Youth Environment Living Labs (YELL) Coordinator (Consultant), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 18 months (Malaysian only)

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, hope

Together with the Malaysian government and others who are truly passionate about child rights, UNICEF works in Malaysia to ensure every child has the opportunity to grow healthy and happy; live safely; and achieve their full potential.

With the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the 12th Malaysia plan as our guides, we endeavor to change minds, change policies, and in turn change the lives of all children in Malaysia.

https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the biggest threats affecting the world’s children, undermining many of the gains achieved in child survival and development. Children are the least responsible for climate change and environmental degradation, yet they stand to bear the most significant burden of its impact. UNICEF is committed to achieving societal transformation necessary for children to live in a sustainable, clean and safe environment.

UNICEF’s climate and environmental sustainability strategy stresses the need for ambitious programming to protect children from the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation by increasing the resilience of essential services and reducing emissions and pollution. It also recognizes that children and youth are not merely passive victims but right holders and active agents of change, and that our only hope is empowering future generations to choose an environmentally sustainable path.

Under the joint supervision of the Climate and Environment Specialist (UNICEF) and the Youth Environment Living Lab (YELL) Project Manager, the YELL Coordinator will lead the day-to-day coordination of YELL and will ensure the efficient delivery of the programme. The YELL Coordinator will support UNICEF’s efforts to make children and young people a focus of climate change strategies and to empower children and young people with knowledge and skills to participate in climate and environmental action.

YELL is a joint programme by UNDP Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei Darussalam and UNICEF Malaysia, supported by Amanah Lestari Alam (ALAM) to reimagine youth participation in climate and environmental action, in Malaysia. With a focus on moving from awareness to action, empowering young people with the knowledge, skills and networks to address sustainability issues, YELL has two objectives:

1. To localize climate narratives and emphasize local and indigenous perspective on nature and environment so that they are more relevant and compelling to young people in Malaysia, and
2. To strengthen the ecosystem of actors to support and hold the space for youth to engage as agents of change in environmental policy- and decision-making and in environmental actions.

YELL’s objectives will be achieved through three programmatic pillars: the ‘Exploraction’ programme, the ‘Conservocation’ programme, and the YELL Network Resource Hub. YELL is expected to enable children and young people aged 7-30 to act on climate and environmental issues with structured entry points through the three programmatic pillars.

For more information on YELL, please refer to the yell.my website.

The YELL Coordinator (consultant) will work on the YELL project and will be responsible for the day-to-day coordination of the project, and for providing technical support to the successful and timely implementation of activities under this project.

How can you make a difference?

1. Project coordination

• Lead the coordination of YELL’s day-to-day work, and is accountable for YELL’s project outputs and activities
• Directly supervise the YELL team of Environment Community Facilitators, Communications Officer and Interns
• Coordinate experts and service providers to assist with the delivery of outputs, reports and knowledge products
• Support output & activity-level planning and implementation
• Ensure the timely and effective implementation of project activities, providing technical support to the implementation of the activities, reviewing and contributing to all outputs and deliverables produced under the project
• Coordinate the planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of project activities
• Coordinate the collection of output/ activity level data and stories
• Develop partnerships with youth-led and youth-centered organizations, environmental NGOs/CBOs, local communities, government ministries & agencies
• Coordination of stakeholder inputs, project meetings, preparation of communication materials with the support of the YELL team
• Support project management including the tracking of implementation against work plans and budgets, and other project management tasks
• Support the YELL Project Manager in the preparation of project reports, financial reports and donor reports in consultation with UNDP and UNICEF

2. Lead the implementation and administration of the Exploraction ouputs

• Oversee the implementation of seed-funded projects led by youth or targeted for youth
• Lead the process of call for proposals, evaluation and selection of seed-funding grants
• Coordinate the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and documentation of grantees’ projects
• Lead the organization of a showcasing event for the 10 projects that have been developed under the Akademi Impact programme

3. Lead the implementation of the Conservocation outputs

• Lead the pilot of the Conservocation work placement programme including the development of the Conservocation framework and implementation of the pilot
• Onboard Conservocation partners to act as host for the Conservocation recruits
• Lead the team to develop and execute structured capacity building/learning opportunities for the Conservocation recruits
• Lead the team to document and publish stories and communication outputs from the Conservocation recruits

4. Oversight of content creation, communications and documentation, and network building activities

• Facilitate knowledge management aspects for YELL, including the updating of the YELL website, project stories on the website
• Contribute to the development of knowledge products together with network partners
• Contribute to the design and publication of communication materials and knowledge products and knowledge-sharing platforms, tools and mechanisms
• Support the synthesis and documentation of project results, lessons learned, best practices and case studies from the project
• Oversee the curation of creative outputs with youth to communicate local environmental issues as well as visions of preferred local environmental conditions/futures, working together with the YELL Communications Officer
• Work hand-in-hand with grantees, creative agencies, YELL team and communications focal points for UNICEF and UNDP to develop communications collaterals and products
• Lead activities to build the YELL network, including the planning and implementation of network building activities, events, conferences

Note: The tasks and deliverables may change based on the programme’s needs. Nevertheless, any change will be made in agreement between UNICEF Malaysia and the consultant, in consultation with UNDP.

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

• An university degree in Social sciences, education, arts and humanities, management, life/natural sciences, urban studies or a related field
• At least 2 years of experience in coordinating and managing projects, with a focus on climate, environment, and/or youth engagement projects
• Evidence of working with youth-led or youth-centred environmental groups, or of otherwise mobilizing youth to address social and/or environmental issues in local community
• Experience in joint programme implementation and knowledge of UN processes would be a benefit
• Well-established networks with non-governmental actors, e.g., national and sub-national NGOs/CSOs (environment, education, arts, etc.), and academia, including awareness of youth-led or youth-centred environmental groups is an advantage
• Proven track record of working with diverse groups across geographical location, ability, gender, ethnicity, etc
• Proven track record in multi-stakeholder engagement and management, and facilitation of partnerships
• Strong communication and facilitation skills
• Strong networking and interpersonal skills
• Ability to conceptualize and articulate ideas in a clear and concise form
• Ability to take initiative and to work with minimum supervision
• Fluency in English and Bahasa Malaysia is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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.