National Consultancy on supporting young people’s skills development opportunities to design solutions and address social challenges in their communities

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, development

Our society is facing various social challenges that demand urgent attention. These challenges disproportionately impact vulnerable groups, including young people and girls from rural areas, young people with disabilities etc. Young people can play crucial role to address these issues if they are supported through empowerment programmes. They can be engaged as active agents of change, by supporting their skills development and providing them with the platform and resources necessary to develop innovative solutions and contribute to the betterment of their communities.

This initiative, named as "Young Social Innovators" adopts the programmatic approach of UNICEF's UpShift program. UpShift is a social innovation program specifically designed to empower and engage marginalized youth by equipping them with transferable life skills, fostering civic engagement, and enhancing their employability and entrepreneurial capabilities. Through this program, young participants learn how to identify and tackle community challenges by designing and implementing innovative solutions.

The project will engage young individuals as active agents of change, providing them with the platform and resources necessary to develop innovative solutions and contribute to the betterment of their communities.

The project's core focus is to empower young individuals, enabling them to take an active role in addressing social challenges within their communities. It aims to instil a sense of agency and self-efficacy in them, encouraging their active participation in creating inclusive solutions. Additionally, the project seeks to establish pathways to employment for program participants, enhancing their employability and entrepreneurial potential. It also promotes and supports the development and implementation of creative ideas and approaches to address social issues locally.

The piloting phase of the project will target around 80 young people aged 16-24 from two cities Sumgayit and Mingechevir.

Expected Outcomes:

a) Increased youth engagement in addressing social challenges, fostering a culture of active citizenship and social responsibility.

b) Creation of inclusive solutions that specifically target the needs of the most vulnerable individuals in our society.

c) Enhanced employability and entrepreneurship skills among participating youth, leading to increased youth employment rates.

d) Development of a sustainable ecosystem for social innovation, fostering collaboration between youth, private sector partners, and civil society organizations.

For implementation of all of these objectives there is a need for a qualified consultants with relevant knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the above-mentioned results.

How can you make a difference?

Supporting young people’s empowerment, skills development, and employment opportunities to design solutions to address social issues in their communities. Project will be implemented through application of the UpShift programme format.

Scope of Work:

a) Programme Launch and Promotion: Organize meetings with relevant stakeholders to create awareness about the program and attract potential participants, partners, and sponsors.

b) Recruitment and Selection: Conduct a transparent and inclusive selection process to identify motivated and talented young individuals who demonstrate a commitment to addressing social challenges.

c) Training and Capacity Building: Deliver tailored training modules, workshops, and mentoring sessions to enhance participants' skills in financial literacy, social innovation, and entrepreneurship.

d) Solution Development and Implementation: Facilitate a structured process where participants collaborate to develop innovative solutions to identified social challenges and support them in implementing their projects.

e) Partnership and Funding: Establish strategic partnerships with private sector organizations, philanthropic entities, and government agencies to secure funding and other forms of support for the implementation of selected solutions.

f) Monitoring, Evaluation, and Scaling: Continuously monitor and evaluate the program's outcomes, iterate on the approach as necessary, and scale successful projects to maximize their impact.

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline:

Program Launch and Promotion: Organize meetings with relevant stakeholders to create awareness about the program and attract potential participants, partners, and sponsors.

Meetings with relevant stakeholders in both regions were held

November (9 days)

Recruitment and Selection: Conduct a transparent and inclusive selection process to identify motivated and talented young individuals who demonstrate a commitment to addressing social challenges.

Motivated and talented young individuals with commitment to addressing social challenges were selected

November 10 days

Training and Capacity Building: Deliver tailored training modules, workshops, and mentoring sessions to enhance participants’ skills in financial literacy, social innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Training modules, workshops, and mentoring sessions to enhance participants’ skills in social innovation, entrepreneurship, and project management were developed and delivered

November-December 2023

15 days

Solution Development and Implementation: Facilitate a structured process where participants collaborate to develop innovative solutions to identified social challenges and support them in implementing their projects.

Social challenges identified solutions developed and implemented

30 days December-February 2024

Partnership and Funding: Establish strategic partnerships with private sector organizations, philanthropic entities, and government agencies to secure funding and other forms of support for the implementation of selected solutions.

Strategic partnerships with private sector organizations, philanthropic entities, and government agencies support for the implementation of selected solutions were established

15 days December 2023-January 2024

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Scaling: Continuously monitor and evaluate the program's outcomes, iterate on the approach as necessary, and scale successful projects to maximize their impact.

Monitoring and evaluation reports of the programme activities

20 days November 2023- March 2024

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as social sciences, business administration, economics, education or related discipline.
• Expertise and experience in designing and implementing training programmes and capacity building interventions for adolescents and youth (with a focus in entrepreneurship skills development, start-up idea development and community engagement among young people).
• Experience in partnering with key institutions related to education and youth development.
• Relevant technical expertise and experience in working with a different range of stakeholders at a national and local level in establishing a youth-sensitive perspective across sectors.
• Local experience, presence, and community relations.
• Excellent communication skills to interact with engaged partners and present recommendations on existing gaps and way forward to address them.
• Experience in working with developmental partners, including UN, and governmental partners.
• Experience working with UN/UNICEF as an asset.
• Fluency in verbal and written Azerbaijani

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

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:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors 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.