International Consultant to lead the formative assessment of UNICEF supported green skills interventions in South Asia, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal (Home-based)
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Location:
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Salary:negotiable / YEAR
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Job type:CONTRACTOR
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Posted:18 hours ago
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Category:Audit and Oversight, Evaluation
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Deadline:30/09/2024
JOB DESCRIPTION
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, a future,
How you can make a difference
Background and Rationale:
Climate change stands as one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, with its impacts increasingly felt across the globe. South Asia, home to a significant portion of the world’s population, is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and food insecurity.
1. India ranks high in exposure to climate risks, grappling with severe heatwaves, flooding, and coastal erosion.
2. Nepal is highly susceptible to glacial melting and unpredictable monsoon patterns.
3. Pakistan experiences severe flooding, displacing millions and causing widespread damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
4. Maldives faces existential threats due to rising sea levels, putting its very landmass at risk.
5. Sri Lanka encounters intense tropical cyclones and coastal flooding.
6. Bhutan faces profound challenges as its delicate mountain ecosystems are at risk from glacial melt, altering water supplies and increasing the threat of landslides and flash floods.
In addition to grappling with the formidable challenge of climate change, South Asia is facing a significant issue: a pronounced prevalence of Youth NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). The elevated NEET rate highlights the pressing need to bridge educational and vocational disparities among young individuals. This is crucial because heightened youth unemployment and disengagement have the potential to compound the socio-economic vulnerabilities already exacerbated by climate change.
Amidst this backdrop, the role of youth in driving climate action and sustainable development has become increasingly prominent. UNICEF recognizes the critical role that young people play in addressing climate change and has launched the Green Rising campaign.
This initiative aims to mobilize 10 million young individuals by 2025 to take proactive actions that safeguard their communities from the climate crisis. Through Green Rising, UNICEF seeks to empower youth with the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to become catalysts for positive change in their communities.
In response to these challenges, UNICEF in the South Asia region has taken significant steps to engage young people in climate action. Recognizing the importance of education, green skills, jobs, and entrepreneurship in tackling climate change, UNICEF is committed to igniting and championing youth-led green initiatives. This includes empowering young people with access to green skills, green jobs, and opportunities for engagement on climate issues.
Green skills encompass technical knowledge, expertise, and abilities necessary for effectively utilizing environmentally sustainable technologies and processes in professional settings. While green competencies are relevant across age groups, their significance is particularly pronounced for younger individuals who can contribute to the ecological transition over an extended period. As part initiatives such as the Cox Bazar solar repair training program in Bangladesh and the Weather Kids UNICEF program in Sri Lanka aim to build the capacity of young people to respond to climate-related challenges.
Furthermore, UNICEF has partnered with organizations and governments in the region to promote youth-led innovation and entrepreneurship in the climate sector. Initiatives like MeriLife in India and UPSHIFT in Bhutan and Maldives provide platforms for young people to develop innovative solutions to address climate change and environmental issues.
By fostering green skills and supporting youth-led initiatives, UNICEF seeks to equip young people with the necessary tools to enter and thrive in the green economy. Ultimately, UNICEF aims to build a resilient and sustainable future for South Asia by empowering the next generation to lead efforts in combating climate change and facilitating the transition to a green economy.
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
This exercise seeks to generate evidence on the performance of UNICEF-supported programs and interventions designed to equip young people with green skills in the South Asia region. Through this formative assessment of these programs, UNICEF aims to gain valuable insights into their relevance, effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability. Additionally, when feasible, the assessment will assess the programs’ potential contributions to climate action and sustainable development goals.
By identifying data gaps and assessing the impact of these initiatives, the assessment will inform evidence and programmatic decisions as well as guide the development of future interventions. The findings will help UNICEF refine existing strategies and design new programs that better address the needs of youth and enhance their role in advancing environmental sustainability and climate resilience.
In collaboration with COs, ROSA will conduct the assessment. A lead consultant will analyze the regional data across all countries in South Asia, while local consultants will conduct 2-3 in-depth case studies in select countries to capture the unique contexts and challenges faced by young people in each location. These case studies will then be further analyzed at the regional level to identify common trends, challenges, and best practices. The international consultant will oversee the case studies process, ensuring coherence and providing essential expertise on the assessment approach, including the evaluation matrix and data collection tools.
This exercise has the potential to offer timely insights on different levels. Primary users will be the UNICEF management at the region and country level as well as key national partners.
Information gathered will be analysed and presented to the country and regional offices. An assessment report also will be produced and shared with the relevant stakeholders.
Attached is a more detailed information on TOR TOR in TMS.docx
OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF WORK
The formative assessment aims at:
- Gain insight into the local dynamics and specific needs of adolescent across various South Asian countries, with a focus on distinguishing needs based on gender and other relevant characteristics.
- Identify data and evidence gaps related to green skills and recommend targeted actions to address these gaps.
- Better understanding the nature, context, design and the different target populations of UNICEF interventions in this area, including the relevance of skills in the job market.
- Assess the effectiveness of programs in equipping youth, particularly adolescent, with green skills, considering their potential impact on climate outcomes and long-term livelihoods, while also examining differences based on youth characteristics such as gender, disabilities, and other relevant factors.
- Assess the extent to which these models are scalable and sustainable and identify characteristic for those that are more likely to be scaled and sustained.
- Advancing organizational learning and inform future program design and policy recommendations to enhance the effectiveness in implementing green skills initiatives,
The findings from this formative assessment will provide valuable insights that can guide UNICEF and its partners in strengthening and expanding their efforts to equip young people with the skills and opportunities needed to drive sustainable development and climate action in South Asia.
KEY ASSIGNMENTS AND TASKS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT:
- Overseeing and supervising the local consultants, ensuring the quality assurance of their deliverables.
- Leading the development of the inception report, refining the evaluation questions.
- Providing advice on the overall design and implementation of the general assessment.
- Ensuring that the objectives of the overall assessment are met and that questions are answered with quality.
- Leading the development of data collection tools, including the preparation and execution of a survey for all case studies.
- Conduct remote data collection for countries not included in the in-depth case studies and at regional level, including desk reviews and individual interviews.
- Working with the local consultants to analyze/synthesize data in line with the objectives and guiding frameworks.
- Preparing the final report and ensuring that all reports meet UNICEF, UNEG, and other global standards.
- Leading the presentation of assessment results to relevant stakeholders.
- Ensuring the timely delivery of all products.
- Present the findings of this formative assessment at a regional knowledge management event in 2025.
Note: This is a home based consultancy. All applications should include financial proposal. Applications without the financial proposal will not be considered.
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Educational requirements:
Master’s degree in climate change, gender, development studies, business, education, or related field of Social Sciences.
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required: As Mentioned below-essential and desirable
- At least ten years of proven experience in evaluation and programme reviews.
- Knowledge of methods and approaches in evaluation and
- Experience in applying both quantitative and qualitative methods and ability to effectively communicate data and analysis Experience in working on green skills and climate change topics
- Strong experience in writing reports, documentation to convey programming efforts
- Experience with the ethics of evidence generation; familiarity with ethical safeguards
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English required.
Desirable:
- Experience of working in the South Asia region
- Knowledge and exposure to UNICEF programming in the areas of Climate Change, WASH, Education, Social and Behavior Change, Gender, Adolescent and Youth Development, and Health will be an advantage.
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.
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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.
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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.
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