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, hope.

 

Consultancy Title: Global Programme Consultant, Subnational Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI-DRM)

Section/Division/Duty Station: Climate Environment Energy & Disaster, Programme Group, UNICEF NYHQ

Duration: 27 January 2025 to 15 November 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:

The purpose of this assignment is to guide and monitor the subnational Children’s Climate Risk Index – Disaster Risk Model (CCRI-DRM) across the global, regional and country levels.

Nearly half of the world’s 2.4 billion children live in countries at extremely high risk of its impacts. Children in these high-risk countries face a vicious cycle of increasing exposures and vulnerabilities, which greatly compromise their ability to survive, grow, and thrive. However, many countries lack context-specific data at the necessary scale to efficiently and effectively mitigate these risks.  

The lack of sufficient subnational climate and disaster risk information poses significant challenges to managing and reducing vulnerabilities, strengthening resilience, and implementing appropriate emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and climate and environmental action plans. Through the development of child-responsive data, countries can ground their climate, environmental, and disaster risk reduction policies in evidence and engage in more effective programming to meet the needs of children, young people, and their communities. 

UNICEF’s CCRI-DRM plays a critical role in filling the gap on child-responsive climate, environmental, and disaster risk information. The CCRI-DRM initiative generates evidence to assess climate and disaster risks at the subnational level across salient indicators identified by national stakeholders and makes the risk information publicly accessible. Ultimately, the initiative seeks to strengthen communities’ resilience by identifying the root causes of climate, environmental, and disaster risks; prioritize the climate and environmental risks faced by all communities; identify effective emergency preparedness and response processes; and inform cross-sector coordination and decision-making with a unified understanding of climate and disaster risks.

UNICEF is seeking a dedicated and proactive consultant to support the CCRI-DRM initiative across the global, regional and country levels, ensuring that decisionmakers and key stakeholders are informed by child-sensitive data and evidence.

Scope of Work:

Under the guidance of the Programme Specialist, Climate, Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED), the consultant will perform the following duties:

1. Initiative support

• Provide support and technical backstopping for the delivery of project activities at country office level and/or connect programme teams with additional colleagues and resources for technical support.
• Support consultations with the Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS) and the Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM) for overall initiative implementation, including bi-weekly meetings. 
• Support overall work planning
• Assure the quality of products and results, including through correspondence with each country office and whole-of-initiative joint meetings. 
• Proactively identify bottlenecks and collaborative solutions.

2. Support in resource mobilization

• Facilitate country office inputs, prepare initiative status updates and draft reports.
• Collect and refine inputs for various resources, including concept notes, donor presentations, communication and outreach materials.
• Proactively identify new opportunities for donor and resource and prepare the necessary materials for exploring such options.
• Participate in major events and key communication opportunities, such as donor meetings.

3. External linkages and opportunities

• Facilitate broad UNICEF uptake of CCRI-DRM results by leveraging various communication channels and linking with other UNICEF projects and initiatives.
• Connect with external organizations, including, but not limited to, INFORM Global forum, NASA, European Space Agency (ESA)/Copernicus, UNOCHA Humanitarian Data Exchange, UNDRR Risk INFORM Exchange etc.).
• Support the development of knowledge products for the programme, in collaboration with the CEED Knowledge Management Lead.
• Provide technical inputs into sector-specific global tools and associated workstreams.
• Proactively identify linkages to UNICEF’s corporate agenda and provide contributions for external opportunities.
• Development of talking points, briefing notes and presentation materials.

There is not enough funding to cover all planned activities. Some deliverables are planned to be completed if additional resources become available.

 

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Initiative support:

• Deliverable 1: Project delivery and expenditure tracking system established, and 12 updates implemented (15 Feb 2025, 15 Apr 2025)  
• Deliverable 2: Two reports: A mid-year brief on technical support provided to regional and country offices. An end year brief on technical support provided to regional and country offices (15 Dec 2025)
• Deliverable 3:  At least 12 inter-department meetings facilitated including agenda, briefing notes and follow-up actions including final report summarizing main outcomes (15 Dec 2025)
• Deliverable 4:  At least 5 inter-department meetings facilitated including agenda, briefing notes, status updates on project delivery and technical support provided for new (Phase III) CCRI-DRM countries and follow-up actions, including final project results summarizing main outcomes and recommendations (15 Nov 2026).    

Support in resource mobilization:

• Deliverable 6: a set of templates for synthesizing country progress reporting and status updates for internal sharing and donor reporting  (15 Mar 2025)
• Deliverable 7: A presentation for technical meetings prepared (15 Jun 2025)         
• Deliverable 8: A presentation for advocacy meetings prepared (15 Apr 2025)        
• Deliverable 9: An interim report, including details on the initiative’s progress, outcomes from major events, communication and outreach materials, risks managed, opportunities identified, and lessons learned (15 May 2025)           
• Deliverable 10: A final report, including details on the initiative’s progress, outcomes from major events, communication and outreach materials, risks managed, opportunities identified, risks managed, and lessons learned (15 Dec 2025)
• Deliverable 11: A 2026 final report on additional phase III countries supported to join CCRI-DRM, including details on the initiative’s progress, outcomes from major events, communication and outreach materials, risks managed, opportunities identified, risks managed, and lessons learned (15 Nov 2026)

External linkages and opportunities:

• Deliverable 11:  Provide technical inputs into at least three sector-specific global tools; and facilitate at least three linkages with other UNICEF projects and initiatives (15 Oct 2025)       
• Deliverable 12: Support the creation of at least 3 knowledge products in collaboration with the CEED Knowledge Management lead (15 Aug 2025)           
• Deliverable 13:  Document collaborations with external organizations, and steps taken to strengthen UNICEF’s position globally and regionally in understanding risk related areas (15 Sep 2025)
• Deliverable 14: Two briefs: one technical and one advocacy brief on the global progress of CCRI-DRM in 2026, along with key recommendations for CCRI-DRM continuity beyond 2026 (15 Nov 2026)

 

Qualifications

Education: 

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or higher) in environmental science, environmental policy, geography, geographic information science, international relations, or related field.

 

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *: 

• Minimum of 10 years of experience with climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction and young people.
• Minimum 5 years of demonstrated experience managing climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction data and evidence generation initiatives, especially within international and multi-national contexts.
• Prior UN experience would be a considerable asset.
• Demonstrated advanced data understanding and capabilities, especially across climate, environment, energy, and disaster risk reduction contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate and use Microsoft Office 365.
• Excellent coordination, communication, and partnership development skills.
• Strong writing and communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate technical data concepts to a variety of audiences.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of other official UN languages is considered 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.