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. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. 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.

Consultancy Title: Disaster Risk Reduction Programme Consultant

Division/Duty Station: PG CEED

Duration: 15 Dec 2025 – 15 Dec 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

Climate change, environmental degradation, and disaster risks pose an escalating threat to child survival and development, with over one billion children currently exposed to extreme hazards such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, and cyclones. These risks disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, undermining progress in health, education, nutrition, and protection. To safeguard children’s rights and well-being, countries must urgently protect children and their communities from disaster risks and strengthen the resilience of child-critical social sectors.

UNICEF has established regional Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in Nairobi, Panama, Amman, and Bangkok to deliver high-quality, demand-driven technical assistance to Country and Regional Offices, governments, and partners. These hubs provide tailored support in thematic programming, financing for scale, and institutional strengthening, while also contributing to global policy, standards, and knowledge sharing. This remote consultancy role will support the Center of Excellence for Climate Resilience in Bangkok, supporting the delivery of UNICEF’s Strategic Plan climate targets: 300 million children with climate-resilient services (water, sanitation, health, nutrition, education) and ensuring 200 million children are protected by systems that reduce climate and environmental disaster risks.

This role will provide capacity support for child-sensitive disaster risk reduction (DRR), including technical assistance across multi-hazard early warning systems, anticipatory action, disaster risk financing, and climate risk and vulnerability assessments. It also contributes to the global implementation and monitoring of UNICEF’s Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) 2023–2030 Area of Acceleration 1: climate-informed disaster risk reduction, humanitarian action, and resilient recovery.

Under the supervision of the Programme Officer for Disaster Risk Reduction, the DRR Programme Consultant is expected to deliver three outputs:

1. Strengthen knowledge management and capacity building on child-sensitive DRR
2. Global monitoring and reporting on child-sensitive DRR
3. Interagency partnership, communications and advocacy support for child-sensitive DRR

Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the Programme Officer for Disaster Risk Reduction, the DRR Programme Consultant is expected to perform the following tasks for UNICEFs Center of Excellence for Climate Resilience, supporting the delivery of the SCAP 2023-2030 and Strategic Plan targets, while working closely with other UNICEF divisions:

Objective 1: Strengthen knowledge management and capacity building on child sensitive DRR

• Provision of technical support on DRR: technical support and/or capacity building provided to at least 5 country offices on DRR topics, such as child-responsive DRR strategies, early warning systems, disaster preparedness, disaster risk finance and/or anticipatory action.
• Documentation of Good Practices in DRR: Identify and document good practices of DRR across regions and various programme sectors (e.g., education, health, WASH).
• Development and Maintenance of Knowledge Platforms on DRR: Develop and maintain internal and external DRR knowledge materials including Sharepoint pages, tools, guidance and training materials.
• Resource Mobilization Support for DRR: In collaboration with the Global Partnerships Cone, provide technical inputs for resource mobilization needs, including funding proposals, donor engagements and the development of donor facing materials.
• Programme support for Global Multi-Country Initiatives: assist the planning, implementation, and reporting of multi-country SCAP initiatives, such as the Today & Tomorrow initiative and Early Warnings for All.

Objective 2: Global monitoring and reporting on child sensitive DRR 

• Quality Inputs for Global CEED Reporting: Provide high-quality inputs for DRR in key internal reporting mechanisms, including Core Standard Indicators, the Global Annual Results Report, and SCAP AoA1 reporting
• Analysis of UN Plan of Action for DRR Reporting: Collect and analyze country office inputs for the 2025 UN Plan of Action for DRR reporting and develop an executive summary of UNICEF’s results for internal and external use
• DRR Grant support: Prepare annual and biannual reports for global DRR grants, including obtaining input from country offices.

Objective 3: Interagency partnership, communications and advocacy support for child-sensitive DRR

• Interagency Partnership support: Contribute to interagency processes and advance partnerships with external counterparts to position children’s rights and needs at the center of DRR agendas, including the Sendai Framework.
• Support preparations for the 11^th Senior Leadership for DRR Meeting: Development of briefing materials for senior management and a read-out from the meeting for internal and external use.
• Assist preparations for International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2026: Assist in organizing UNICEF’s participation in the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2026, including developing knowledge and advocacy materials.
• Support for DRR Platforms and Events: Provide technical and coordination support for global and regional DRR platforms and events, including contributions to briefing notes, collation and dissemination of good practices, and logistical or content support during event planning and implementation.

Please note that these tasks may require travel, which will be covered by UNICEF in coordination with and upon approval from the supervisor.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

Objective 1: Strengthen knowledge management and capacity building on child sensitive DRR

- Technical support provided to at least 5 country offices; 3 capacity-building sessions or advisory notes completed

30 April 2026

3 internal SharePoint sites updated; 1 external-facing toolkit developed; 3+ guidance/training materials created

31 May 2026

Technical inputs provided for at least 3 funding proposals or donor briefs.

30 Sept 2026

Contributions to planning and workplan implementation for 2 initiatives and 2 progress reports submitted.

31 Aug 2026

5 good practice DRR case studies documented across sectors.

31 Mar 2026

Objective 2: Global monitoring and reporting on child-sensitive DRR

-  Contributions to 3 internal reporting mechanisms

15 Feb 2026

Collect and analyse Country Offices inputs for the 2025 UN Plan of Action for DRR reporting using UNDRR’s standard template.

Develop 1 executive summary of UNICEF’s 2024 Plan of Action results for internal and external use.

28 Feb 2026

Prepare at least 2 annual and/or biannual reports for DRR grants, and 2 slide decks.

30 Nov 2026

Objective 3: Interagency partnership, communications and advocacy support for child sensitive DRR

-  Provide quality technical inputs into at least 4 interagency processes

30 June 2026

- Support for 11th Senior Leadership Meeting

1 briefing package developed; 1 meeting read-out produced

31 Jul 2026

- International Day for DRR 2026 preparations

Develop at least 2 advocacy and/or communications materials for internal and external use

31 Oct 2026

- Support for DRR platforms and events

Technical support for at least 3 DRR events; including provision of briefings notes and summaries of good practices.

15 Dec 2026

Qualifications

Education:  Advanced University degree in DRR, climate, environment, energy or related disciplines 

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• At least 1 year of experience in DRR, climate, environment, energy, or related topics.
• Strong organisational, planning, and prioritising skills and abilities.
• Ability to work effectively with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Proven experience in communication and project management.
• Familiarity with Climate, Energy, Environment, and DRR.
• Prior experience with a UN agency is a distinct advantage.

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.