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 voice
How can you make a difference?
BACKGROUND
The UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia seeks to establish a roster of experts dedicated to upholding and advancing children’s rights through specialized child protection interventions for deployments throughout the region.
Becoming a child protection consultant on the UNICEF roster is based on a standard one-off application that may potentially open the door to multiple assignments. Successful applicants will be eligible for direct recruitment by the Regional Office or any of the Country Offices or Refugee Response Offices in the region for a period of up to three years, with the possibility of renewing the roster, to update the status of persons previously on the roster as well as opening the roster for new candidates. UNICEF will make extensive use of the roster for its consultancy requirements, thus reducing the time required to process contracts and for a consultant to become operational. This is therefore a unique opportunity for qualified individuals to submit a single application and, if successful, to be considered immediately for assignments in the relevant areas of expertise.
The UNICEF Child Protection Roster for Europe and Central Asia serves as a human resources repository from which the Regional Office or Country Offices can draw pre-vetted, well-qualified child protection experts quickly and efficiently, who can advance UNICEF’s mission to protect and realize children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
SCOPE OF WORK AND DUTIES
The Child Protection Roster is designed to meet the consultancy needs of the region for the next three years. In this regard, UNICEF’s ECARO invites qualified experts to express their interest in joining the Experts’ Roster. This roster aims to provide specialized services, access to knowledge, and technical expertise to UNICEF’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in the Child Protection portfolio, particularly in the areas of:
Applicants are required to indicate one or more of the areas of expertise for which they would like to be considered:
a) Prevention, promotion, and treatment approaches to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and families in emergency and humanitarian settings, to include:
b) Provision of training and supervision in evidence-based MHPSS intervention models in humanitarian and development settings, including UNICEF/WHO global tools such as EASE, EQUIP, I Support My Friends, and others.
c) MHPSS and GBV joint initiatives in both humanitarian and development settings, including focus on prevention and response to intimate partner violence in families with a member in the armed forces.
d) MHPSS across the continuum of child care, including prevention of family separation, support to children and caregivers in foster care, kinship care, residential care, and those leaving care.
e) MHPSS as part of violence against children (VAC) initiatives, including MHPSS to prevent and mitigate violence and to support children and families affected by violence, including focus on peer violence/bullying initiatives and family violence.
f) MHPSS and justice for children, including support to child victims and witnesses, children in detention settings, children at risk of offending, and capacity strengthening of legal professionals.
g) Integration of MHPSS in social service workforce capacity strengthening.
h) Multisectoral MHPSS situational analysis, service mapping, gap analysis, and needs and capacity assessments.
i) Support to country office development of multisectoral MHPSS strategies, theories of change, monitoring frameworks, workplans, and project proposals.
j) Support to governments in development and monitoring of interministerial MHPSS plans and strategies; policy review and advisory to ensure appropriate integration of MHPSS for children in legislation.
k) Facilitation of regional/subregional and thematic MHPSS communities of practice and learning exchange.
The range of tasks for consultants may include technical support to country teams, design and conducting of research and analysis, assessment, and evaluation, drafting of technical documents, content development of knowledge products, documentation of good practices, strategic programme design, communication and advocacy, training, mentorship, and capacity strengthening, monitoring and evaluation, information management system services, data analytics, and others as required.
Precise tasks, outputs, reporting and working relationships will be specified at the time of contracting for the given assignments.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Requirements applicable to all Experts
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.
HOW TO APPLY
Candidates are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to be included in the ECA Regional Roster, a pool of experts available for assignments between 2025-2028.
Your Expression of Interest must include:
Applications should be submitted by 10 February 2025.
Please note that only candidates who are under serious consideration will be contacted. Once pre-qualified, consultants will be eligible for direct recruitment by UNICEF offices in the region for a three-year period. In the selection of its staff and consultants, UNICEF is committed to gender balance, inclusion and diversity without distinction as to race, sex or religion, and without discrimination of persons with disabilities. Well qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.
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.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
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.
Level of Education: Bachelor Degree
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: No requirements
Notifications