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 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: National Climate Policy Consultancy

Duty Station: PG CEED

Duration: 15 Nov 2025 – 15 Dec 2025

Home/ Office Based: Remote  

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The purpose of the Climate Policy and Evidence consultant is to assess the child-sensitivity of national climate policies, strengthen UNICEF’s technical policy support to governments, and contribute to advancing child-focused commitments in climate-related policy frameworks at all levels.  

The world is at a pivotal moment in addressing the climate crisis. Inadequate progress in limiting global temperature rise is exposing children to increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts, placing their rights and wellbeing at serious risk. Children are disproportionately affected by climate change because of their unique physiological and developmental characteristics, their dependence on essential services, and their limited influence over the decisions that affect them. The impacts can be lifelong and irreversible, particularly for young children, girls, and those from marginalized communities. 

Yet, the consideration of children and young people in key national climate policy instruments remains insufficient. In many cases, the measures required to safeguard their health, education, protection, and meaningful participation are either absent or inadequately resourced. 

UNICEF provides robust evidence and technical guidance to support governments to systematically integrate costed, child-responsive measures across national and subnational climate policies and sectoral strategies. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), as core strategic policy frameworks for national climate action, are particularly critical entry points.  

Through climate policy analysis, evidence generation, and technical support to country offices, the UNICEF Climate Policy and Evidence consultant will support ongoing analysis of the degree to which children are considered in national climate policies, highlight gaps, recommendations and strong examples of policy-implementation pathways, and support key stakeholders including, governments, partners, and children and young people with tools to strengthen child-responsive climate policy.  

Scope of Work 

Under the supervision of the Global Technical Director the consultant will perform the following duties:  

Policy Analysis 

• Analyze and document the child- and youth-sensitivity of key national climate policies. 

• Evaluate and update methodologies for assessing child- and youth-sensitivity in national climate plans. 

• Work with country offices to ensure timely updates to UNICEF’s climate policy monitoring tools 

Data Generation and Maintenance 

• Generate, consolidate, and update evidence on the integration of children and young people’s needs into national climate policies. 

• Facilitate and ensure the operational quality of UNICEF’s climate policy data platforms, including uploading new analyses, performing quality control, and coordinating technical updates with developers. 
• Support UNICEF teams and offices with policy evidence generation, data use, and analysis. 

National Climate Policies Support 

• Respond to queries on national climate policies, relevant sectoral policies, and other national climate/environment/DRR policy-related matters. 

• Build capacity of country offices and national committees to engage in national climate policy processes, including through monthly National Climate Policies Helpdesk calls. 

• Track and summarize technical requests and lessons learned to inform future resources and support. 

• Monitor and provide updates on relevant developments/guidance emanating from the UNFCCC as it pertains to national climate and sectoral policies.  

• Inform UNICEF’s policy positions and activities in regional and global fora relevant to national climate policies, including UNFCCC negotiations, guidance and dialogues, drawing on country-level engagement, lessons on ‘what works’ in different contexts, and successful examples of policy-implementation pathways.  

Capacity Building and Research products 

• Develop and revise internal and external capacity building materials and knowledge products to equip stakeholders with relevant knowledge on child- and youth-sensitive climate and environmental policy. 

• Contribute to trainings and knowledge-sharing sessions for UNICEF staff and partners.
• Maintain internal knowledge management (e.g. SharePoint) resources on climate policy

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

Objective 1: Policy Analysis 

1. Develop 1 x 3-5 page summary note on UNICEF national policy support and results for 2025, including lessons learned, examples of good practice, and recommendations for next steps for UNICEF’s national climate policy support and implementation pathways

15 Dec 2025

2. Produce 4 x quarterly policy analysis readouts summarizing:

• The number and type of national climate policies analyzed
• Key findings on child-and-youth sensitivity
• Any updates or refinements to analysis methodologies, with proposed future improvements

15 Dec 2026

3.  3 x updates to UNICEF climate policy monitoring tools designed to track progress, based on information from country offices and national committees, and adjust/refine tools as required

15 Dec 2026

Objective 2: Data Generation and Maintenance

Produce two reports including:

• New policy analyses uploaded to UNICEF’s climate policy data platforms during the period.
• Actions taken to ensure operational quality, including quality control checks and coordination with developers.
• Any issues resolved or risks mitigated.
• Recommendations for future platform enhancements

15 Jul 2026

Objective 3: National Climate Policies Support

Produce two progress reports summarizing:

• Queries and support provided on NDCs, other key climate/environment/DRR policies and/or associated national policy engagements.
• Outputs from monthly helpdesk calls, including agendas, materials, and speakers.
• A log of recurring technical requests and lessons learned to guide the development of future resources.
• Recommendations for strengthening helpdesk support

15 Oct 2026

Monitor and communicate 12 x monthly written updates on relevant global developments/new guidance relevant  to national climate policies, including NDCs, and associated implications/requests for country offices and national committees

15 Dec 2026