consultancy Title: Forcibly Displaced Young People’s Engagement Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Programme Group, Education Section, UNICEF NYHQ.

Duration: November 18, 2024, to June 30, 2026

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:

This 18-month consultancy is to engage and partner with young people in forcibly displaced contexts and support their meaningful participation. This consultancy will be managed by UNICEF’s Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) team.

The first area of work is advancing young people’s engagement and meaningful participation across the PROSPECTS Partnership, a key partnership funded by the Netherlands to support young people’s education, skilling, protection, the transition to decent work, and self-reliance in forced displacement contexts with engagement and meaningful participation of young people as a cross-cutting program component. The PROSPECTS Partnership is currently in its second phase (2024 – 2027), and the ADAP team has led an inter-agency Youth Workstream with UNICEF, UNHCR, ILO and the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) to advance young people’s engagement and meaningful participation, by providing support to regional and country teams in the 8 priority countries in MENA and ESA regions.

The second area of work is supporting the ADAP team’s global Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the Global Refugee Youth Network (GRYN) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC).  The Global Refugee Youth Network is led by a group of young refugees who network and advocate globally and support/resource local refugee youth led organizations (RYLOs) to advance youth-led action in their communities.  GRYN works in close partnership with WRC, a US based international NGO that provides fiduciary support. Supporting ADAP with the implementation of the current program agreement under the PCA, includes ongoing capacity building, mentoring, and monitoring for the GRYN Leadership Team, as well as facilitating opportunities for GRYN’s exposure, global and regional advocacy and collaboration with Youth Compact partners. 

The third area of work is contributing to ADAP’s resource mobilization and advocacy efforts to address the needs of adolescents and youth from forced displacement backgrounds and to engage these young people in a meaningful way. This includes resource mobilization related to young people in or from forced displacement backgrounds, coordination with other teams within UNICEF as well external agencies and involving young people from forced displacement backgrounds in the design and production of webinars, learning sessions, trainings, briefings and global policy advocacy events.

As currently ADAP HQ doesn’t have sufficient funding to cover all planned activities, some deliverables are planned to be completed only if additional resources will become available.

Scope of Work:

The Programme Group/Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) team in UNICEF NYHQ seeks to hire a consultant on Forcibly Displaced Young People’s Engagement.

The Consultant will support to advance young people’s engagement and meaningful participation across the PROSPECTS partnership through: support to UNICEF teams working on PROSPECTS at the country, regional and global level; and

Collaboration with adolescent and youth engagement focal points at UNHCR, ILO, youth networks and the Netherlands MFA via the Youth Workstream. 

This will include:

1) Participate in internal UNICEF meetings focused on PROSPECTS (monthly PROSPECTS meetings, PROSPECTS M&E meetings, etc.);

1. Review and input into documents, reports and other materials related to PROSPECTS
2. Support young people’s engagement in PROSPECTS programming such as program design and Monitoring Evaluating and Learning (MEL) sessions;
3. Collaborate with adolescent and youth focal points in UNHCR and ILO to organize and facilitate Youth Workstream meetings and related working sessions; develop materials, such as reference notes, webinars, etc. and support advocacy events during key moments (Global Refugee Forum, ECOSOC, UN General Assembly etc).

2) Support the ADAP team’s global Partnership with the Global Refugee Youth Network (GRYN) including:

1. Support and monitor implementation of the program workplan;
2. Support capacity building efforts for the GRYN Leadership Team (ie. young refugee leaders and advocates);
3. Facilitate/identify connections with opportunities for GRYN to take part in advocacy, engagement and collaboration at regional and global events organized by ADAP, with other teams at UNICEF, and with external organizations (IASC, Youth Compact etc); 
4. Identify/support the participation of forcibly displaced young people to take part in advocacy, capacity development and other initiatives (ie; Youth on the Move fellows, young refugee and forcibly displaced leaders);
5. Support GRYN in their capacity building efforts for local refugee youth led organizations (RYLOs) at the community level in forced displacement contexts;
6. Support GRYN to facilitate connections between UNICEF country and regional offices and its network of RYLOs;
7. Support the adaptation of global flagship tools developed by UNICEF ADAP to be utilized by forcibly displaced young people/youth networks (eg: IASC Youth Guidelines, Adolescent Kit, Youth Action Guide).

