How can you make a difference?
Conflict and fragility remain major drivers of forced displacement. Climate hazards can intersect with conflict, poverty, existing displacement, water insecurity and stressed services to reshape mobility and risks for children. UNICEF's proposed report, Climate, Conflict and Displacement: Future-proofing PROSPECTS for the Next Frontier of Displacement Crises, will examine these intersections across PROSPECTS countries, including refugee- and IDP-hosting areas, secondary cities and peri-urban settlements. It will make visible consequences for children, including interrupted education, health and nutrition risks, family separation, psychosocial distress, child labour, child marriage, loss of documentation and disruption of essential services. Water security and WASH are a flagship entry point within a wider child-centred resilience agenda.
Working with UNICEF's designated technical leads, IDMC, relevant PROSPECTS partners and other report writers, the consultant will:
• Review available IDMC and other appropriate historical data on disaster- and conflict-related internal displacement, refugee/IDP populations, child demographics, climate hazards, urban growth and, where feasible, water and service pressures. Agree geographic coverage, periods, definitions, data access and limitations at inception.
•Clean, harmonise and analyse historical displacement data; develop and validate an age- and sex-disaggregation approach, documenting assumptions, uncertainty and gaps. Distinguish new displacements from people living in displacement and avoid double counting across datasets.
•Analyse available future disaster displacement-risk model outputs, including relevant climate scenarios where robust and accessible. Explain model assumptions and limits; do not project conflict displacement or infer combined causal effects without a defensible model.
•Use GIS and transparent spatial methods to identify locations where climate hazards, conflict/fragility, displacement, child populations, urban growth and available service vulnerability indicators converge, with attention to hosting and receiving areas. Test sensitivity to data resolution and weighting; label any composite index as indicative.
•Produce publication-ready maps, charts, tables, data files and short captions for current trends, intersecting risks and future risk, with source attribution and accessible formats. An interactive dashboard may be proposed only if feasible within the agreed effort and available platforms.
•Conduct focused desk research to interpret quantitative findings on the climate–conflict–displacement nexus and consequences for children, including water security/WASH, secondary cities, service continuity and selected country contexts. Cite sources and distinguish evidence from hypotheses.
•Draft the report's methodology and substantive analytical inputs, particularly the evidence chapter on child displacement and hotspots, relevant climate/conflict and urban analysis, and concise evidence inputs for water/WASH and solution sections. Revise these inputs following consolidated UNICEF and editorial comments. Provide a handover package with documented workflows, code or reproducible steps, metadata, references and limitations.
•The consultancy does not include lead authorship or final integration of the whole report, design of the PROSPECTS 3 investment proposition, standalone country profiles, an observatory, or COP32 advocacy products. The final scope and available data sets will be confirmed at inception.
Minimum requirements
• Understanding of disaster and conflict displacement data, climate-risk evidence and child-sensitive analysis; IDMC datasets and models an advantage.
• Experience in desk research, evidence synthesis and drafting clear technical sections for policy reports.
• Ability to work with multiple writers and technical partners and document sources, methods and limitations.
For every Child, you demonstrate...
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.
- An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
- Cover letter
Remarks: If the TOR or financial proposal documents are not downloadable 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.