National consultant for climate change and children/adolescents with UNICEF Albania

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

Type of contract: Consultant Duration:18 months starting June 2023 Workplace: Home Based

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 fulfil 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, a fair chance https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=E1xkXZs0cAQ

Purpose of Activity/Assignment: UNICEF in Albania under the project “Increased youth education and awareness around key air quality issues in Albania”, is looking to hire a consultant to support the learning and documentation of the project as well as support UNICEF efforts toward articulating a clear climate change focus on its activities and strategies.

Scope of Work: Air quality is a global alarm ring-bell especially for its related consequences to human wellbeing and the consequences in children’s and adolescents’ health and overall wellbeing. Albania reports high air pollution, with figures of PM-10 which are 2-2.5 times higher than European Union Countries. Because of that, World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified Albania in the “Health Risk Area “and it is estimated that this level of air pollution will decrease life expectancy with 1-2 years but will increasing the risk of cancer diseases with 1400 cases/year as well as other health related issues. Young people are constantly exposed to polluted air, and they are more vulnerable, both physically and psychologically to air pollution than adults. According to findings from the UNICEF U-report Albania on “Air quality around me”, a poll administered during November 2022, 56% of young people in Albania think that air quality around them is bad and 82% think it has deteriorated since their childhood. In all this, 48% of young people think that it is responsibility of the governments and decision-makers to act and 32 % think that this is an individual responsibility of every one of us to act and work for change. To address underlying causes leading to increased air pollution and find youth led solutions, UNICEF is implementing a series of initiatives focusing on (i) raising awareness of youth and adults through digital campaigns; (ii) increase capacities of youth through training and workshops; (iii) equip youth with advocacy skills to act as watchdogs and raise the voice in local and national level; (iv) support youth led solutions through the human design methodology of UPSHIFT and (vi) update the UNICEF supported CLEEN methodology and improve competencies of teachers and children in this methodology to increase the dialogue round air quality and environmental protection. UNICEF is also looking at reinforcing the programatoc focus on climate change action under the UNICEF Global strategy “A Liveable Planet for Every Child 2022-2030” which intends to ensure that services children need to survive, grow and thrive are resilient to climate and environmental shocks and to support them with the education and skills they will need to adapt and create a green transition and better world. To address these challenges, UNICEF is looking for a National Consultant to provide environmental technical expertise for UNICEF office as well as documenting the processes of “Increased youth education and awareness around key air quality issues in Albania “ by identifying best practices, challenges, case studies, human stories.

Work Assignments Overview:

Deliverable 1: Provide technical support to UPSHIFT team and UNICEF Adolescents Advisory Board in terms of climate change

Task 1.1 - Develop a compendium of info on climate change and air quality for UPSHIFT participants to be familiar with Task 1.2 - Train the UPSHIFT staff and mentors on air quality and young people involvement in it Task 1.3 - Provide a short training to UNICEF Adolescents Advisory Board on issues of climate change

Timeline - By end of June 2023

Deliverable 2: Documentation of the youth led advocacy initiatives conducted in the framework of the #Youth4AirQuality2 project and provision of environmental technical expertise at all stages of youth lead campaign Task 2.1 - Produce one report documenting best practices, youth issues raised with local and national authorities, challenges and quotes from youth Task 2.1 - Produce 5 human stories (one for each municipality, capturing personal change and youth engagement) Task 2.3 - Produce a set of recommendations for following up the work with youth initiatives for advocacy Task 2.4 - Provide environmental air content backstopping all youth-lead activities as needed Task 2.5 - Develop one concept note on Climate Change for Children (5-6 pages ) with budget

Timeline - By end of October 2023

Deliverable 3: Improvement of the CLEEN methodology regarding air pollution and environmental protection Task 3.1 - Coordinate the work with ASCAP and UNICEF to update the CLEEN methodology and teacher training manual based on latest developments from climate change perspective.

Timeline - November 2023 - February 2024

Deliverable 4: Improve climate change and air quality support for schools Task 4.1 - Conduct focus group discussions with teachers after the trainings on CLEEN methodology to capture opportunities and challenges from using this methodology in schools. Task 4.2 - Conduct field visits in schools to identify best practices and challenges from field implementation of the CLEEN methodology. Task 4.3 - Produce 4 human stories capturing application of knowledge, skills and transformation in schools on CLEEN methodology Task 4.4 - Produce a report capturing all fields of implementation (revision of CLEEN curricula in national level; capacity building processes and implementation).

Timeline - February 2024 to October 2024

Deliverable 5: Final documentation and set of recommendations for UNICEF on issues of Air quality developed Task 5.1 - Document all specific youth recommendations from all stages of implementation of the #Youth4AirQuality initiative (local and national level related recommendations. Task 5.2 - Develop a set of recommendations for UNICEF to use for advocacy and communication purposes regarding creating an enabling environment promoting air quality/ environmental protection.

Timeline - March to November 2024

Deliverable 6: Provision of technical expertise to support CO Albania in identifying the programmatic niches for climate change Task 6.1 - Desk review of UNICEF work in climate change and its main guiding strategies Task 6.2 - Work closely with UNICEF team, Green team, under the Deputy representative ‘s guide to identify and develop programmatic areas for UNICEF work in climate change; Participate in regional and global calls, meetings and exchanges with regard to climate change for children and Task 6.3 - Develop a technical note containing background, situation of children needs with regard to climate change and actionable areas for UNICEF in addressing these challenges in line with UNICEF and country main strategies.

Timeline - September 2023 to May 2024

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

- Master’s degree in environment-related sciences - A minimum of five years of relevant working experience in working on environmental projects with a focus on children and adolescents. - Proven expertise in developing strategies, programmatic approaches on climate change. - Demonstrated very good reports’ writing skills - Training skills and experience in the areas of climate change. - Expertise in communication linked to air pollution prevention, climate change etc. - Fluency in written and spoken English. - Previous experience in working with UN agencies will be an asset.

What to submit 1. Updated Resume 2. Letter of interest, summarising the educational background, the working experience that is relevant to the assignment, and the specific role the candidate will play in collaboration with the other experts and the inter-institutional working group 3. Proposed action plan (methodology proposed for the assignment) as per deliverables explained in the ToR 4. Financial proposal in Local Currency (inclusive of all taxes).

The financial proposal shall be submitted in local currency (LEK) and must include the consultancy fee, the communication costs and all other individual expenses or applicable costs such as travel.

At least three travels in the municipalities of Shkoder, Kurbin, Kamze, Tirane, Durres, Elbasan, Korce, Pogradec, Fier, Berat throughout the consultancy. Travel-related costs should be included as a lump sum in the deliverables as outlined in the advertisement.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. To view our competency framework, please visit 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.