3) The consultant will contribute to ADAP’s resource mobilization and advocacy efforts, including:

1. Support development of proposals, pitches and materials for resource mobilization related to young people in or from forced displacement backgrounds.
2. Support the ADAP team to review, consolidate and input into program documents related to forced displacement.
3. Support webinars, trainings and learning sessions, especially on the roll out of the IASC Youth Guidelines in forcibly displaced contexts.
4. Support planning and preparation of advocacy efforts, donor and partner events for ADAP’s work on young people’s engagement in forcibly displaced contexts, including with the Youth Compact, IASC members, donors and partners.

 

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Deliverable: Support PROSPECTS partnership implementation, including organizing Youth Workstream meetings, webinars, learning sessions, development materials and products, proposals, run of shows for webinars and high-level events etc). 1 inter-agency Opportunity fund (OF) proposal for PROSPECTS 2.0 (OF round 2). 2 learning documents (lessons learned and good practices from existing PROSPECTS efforts; tools to support regions and countries). 6 webinars/learning sessions or other events to support regional and country level efforts to engage young people in PROSPECTS programming. 4 global policy advocacy events (HNPW. GRF. Ecosoc Youth Forum etc). 15 Youth Workstream Meetings (with notes and actions/follow up steps documented).

Deadline: 31 December 2025, 31 January 2026, 30 April 2026, 30 June 2026, 30 June 2026

        

Deliverable: Support the global partnership with the Global Refugee Youth Network (GRYN) including the implementation and monitoring of the program workplan; organizing capacity development sessions for/with GRYN, and with refugee youth led organizations, facilitating regional and global events for/with GRYN and Refugee youth led organizations (RYLOs), organizing field visits/meetings between UNICEF-GRYN and RYLOs. 25 capacity development sessions to support the GRYN Leadership Team to complete its workplan. 5 global or regional events (advocacy forums or other high-level events). 10 capacity/learning sessions with Refugee youth-led organizations. 2 meetings/field visits with UNICEF country offices, GRYN and refugee youth led organizations.

Deadline: 30 June 2026, 30 June 2026, 31 March 2026, 31 May 2026

 

Deliverable: 1. Contribute to ADAP’s resource mobilization and advocacy related to forcibly displaced young people, including pitches, power point presentations, and other materials. 3 proposals / concept notes with contributions related to forcibly displaced young people. 4 power point presentations for resource mobilization and advocacy related to forcibly displaced young people. 4 documents with inputs related to forcibly displaced young people’s engagement and meaningful participation (Migration & Displacement Hub, Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action, etc.). 5 meetings/consultations with key partners working on engagement of forcibly displaced young people.       

Delivery deadline: 15 February 2026, 15 May 2026, 15 February 2026, 30 June 2026

 

Travel International (if applicable): Countries TBD. Approximately 4-6 round trips (PROSPECTS countries, displacement contexts, or NYC, Geneva).

 

Qualifications

Education:

An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in International relations, Human Rights, Refugee Protection, Child Rights, Community Development, Youth Participation and Engagement is required.

 

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• At least 12 – 18 years of relevant professional work experience related to international policy and practice.
• Master’s degree in international affairs, development studies, human rights or related field
• Experience related to human rights, child rights, and refugee protection, including knowledge and familiarity with refugee policy frameworks and guidance documents, such as Global Compact on Refugees, The Grand Bargain, SDGs, UNICEF CCCs, and IASC Guidelines on working with and for young people in humanitarian action, GBV, MHPSS and etc
• Demonstrated experience with global policy advocacy and supporting young people to advocate for the issues they care about
• Knowledge and direct experience on advancing and adolescent and youth engagement and meaningful participation in policy and practice, particularly amongst forcibly displaced young people.
• Knowledge and direct experience on refugee representation approaches and actors
• Familiar and knowledgeable with the humanitarian architecture and key networks such as Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action
• Experience with developing materials, reports for donors and external partners are preferred.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a second language 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.