Livelihoods Pathways Consultant, GPD, Generation Unlimited, 12 months, NYHQ, USA (Remote, potential 1-week missions to India and Brazil) # 594255

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

How can you make a difference?

Generation Unlimited (GenU) supports young people to move from learning to earning through integrated skilling, employment, entrepreneurship and social impact pathways. Through the Creative Academy, supported by Adobe, GenU will equip young people with creative, digital and AI-enabled skills and support them to translate these skills into dignified and sustainable livelihoods.

The Creative Academy will initially focus on India and Brazil, while also establishing a global model that can be adapted by other countries. The programme aims to support young people to progress from foundational creative skilling into tangible portfolios, and from portfolios into earning opportunities, including employment, freelancing, self-employment and entrepreneurship. The programme will build on GenU’s existing platforms and initiatives, including Passport to Earning, YouthHub, 1MiO and imaGen Ventures, as relevant to country context.

Under the supervision of the Senior Advisor, Global Programmes, in collaboration with the GenU global team and Country Offices, the Creative Academy Livelihoods Pathways Consultant will support GenU to develop a flagship livelihoods model and practical tools for the Creative Academy. This work will also inform GenU’s broader skilling-to-earning portfolio across other global initiatives including, but not limited to, Green Rising, Passport to Earning, YouthHub, 1MiO, imaGen Ventures and Yoma. For this consultancy, the livelihoods model refers to the overall approach for supporting Creative Academy graduates to transition from skilling into earning opportunities. The operational frameworks will define how the employment, freelancing and entrepreneurship pathways can be structured and adapted across countries.

The practical tools and templates will support implementation, including guidance for portfolio development, partner mapping, pathway design, and country-level planning. A key focus of the role will be to ensure that the Creative Academy moves beyond skilling alone and provides young people with structured, flexible and realistic pathways into earning through employment, entrepreneurship and/or freelancing. This will require attention to the non-linear nature of youth transitions to livelihoods, the different levels of support young people require, the role of portfolios as proof of skills, and the ways in which creative skills can support income generation across sectors, including through services to MSMEs, local businesses, digital commerce, creative industries and self-employment.

UNICEF/GenU will facilitate required system and email access from the inception phase to enable access to relevant internal documentation, platforms and coordination channels.

If you would like to know more about this consultancy scope of work and expected deliverables, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:  ToRTMC0003963.pdf

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced (Master's) university degree in international development, education, economics, public policy, workforce development, livelihoods, creative industries, entrepreneurship, social innovation, or a related field. 
• Work Experience: Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in youth livelihoods, youth employment, workforce development, skills-to-work transitions, creative economy programming, entrepreneurship, or a related field
• Skills: Demonstrated experience designing or supporting programmes that help young people transition from skilling into employment, freelancing, self-employment, entrepreneurship or other income-generating opportunities. Experience working with youth within the creative economy is an asset.

• Experience applying youth livelihoods, workforce development or skills-to-work approaches to creative, digital or adjacent sectors. 
• Experience developing practical programme frameworks, guidance, tools or templates for use by country teams, implementing partners, governments or private sector stakeholders. 
• Experience supporting multi-country or large-scale programmes in international development contexts is desirable. 
• Strong writing skills, including experience producing high-quality analytical reports, guidance notes, frameworks, tools, presentations and recommendations. 

• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or a local language is an asset. 
• Desirables: Strong analytical skills, including the ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative information, assess programme models, identify practical implications and translate analysis into clear recommendations. 

• Experience undertaking partner mapping, ecosystem analysis or stakeholder analysis related to employment, livelihoods, entrepreneurship, workforce development or youth economic opportunity. 
• Strong understanding of the barriers young people face in moving from training to earning, particularly in low- and middle-income country contexts. 
• Demonstrated ability to work across diverse teams and stakeholders, including global teams, country teams, implementing partners, private sector actors and youth-serving organizations. 
• Understanding of how creative and digital skills can support income generation across sectors, including through services to MSMEs, local businesses, digital commerce, content creation, design, marketing, freelance work or entrepreneurship.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System):

• An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• A separate financial proposal (only acceptable in the format of the linked template)  Financial proposal TMC0003963.docx

Remarks:  If the TOR or financial proposal documents are not visible on certain recruitment platforms, please visit our official page Vacancies | UNICEF Careers.  

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.