Meaningful Youth Engagement Consultant

Result of Service END PRODUCTS:

The consultant is expected to deliver the following end-products in the lead up to the Summit of the Future:

• A baseline assessment of the existing modalities of youth engagement in the UN General Assembly, Security Council and ECOSOC and their respective subsidiary bodies (delivered in alignment with the format for other policy briefs in the lead up to the Summit of the Future; anticipated 10 pages max.);
• Development of an inclusive consultation methodology, referenced in the aforementioned policy brief;
• Host a series of inclusive consultations with pre-determined networks young people around the world and relevant stakeholder networks, including Member States and UN partners (exact modalities for the consultations to be determined; anticipated to be primarily virtual);

• A final series of recommendations for consideration of the General Assembly, ECOSOC and Security Council, working in close consultation with OSGEY.

  Work Location Remote

  Expected duration 10 months

  Duties and Responsibilities The Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth (OSGEY) plays a lead role in the UN's efforts on youth development, focusing on raising international awareness of and bringing attention to promoting youth rights and stronger youth participation in formulating, implementing and evaluating the various development, peace and security, human rights and humanitarian frameworks. The OSGEY plays a lead role in advancing the roll-out, implementation and monitoring of the UN Youth Strategy, "Youth2030", that guides the entire UN System's work with and for young people and seeks to facilitate increased impact and expanded global, regional and country-level action to address the needs, build the agency and advance the rights of young people around the world.

The project

The Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda calls for a renewal of solidarity across generations particularly with younger generations and puts forward a set of concrete recommendations to further that objective. This includes a proposal recommending that the OSGEY will prepare recommendations for more meaningful, diverse and effective youth engagement in UN deliberative and decision-making processes for the consideration of the General Assembly, the Security Council and ECOSOC and their respective subsidiary bodies.

To address these concerns and with a view to improve the ways that UN deliberative and decision-making processes engage young people, the Secretary-General has tasked OSGEY to prepare recommendations in consultation with the world’s young people for more meaningful, diverse and effective youth engagement.

PURPOSE & OBJECTIVES

Overall approach

To ensure an external view on internal practices, OSGEY will engage an external counsultant with relevant skill sets and strong youth-focused experience engaging with the UN system to conduct a baseline assessment of the existing modalities of youth engagement, develop an inclusive consultation methodology, carry out inclusive consultations, and on that background draft recommendations — all done in close collaboration with OSGEY and relevant UN partners.

Consulting youth of the world

• The consultant will be responsible for establishing an inclusive consultation methodology, under the guidance of OSGEY and with support from UN partners.

• The methodology will recognize the diversity of young people as a group, including those who are marginalized. In order to inform recommendations, the target group is anticipated to include young people who are, or have previously, engaged with the UN as well as young people with experience from multi- stakeholder decision-making processes from other institutions, such as the World Bank, the European Council, the African Union, etc. (both globally and at country-level).

• When identifying which youth constituencies to engage through these consultations, specific consideration will be given to engaging a broad diversity of youth, including marginalized youth, who do not always have equal opportunities for engagement through existing mechanisms.

• Noting that there is no universally agreed international definition of youth and noting that different inter- governmental bodies employ differing definitions of the age range that comprises youth, the consultations will be conducted in alignment with the most commonly used definitions employed by the General Assembly, the Security Council and ECOSOC and their respective subsidiary bodies.

• The assessment will also draw on previous youth consultations that have been conducted around similar topics and themes (eg. MyWorld, UN75, Next Generation Fellows, etc.) to consider how pre-existing recommendations from youth in relation to the work of the UN could integrate into the ultimate recommendations of this process.

  Qualifications/special skills - University degree in management, political science, humanities, or any related field

• Strong demonstrated experience and understanding of meaningful youth engagement is required.

• Demonstrated experience working with the UN or other international organizations in the context of youth affairs is required.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing youth-focused consultations is required.
• Demonstrated drafting, presentation, coordination and reporting skills are required.
• Strong computer skills including familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite is desirable.

• Outstanding written and oral communication skills are desirable.

  Languages Fluency in English (both written and oral) is required for this consultancy.

  No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.