Consultant - Volunteer Community and Strategy 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 - Volunteer Community and Strategy

Section/Division/Duty Station: GenU Team - Programme Group - NYHQ

Duration: 6 December 2023 – 5 December 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. 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 hired consultant will be responsible for helping to roll out the new Green Rising initiative by developing strategic plans for volunteer engagement opportunities and maintaining a community of practice of volunteer engagement practitioners across UNICEF. S/he will support efforts to establish, innovate, and/or scale volunteer programs to leverage volunteer power to achieve programmatic results across UNICEF while empowering and upskilling young volunteers. The consultant will focus especially, but not exclusively, on supporting UNICEF country offices to partner with young volunteers on climate and environmental actions which also deliver on The Green Rising initiative. Linked to this work, s/he will lead key events and fora such as skill-shares, webinars, community calls and design workshops using facilitations techniques guided by human-centred design. The consultant will report to the head of the Global Volunteer Initiative (GVI) within Generation Unlimited/UNICEF and work closely with the GVI team, meeting on a weekly basis. The work will require some travel. For additional background, refer to the Generation Unlimited/Global Volunteer Initiative website.

Scope of Work:

• Support UNICEF country offices from conceptualization through execution to launch, scale and/or adapt custom-built youth volunteer engagement offerings around climate and environmental action by facilitating strategy workshops and by providing regular technical/strategy support.
• Develop, enable and grow a Community of Practice for volunteer engagement practitioners globally who are working with young people on climate and environmental action
• Support UNICEF country offices to recruit, onboard and capacitate new/existing volunteer practitioners.
• Facilitate the sharing, elevation and cross-pollination of experience and expertise throughout the volunteer engagement practitioners community of practice
• Identify and engage community leaders in the community of practice including UNICEF staff, volunteers, and partners.
• Facilitate bottom-up processes to inform streams of the Volunteer Initiative strategy around the Green Rising.
• Oversee content pipeline for websites, newsletters and other relevant internal communications products.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

• Design and facilitate a volunteer strategy workshop using Human-Centred-Design methodologies in close partnership with the UNICEF Nigeria Country Office, young people, funding partners and other stakeholders and subsequently prepare a workshop report. Provide technical/strategy support and coaching to help the office implement the program through regular calls and emails including to recruit, onboard and capacitate new/existing volunteer practitioners.

By 31 March 2024

• Provide technical/strategy support and coaching to help the country offices in EAPR, at a minimum, Mongolia and Thailand, to adapt, sustain, and grow their volunteer programmes to be in line with the Green Rising and to monitor progress and ensure support needs are met through regular bilateral calls, emails and/or site visits with each relevant country.

By 30 April 2024

• Provide technical/strategy support and coaching to help the country offices in LACR, including Colombia, Paraguay, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, to adapt, sustain, and grow their volunteer programmes to be in line with the Green Rising and to monitor progress and ensure support needs are met through regular bilateral calls, emails and/or site visits with each relevant country.

By 28 February 2024

• Provide technical/strategy support and coaching to help the country offices in ESAR & WCAR, including Uganda, South Africa, Angola, Tanzania, Malawi and Rwanda, to adapt, sustain, and grow their volunteer programmes to be in line with the Green Rising and to monitor progress and ensure support needs are met through regular bilateral calls, emails and/or site visits with each relevant country.

By 30 May 2024

• Provide technical/strategy support and coaching to help the country offices in SAR, including Bhutan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, to adapt, sustain, and grow their volunteer programmes to be in line with the Green Rising and to monitor progress and ensure support needs are met through regular bilateral calls, emails and/or site visits with each relevant country.

By 30 July 2024

• Facilitate at least one community event, webinar, workshops and/or training with the volunteer engagement practitioners community in Q1 2024, engaging at least 10 UNICEF volunteer engagement practitioners in each gathering and following up within a week of each event with a report to the community on learnings and next steps. In addition, facilitate the sharing, elevation and cross-pollination of experience and expertise throughout the community within and around these events.

By 31 March 2024

• Facilitate at least one community event, webinar, workshops and/or training with the volunteer engagement practitioners community in Q2 2024, engaging at least 10 UNICEF volunteer engagement practitioners in each gathering and following up within a week of each event with a report to the community on learnings and next steps. In addition, facilitate the sharing, elevation and cross-pollination of experience and expertise throughout the community within and around these events.

By 30 June 2024

• Facilitate at least one community event, webinar, workshops and/or training with the volunteer engagement practitioners community in Q3 2024, engaging at least 10 UNICEF volunteer engagement practitioners in each gathering and following up within a week of each event with a report to the community on learnings and next steps. In addition, facilitate the sharing, elevation and cross-pollination of experience and expertise throughout the community within and around these events.

By 30 September 2024

• Facilitate at least one community event, webinar, workshops and/or training around International Volunteer Day with the volunteer engagement practitioners community in Q4 2024, engaging at least 10 UNICEF volunteer engagement practitioners in each gathering and following up within a week of each event with a report to the community on learnings and next steps. In addition, facilitate the sharing, elevation and cross-pollination of experience and expertise throughout the community within and around these events.

By 5 December 2024

• Update the existing GVI strategy toolkit to be relevant for the Green Rising and develop and execute a plan to disseminate it across the Community of Practice.

By 31 January 2024

• Source content for internal and external communications including identifying, capturing and distributing at least 5 stories or case studies on volunteers in the context of Green Rising

By 20 November 2024

• Facilitate bottom-up processes across the GVI community to inform streams of the Volunteer Initiative strategy with its renewed focus on Green Rising.

By 31 December 2023

Qualifications

Education:

• Master’s degree in public policy, social sciences or another relevant field OR a first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience.

Work experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in volunteer and public engagement work, especially in Africa and Asia
• Significant experience working with teams to develop, deliver, and optimize successful volunteer initiatives
• Experience creating functional communities of practice in global organization contexts
• Experience facilitating workshops using human-centred design approaches, building capacity, and hosting internal communications
• Experience working in the UNICEF context is an asset

Competencies/Knowledge:

• An ability to tailor engagement approaches to context, adjusting to suit different issues, audiences, cultures, political situations, and systems of government
• A sophisticated and current knowledge of relevant digital tools and technologies, and a knowledge of trends and best practices in the volunteering and the broader public engagement spaces
• Excellent verbal and interpersonal communication skills; meticulous attention to detail and ability to work under tight deadlines with a commitment to quality
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency 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.