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: Social Protection and Climate Change Consultancy

Duty Station: Global Programme Division, Gender Equality  

Duration: 1 November 2025 – 31 March 2026  

Home/ Office Based: Remote

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The UNICEF Social Policy and Social Protection Programme Team is seeking a short-term consultancy to accelerate progress in the implementation of the Global Accelerator on jobs and social protection for just transitions. This includes:

• Undertaking a synthesis of literature on the effectiveness of social protection in supporting climate change adaptation outcomes for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change ie children and young people, those living with disabilities, women and girls, and children on the move. identify the most salient evidence gaps; and
• Developing the implementation roadmap and action plan for the USP2030 financing group led Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA) initiative on financing social protection

Scope of Work:

Climate change is intensifying existing social and economic inequalities, with its impacts felt most acutely by children living in poverty. Across the globe, nearly 1.9 billion children are estimated to experience at least one extreme climate event per year. Of these, a staggering 774 million children live in poverty and are affected by high climate risk. This number is expected to increase significantly in the coming years as gradual but persistent changes in climate patterns continue to erode livelihoods and household incomes, thus reducing capacities of parents and carers to invest in the human development of children and other vulnerable members of the household.

Social protection systems play a pivotal role in helping households and communities to adapt to the growing climate risks. Even when not explicitly designed with environmental goals in mind, social protection programs such as social assistance or public works enable poor households to prepare for and cope with climate shocks by enabling savings, creating assets, and diversifying livelihoods & income sources. When climate considerations are integrated into their design, for instance, by linking early warning system with social protection or payouts to weather-based triggers or supporting local initiatives like mangrove restoration or flood mitigation, social protection systems evolve into powerful instruments for both shock response and long-term climate resilience. However, despite their obvious potential, social protection is still underutilized within national climate strategies and could be further strengthened to better address climate risks.

Recognizing this gap, the Global Accelerator for jobs and social protection for just transitions was launched by the UN Secretary General in 2021. It is designed to support the creation of jobs in the green economy and extend social protection to the most vulnerable, to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. While social protection appears to be one of the surest means of reducing the impacts of climate change on children's rights, it often remains one of the least funded sectors. In July 2025, world leaders endorsed the Sevilla Platform for Action at FFD4, which includes ambitious targets such as increasing social protection coverage by two percentage points annually, and calls for integrating financing into national strategies, ensuring predictable and uninterrupted funding, especially in crisis and conflict settings

As a part of both these global processes and as the lead of the USP2030 finance working group, UNICEF is seeking a consultant to support the Child Poverty and Social Protection team in NYHQ, to embark on actions that will expedite progress on the global commitments. Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables.

Scope of work:

1. Inception report outlining the methodology and the theory of change/impact pathways.
2. Draft of synthesis of global evidence summarizing findings on the questions outlined above. This includes the review of the validated outcome and impact measures (with aligned concepts and relevant TOCs (can be presented in the annex). Summary ppt.
3. Final synthesis report of the global evidence (approx. 15 pages), including a short summary (max 2 pages) and an accompanying ppt
4. Prepare a technical note and other communication products to highlight the role of social protection in strengthening the adaptation capabilities of households and individuals.
5. Implementation Roadmap and Action Plan for the USP2030-led SPA initiative on financing social protection, aligned with the Sevilla Commitment. This document will outline key milestones, stakeholder engagement strategies, to guide the initiative’s rollout over the next 12–18 months.
6. Progress Update Report summarizing activities undertaken, key achievements, challenges encountered, and recommendations for next steps.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

Deliverable 1:    

Inception report outlining the theory of change/impact pathways

• Inception report outlining the TOC/impact pathways
• Methodology for evidence collection

November 30, 2025

Deliverable 2:

Draft synthesis report

• Draft synthesis report, of global evidence summarizing findings on the questions outlined above.  This includes the review of the validated outcome and impact measures (with aligned concepts and relevant TOCs).
• Summary ppt

December 31, 2025

Deliverable 3:

Final synthesis report

• Final synthesis report of the global evidence (approx. 15 pages)
• A short summary (max 2 pages) and
• Communication products on child poverty and social protection

January 31, 2026

Deliverable 4:

Implementation Roadmap and Action Plan for the USP2030-led SPA initiative on financing social protection, aligned with the Sevilla Commitment

• Implementation Roadmap and Action Plan for the USP2030-led SPA initiative on financing social protection, aligned with the Sevilla Commitment. This document will outline key milestones, stakeholder engagement strategies, to guide the initiative’s rollout over the next 12–18 months

December 15, 2025

Deliverable 5:

Progress Update Report summarizing activities undertaken, key achievements, challenges encountered, and recommendations for next steps 

• Progress Update Report summarizing activities undertaken, key achievements, challenges encountered, and recommendations for next steps

March 31, 2026

Qualifications

Education:

Post-graduate degree (doctoral degree is preferred) in academic disciplines relevant to synthesis and analysis of evidence relevant for the assignment (e.g. economics, public policy, political science, development studies etc.)

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• Over 5 years of research or evaluation experience leading and contributing to synthesis of literature and evidence gap mapping in social protection, social policy, child poverty, public finance or related fields with understanding their linkages with climate change or other forms of crises.
• Knowledge of and demonstrated research experience on social protection in climate change, humanitarian or fragile contexts.

• Expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods used for identifying and measuring impacts and answering complementary evaluation questions e.g. What works and why? For whom? At what cost?

• Familiarity with UNICEF programme portfolio on child poverty and social protection, including in humanitarian and fragile contexts

Competencies

• Delivering outputs with tight deadlines and multi-stakeholder consultative process.
• Excellent abilities in presenting technical information to a non-technical audience, including excellent drafting and presentation skills in English.
• Proficiency in English is required.

Language Proficiency:

Fluency in English, & another UN language preferred

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.