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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 fordeveloping 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

Consultancy: AI-Assisted Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis Consultant, Evaluation Synthesis and Formative Evaluation of UN System Work on Climate-Resilient WASH  (Senior Level)

Duty Station: Evaluation Office

Duration: 1 Nov 2025 –  30 Jul 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote  

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The purpose of the Evaluation Synthesis and Formative Evaluation of UN System Work on Climate-Resilient WASH is to provide a comprehensive, UN system-wide review of evaluative evidence on CR WASH to inform UN entities, development banks and other WASH sector partners about achievements, gaps, and opportunities to scale and strengthen CR WASH programming and related activities. It aims to make evaluative evidence on CR WASH accessible for learning and decision-making and to contribute to the wider knowledge on progress toward reaching SDG 6 (water & sanitation) and 13 (climate action) targets. It provides stakeholders with transparent evidence on the performance of CR WASH investments and ensures lessons from across the UN system are documented and accessible, contributing to the global evidence base.

Specific Objectives

The exercise seeks to extract and analyze evidence across UN system evaluations to improve accountability, strengthen programme design, inform policy, and promote sustainability, equity, and climate-resilience in WASH services.

Specific objectives of this exercise are as follows:

Identify cross-cutting findings and trends

• Systematically extract, consolidate, and map evaluation evidence on CR WASH to highlight what works across agencies, countries, contexts, and programme types.
• Detect recurrent barriers and enabling factors to CR WASH programme outputs and outcomes. 
• Identify critical evidence gaps to inform future research and evaluation priorities.

Assess effectiveness and impact

• Evaluate whether CR WASH interventions have achieved intended outputs and outcomes.
• Examine longer-term impacts, including sustainability and system-level changes.

 Generate evidence for policy, programming, resource allocation and prioritization

• Translate evaluation findings into actionable recommendations for future CR WASH strategies and activities.
• Provide evidence to guide funding decisions by highlighting interventions with proven effectiveness, supporting governments and donors in prioritizing investments aligned with SDG 6 and SDG 13.
• Strengthen decision-making by linking retrospective learning (synthesis) with forward-looking insights (formative evaluation) to achieve synergies across policy and practice.

 

Scope of Work: 

UNICEF will use a hybrid approach for implementing the exercise. The exercise will be led by an EO staff member as the team leader (Evaluation Team Leader), and it will be supported by two consultants. Among the consultants is AI-Assisted Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis Consultant, who will focus specifically on supporting the AI components of the activity.

This TOR is for the AI-Assisted Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis consultancy assignment. (The full TOR describing the Evaluation Synthesis and Formative Evaluation of UN System Work on Climate-Resilient WASH is available as an Annex.)

The AI-Assisted Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis Consultant will support all stages of the Evaluation Synthesis and Formative Evaluation of UN System Work on Climate-Resilient WASH with a focus on utilizing innovative AI tools and methods to increase the efficiency, consistency, and quality of the final evaluation product. He/she is expected to have robust experience in conducting AI-assisted evaluations, evaluation syntheses and/or related research. The ideal candidate for the role would combine evaluation or research skills – preferably in WASH, climate or related sectors such as health – with applied AI skills in natural language processing, text mining, data collection and visualization, enabling them to automate data collection and evidence processing, surface insights quickly, and present results in decision-friendly formats.

The specific tasks of the AI-Assisted Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis Consultant are described in the table below

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

1. Data Processing & Classification

Automate evaluation report ingestion, OCR, text cleaning, and metadata extraction; create a machine-readable corpus. Use AI/NLP to classify evaluations by DAC criteria, intervention type, geography, and context, with manual validation.

Deliverable 1:

Cleaned and standardized dataset of evaluation reports with metadata (country, year, type, sector); machine-readable corpus.

Tagged/coded database of evaluations, classification framework applied (DAC criteria + thematic tags)

31 Dec 2025

2. Evidence Extraction & Thematic Analysis

Use text mining to extract key findings and build a structured database. Apply clustering/topic modeling to identify patterns, gaps, and emerging themes. Compare AI-assisted outputs with traditional synthesis to validate value and credibility.

Deliverable 2:

Structured evidence matrix with extracted findings organized by DAC criteria and themes, suitable for synthesis and visualization.

Thematic maps or clustering outputs; summary of cross-cutting patterns.

Deliverable 3:

Gap analysis report; trend analysis note (including visual representation).

Deliverable 4:

Benchmarking report: AI-assisted vs. traditional evidence synthesis approaches

31 Jan 2026

3. Visualization & Validation

Create dashboards, evidence maps, and visual summaries; cross-check AI outputs with human review to resolve inconsistencies.

Deliverable 5:

Interactive dashboard; evidence map; visual infographics for reporting.

Deliverable 6:

QA log; validated dataset with accuracy checks documented

31 Mar 2026

4. Data Collection, Analysis, Reporting & Stakeholder Engagement

Use AI to efficiently transcribe KIIs and, where appropriate; assist in the organisation and analysis of qualitative data to identify themes and patterns systematically; prepare AI-generated first drafts of selected synthesis report sections; engage with stakeholders; active participation in ERG meetings/workshops

Deliverable 7:

AI-assisted interview transcripts; matrix summarizing qualitative findings.

Contribute AI-generated analysis sections to final report (approx. 40-60 pages) and deep dive summaries (approx. 5-7 pages per deep dive); assist with review/edit of draft reports (different versions)

30 Apr 2026

5. Dissemination and documentation

Support dissemination via presentations, briefs, and webinars; document and adapt AI-enhanced methods and tools for replicability and ongoing use in “living synthesis.”

Deliverable 8:

A presentation deck and brief with visuals accessible to participants with varied technical backgrounds.

Deliverable 9:

Develop and submit documentation/ technical annex; reusable data collection/analysis methods and tools; toolkit to support “living syntheses”; relevant datasets

30 Jun 2026

Qualifications

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master or equivalent) in a relevant field (a relevant degrees includes – but is not limited to – data science, AI, machine learning, information systems, or another relevant field). PhD preferred.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *: 

1. At least 5 years of experience with conducting evaluations, evaluation syntheses, evidence syntheses and/or related research required.
2. Prior experience with WASH/climate evidence generation is preferred.
3. Demonstrated ability to deliver quality products on time, preferably for UNICEF or other UN system entities is required.
4. Relevant and applicable skills in AI-enhanced methods are required, including:

1. Natural language processing (NLP) and text mining
   • Ability to use AI tools to extract themes, keywords, and insights from large volumes of evaluation reports, grey literature, and academic studies.
   • Familiarity with techniques such as topic modeling, sentiment/semantic analysis, and clustering of qualitative data.
2. Machine learning for evaluation and evidence synthesis
   • Skills in supervised and unsupervised learning to classify evaluation findings (e.g., by DAC criteria, sector, geography).
   • Ability to build or adapt models that can identify patterns, correlations, and gaps across heterogeneous datasets.
3. Automation of document screening and coding
   • Experience with AI-based systematic review platforms (e.g., EPPI-Reviewer, DistillerSR, or custom NLP pipelines).
   • Competence in developing workflows that reduce manual effort in screening, tagging, and extracting evidence.
4. Data integration and visualization
   • Capacity to integrate qualitative and quantitative findings using AI-enabled dashboards.
   • Proficiency with tools like Power BI, Tableau, or Python/R libraries for interactive visualizations
5. Responsible and ethical use of AI
   • Understanding of bias, transparency, and data privacy considerations in AI-assisted synthesis.
   • Ability to validate AI-generated insights against human judgment to maintain credibility.
   • Ensures the AI methods are applied in ways that align with established evaluation norms.

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.