Consultancy – Communication & Learning Consultant for CEED (WASH) Req.#570147

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, WATER

Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Communication & Learning Consultant for CEED

Station: CEED – WASH Section – Programme Group – NYHQ

Duration: 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025

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. 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:

Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the biggest threats affecting the world’s children, which can undermine many of the gains we have made in child survival and development.  Over a billion children are already at extremely high risk of environmental and climate hazards, including heat waves, floods, cyclones, etc.  These impacts threaten to undermine decades of progress on every child’s ability to survive, grow, and thrive.  There is an urgent and acute need for countries to adapt, prepare and build climate-resilient, low-carbon social services, such as – water and sanitation (WASH), healthcare, education, nutrition, social protection and child protection – in preparation for more frequent and severe climate hazards.  These are among the best investments we can make for children.

In alignment with our commitment to protect children and young people worldwide, UNICEF has launched its Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) 2023 – 2030.  The SCAP prioritizes urgent climate action through a systematic change in partnership with public and private sectors to prioritize children’s and young people’s needs and build their resilience to the climate threats at hand.  The SCAP strives to mainstream sustainability and climate action both internally and externally by protecting the lives, health and well-being of children and their communities, empowering children with developmental opportunities and skills, and reducing emissions and the environmental footprint within UNICEF.

The Communication Consultancy for CEED assignment aims to improve UNICEF’s internal and external communication and knowledge management capabilities, allowing for more effective awareness-raising, coordination, and implementation of the SCAP.  The assignment, led by the UNICEF Climate, Environment, Energy, and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) team, will primarily focus on improving the global understanding and implementation of SCAP’s Mainstreaming pillar.  The activities will also support the expansion of UNICEF CEED knowledge internally and externally towards the objectives of the SCAP, as well as strengthening resource mobilization and capacity-building efforts.  This is critical for integrating sustainability and climate change action into all aspects of UNICEF’s work while raising public awareness of the climate crisis’s profound effects on children’s health and well-being.

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the CEED Programme Specialist, the consultant is expected to perform the following tasks for the CEED team and in support of the 2023-2030 Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (SCAP), working closely with the CEED Senior Knowledge Management Consultant and other team members:

Objective 1: Support efforts to mainstream sustainability and climate action across all UNICEF functions.

Tasks:

• Maintain a SCAP activities database of global examples from 2023 UNICEF reporting.
• Develop the SCAP activities database of global examples of SCAP initiatives and activities from 2024 reporting.
• Develop and implement a SCAP activities database operational guide for reporting, including exploring ways to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop vignettes and case studies and recommendations for a review process for quality control of the database information.
• Review and support a technical and content update to CEED-related SharePoint pages to align with the SCAP, including the internal CEED knowledge hub and the Programme Policy and Procedure Site (PPPx).

Objective 2: Implement activities in the internal UNICEF SCAP Communication Plan and for external CEED communication to achieve high-level SCAP results.

Tasks:

• Finalize the SCAP Communication Strategy and develop 2024 and 2025 Communication Implementation Plans (CIPs).
• Support the production of CEED What’s New newsletter, including managing the content input process, technically building the Microsoft Sway pages, and overseeing CEED’s global mailing list.
• Generate and share data and evidence on CEED’s communication activities to identify areas for improvement and effectiveness. This includes developing a snapshot report on SCAP internal communication and maintaining a spreadsheet tracker on CEED’s communication reach and engagement.
• Support and facilitate staff participation and engagement through updates of a global photo database, developing and sharing a SCAP social media kit. 
• Develop, disseminate and monitor SCAP content to grow the SCAP internal and external social media presence, including for key UN days and events.
• Develop an operations guide for external publications quality control, manage the knowledge@UNICEF external CEED site to prominently feature key CEED-related reports produced by UNICEF worldwide and review and update CEED external sites as needed on a quarterly basis.

Objective 3: Support resource mobilization and capacity building in accordance with the SCAP.

Tasks:

• Contribute to identifying promising use cases aligned with SCAP’s focus areas for funding and scale-up opportunities in tandem with Objective 1’s activity database work.
• Collaborate with the CEED team, regional focal points, and Country Office counterparts to create concept notes for identified use cases.
• Identify existing and upcoming resources to enhance capacity and knowledge, and recommend new initiatives to improve UNICEF staff expertise in sustainability and climate change action.
• Collaborate with the CEED team and relevant UNICEF divisions to develop and implement the capacity-building roadmap.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:    

Deliverable 1: Internal Knowledge Sites: Internal CEED and SCAP knowledge hub and 50-page PPPx are technically rebuilt to align with SCAP’s mainstreaming goals   

By July 15, 2024

Deliverable 2: SCAP Activity Database:  – A PPT guidance deck on the database utilization is developed,

–           2024 SCAP activity database is developed in Excel based on 190 Country Office Annual Reports data, and

–           the operations manual for 2025 updated       

By May 31, 2024

Deliverable 3: Develop SCAP Communication Plan:

–           The 2024-2025 SCAP Communication Strategy (approx. 30 pages) finalized, and

–           Communication Implementation Plan (CIP) for CEED staff developed.

By May 15, 2024

Deliverable 4: SCAP Internal Coms Plan Activities:

Development of 12 newsletters (approx. 20 additions for 7-10 pages per newsletter) and 150 CEED social media posting

WeShare library updated with approx. 3000 photos and the CEED Global Mailinglist updated 12 times

A SCAP internal social media kit developed for staff with 7-10 posts and supportive graphics.

By March 31, 2025

Deliverable 5: External SCAP Coms: At least 200 CEED relevant publications are added to the knowledge@UNICEF website, Quality control guide on publication process is created

5 external CEED-related UNICEF.org sites updated with relevant content.

By December 15, 2024

Deliverable 6: Case Studies: 10 SCAP case studies are prepared and approved to support resource mobilization and learning

Write-up of 24 vignettes based on the case studies

Build a database for SCAP interventions implemented at UNICEF country offices.           

By March 15, 2025

Deliverable 7: Resource Mobilization & Capacity Building: Create 10 concept notes for identified use cases for funding and scale-up opportunities, backed up by relevant research and data

The development of a capacity roadmap for SCAP  

By December 15, 2024

Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s Advanced Degree in Communication, Environmental Studies, International Affairs, or a closely related field.

Work experience:

• Minimum of 2 years of proven experience in Communication, Capacity-Building and/or Knowledge Management.

Competencies/Knowledge:

• Familiarity with Climate, Energy, Environment, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) topics.
• Proficient organisational and planning capabilities, with a demonstrated ability to prioritise tasks.  Experience with Office 365 apps is a must.
• Proven competence in collaborating effectively with individuals from diverse national and cultural backgrounds.
• Prior experience with a UN agency is a distinct advantage.

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.