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Consultancy Title: Consultant to support the UNICEF HQ Child Protection Resource Mobilization Strategy for 2025 – 2030

Section/Division/Duty Station: Programme Group, Child Protection Section, UNICEF NYHQ

Duration: 10 December 2024 to 15 April 2025

Home/ Office Based: NYHQ / Remote

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 for developing 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.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

UNICEF’s Child Protection and Migration Team (CPPT) at Headquarters is seeking to contract a consultant to support the development of a child protection fundraising strategy for the new Strategic Plan 2026 – 2030, which will set priorities, strategies and targets for UNICEF’s resource mobilization in support of the Child Protection Strategy 2021 – 2030 as well as the Strategic Plan for the period 2025-2030.

While UNICEF’s Public Partnership Division (PPD) and Private Sector Fundraising (PFP) mobilize organizational resources from public sector and private sector partners respectively, it is the responsibility of Programme Group (PG) Sections to drive their respective resource mobilization efforts to secure sufficient resources to sustain the important support provided to Country and Regional offices in the pursuit of the progress towards the CP goals and targets and to ensure that child rights are central to overall UNICEF efforts. While public partners continue to be a key resource partner to UNICEF including the Child Protection team, there is untapped potential with private sector entities, in particular Foundations that could enable UNICEF to accelerate progress towards intended goals.

Resource mobilization efforts by CPPT at HQ level comprises resource mobilization directly for HQ-supported technical assistance to regional and country teams, as well as securing and leveraging resources for multi-region and multi-country programmes for key priority areas including violence against girls, boys, and women; prevention of harmful practices; birth registration and humanitarian action for children; as well as children on the move.

In a constrained resource environment, a focused and targeted approach to partnership building will be critical to secure sufficient funds for the future of UNICEF child protection programmes. The UNICEF CP Resource Mobilization Strategy provides an overall vision and direction for mobilizing resources to support the achievement of goals set in the UNICEF CP strategy 2021 – 2030 and the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2025 – 2029 as it pertains to child protection – taking into consideration the different levels of accountability and collaboration between HQ, Regional teams, and Country Offices to advance a coherent approach. The HQ Strategy may hence also be used as a guide to develop regional and country level CP resource mobilization strategies where relevant and useful.

Scope of Work:

The purpose of the strategy is to provide a common framework for both public and private sector resource mobilization and partnerships for Child Protection at UNICEF HQ. The aim is to help focus the CPPT efforts, provide the direction for the UNICEF CP resource mobilization for the period 2025 – 2030 in a coordinated and targeted manner, also identifying new partners in emerging areas (e.g. climate) to achieve the following two overarching resource mobilization goals:

• INCOME: Public and private sector income growth is sustained and further accelerated to enable Child Protection to achieve the required impact and scale of CP programmes from 2025 to 2030.
• INFLUENCE: Public and private sector partners recognize the importance and relevance of child protection to the realization of child rights in both dedicated CP engagements as well as cross-sectoral partnerships with e.g. health, nutrition, WASH, education, Social Policy, and others to grow the influence needed to achieve UNICEF goals towards the SDGs.

The Senior Adviser within the Planning and Evidence team in the HQ CPPT will lead the process in collaboration with the rest of the Child Protection team and bring in PPD’s Strategic Planning team (SAPO) and PFPs’ Strategic Planning (PRIME) team as support where relevant. Other internal stakeholders such as the Child Protection Regional Advisors will also be brought into the strategy development process. Specifically, the consultant will develop the following deliverables:

• Draft and final Resource Mobilization Strategy 2022-2025
• An executive summary document – that can be used as a stand-alone document
• A slide deck/powerpoint covering key salient points to present the strategy
• An infographic/visual depicting the key elements of the strategy.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Document review. Initial briefing with Child Protection Senior Management (Planning & Evidence team, CP Director). Agreement on process and timelines (12 December 2024)

Development of zero draft of RM strategy/ Inception Report. Zero draft Strategy/Inception Report that includes a draft outline of the CP RM Strategy, a proposed timeline, consultation methodology, referencing the following documents:

• UNICEF corporate RM Strategy 2018-2021
• UNICEF corporate RM Strategy 2022 – 2025
• UNICEF CP Strategy 2021 – 2030
• Other documents as relevant (20 December 2024)

Revised zero draft/ Inception Report based on consultation with PEB and wider CP HQ team. Revised zero draft/Inception Report (12 January 2025).

Presentation of zero draft Strategy at the 2025 CP HQ planning meeting (Virtual). Presentation given. (25 January 2025).

Virtual consultations with the UNICEF HQ Child Protection Unit Leads and the Extended Leadership Team (ECPLT) network – which includes Regional Advisors – as well as PPD and PFP for development of first draft.

First draft shared with CP HQ team and ECPLT for review and written feedback (31st January – 12th February). First draft of strategy with inputs from ECPLT (especially Regional Advisors), PPD, PFP reflected/incorporated. Synthesis of initial oral feedback shared in one document (30 January 2025).

Synthesis of feedback. Input/feedback used to draft 2nd draft of strategy. 2nd draft strategy reviewed by PEB team (6 – 11 Feb). Synthesis of all written feedback. 2nd draft of CP RM Strategy (5 February 2025).

Synthesis of feedback used to draft 3rd draft of Strategy. 3rd draft of Strategy reviewed by PEB team (20 – 27 Feb). 3rd draft of RM Strategy (19 February 2025).

Final draft of CP RM Strategy developed. Final Draft of RM Strategy (5 March 2025)

Development and submission of fully designed Exec Summary, PPT, infographic and strategy document. Exec Summary. Presentation. Infographic (15 April 2025)

Qualifications

Education: 

Advanced university degree (Masters) in the area of social science, management, economics, strategic planning, marketing or other related degree.

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *: 

• Demonstrated knowledge and minimum 5 years of experience in conducting and facilitating strategic planning processes and/or plans in UNICEF.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in working with UNICEF regional and country offices, as well as headquarters to develop strategic frameworks and plans.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated excellence in written and spoken English.

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.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements