Consultant, Communication– CEED Req

Contract

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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, LOVE

Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Consultant, Communication – CEED

Section/Division/Duty Station: WASH section, Programme Group - NYHQ

Duration: 27 November 2023 – 29 March 2024

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. 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:

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 is launching its Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) 2023 - 2030. The SCAP prioritises urgent climate action through systematic change in partnership with public and private sectors to prioritise 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, through 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 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 support the expansion of UNICEF CEED knowledge internally and externally towards the objectives of the SCAP. This is critical for integrating sustainability and climate change action into all aspects of UNICEF’s operations while raising public awareness of the climate crisis’s profound effects on children’s health and well-being.

Scope of Work:

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):

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

• Refine and align the existing CEED SharePoint site to fulfil the SCAP’s learning needs.
• Establish procedures for submitting CEED publications to HQ, facilitating wider organisational distribution.
• Initiate research to expand a global case study database and devise an efficient method for this process.
• Draft a brief on a pivotal CEED aspect, addressing learning gaps identified from CEED team research to further the SCAP.
• Design a checklist to guide CEED in formulating a global consultancy roster.

Objective 2: Enhance the efforts of the CEED team to amplify public understanding of the planetary crisis’s impact on children’s health and well-being.

• Collaborate with the CEED team to identify pivotal findings from 2023 country office reports for learning and sharing.
• Supporting in setting the external knowledge@UNICEF site to prominently feature key CEED-related reports produced by UNICEF worldwide.
• Support CEED communication and knowledge dissemination and use processes.
• Actively engage in CEED team meetings, especially focusing on internal and external activities, progress and requirements related to mainstreaming of the SCAP.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

• • Deliverable 1: Refinement and alignment of the existing CEED SharePoint site to align with SCAP’s mainstreaming goals, including conducting internal research on the usability of the site with 2 HQ and 5 regional staff members and the support of the back-end SharePoint coding to implement the plan.

By 15 February 2024

• • Deliverable 2: Development of an operation guidance manual for global input and a review

process for document sharing to the site.

By 15 January 2024

• • Deliverable 3: Conduct research to populate and support the development of a global case

study database in Excel, drawing on the approx. 190 Country Office Annual Reports and

the development of a guide for streamlining the activity for future replication.

By 15 March 2024

• • Deliverable 4: The production of one brief (no more than 3 pages) on a key area of CEED that responds to learning needs identified from research on publications requires to advance the SCAP.

By 20 February 2024

• • Deliverable 5: Research and develop a checklist for CEED to develop a global consultancy roster. This includes researching with Human Resources the requirements and process for interviewing, keeping CVs and sharing the roster.

By 15 January 2024

• • Deliverable 6: Identification of key results from 2023 country office reporting for external dissemination, including a review of the CEED reporting to pull qualitative numbers for a 1-page brief on key results.

By 23 February 2024

• • Deliverable 7: Creation of the external site knowledge@UNICEF, including the design of the landing page and the uploading and addition of data for at least 75 documents.

By 5 February 2024

• • Deliverable 8: Support CEED communication and knowledge dissemination processes, including managing the CEED Viva Engage (Yammer) site postings (approximately 5/week), updating the global mailing list with requests (about 10/week), monitoring social media sites and other internal communication to add content for monthly newsletter (15 additions/month).

By 29 March 2024

Qualifications

Education:

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

Work experience:

• Proven experience in Communication and/or Knowledge Management.
• Prior experience with a UN agency is a distinct advantage.

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.

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.