Background and Rationale
With the recurrent humanitarian crisis, SBCiE/RCCE is fundamental to build trust and empowering affected communities. By engaging with communities, it helps to reduce misinformation and stigma, encourages community-led solutions, and ensures interventions are tailored to actual needs, making emergency responses more effective, efficient, and adaptable to diverse populations and evolving crises.
Given the reduced number of UNICEF SBC in Emergency specialists, and the number of assets in this field, there is an increased need of establishing a pool of vetted SBCiE/RCCE professionals, namely to support coordination, reinforce SBC capacity in data generation and feedback mechanisms, knowledge management and capacity development, as well as provide direct technical assistance to country offices as/when required.
By securing this specialised expertise, UNICEF SBC teams can integrate SBCiE/RCCE approaches more consistently across programmes for both emergency response and preparedness, improving partners coordination, evidence and feedback-based emergency interventions, strengthen the organisation’s quality emergency response and accountability to affected populations. This includes a strong commitment to Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), ensuring communities are informed, engaged, and able to provide feedback that shapes programmes, with a focus on inclusion and closing feedback loops.
Selected consultants will be eligible for a long-term agreement to provide on-demand technical support to UNICEF Centers of Excellence (CoE) and Country Offices (COs) and to other UN agencies for a period of three years. LTAS are non-binding agreements that do not constitute a commitment to acquire a consultant’s services.
Purpose
The purpose of this Terms of Reference (ToR) is to establish LTAS with multiple individual consultants that give UNICEF reliable access to specialised support in SBCiE/RCCE. The arrangement ensures that CoE and CO teams can draw on consistent expertise to support SBCiE/RCCE partnerships, collaboration, and coordination, revision or development of guidelines, standards, tools and resources, evidence generation and analysis, capacity building and knowledge management initiatives. The arrangement will ensure that SBCiE/RCCE interventions are aligned with AAP principles, including participation, transparency, feedback and complaints mechanisms, and responsiveness to community inputs.
Scope of Work
The individual consultants are required to apply their knowledge, international standards, best practices, and previous experiences, supplemented by relevant data and studies, to the task. In collaboration with UNICEF teams, the consultants will provide support as requested. The consultants will carry out the following activities as well as any other activities deemed necessary to successfully complete the task:
1. Partnerships, collaboration, and coordination
Consultants will support the organization of global/regional networking mechanisms, including the consolidation of presentations from different partners, maintaining of 4/5 Ws dashboards, drafting of minutes and action points from meetings, among other tasks. This will also include supporting coordination of regional SBCiE/RCCE inter-agency collaborations for technical cross sectoral support, knowledge management, and development of tools and methods. Consultants will coordinate UNICEF contributions to regional partner initiatives. Consultants will ensure that AAP approaches are systematically integrated into coordination mechanisms, including harmonization of community feedback systems and promotion of inter-agency accountability standards.
2. Technical advocacy, standards, and support
Consultants revise or develop guidelines, standards, tools and resources for behaviourally informed planning, research, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of SBC dimensions of UNICEF’s humanitarian actions across sectors, ensuring that these are people-centred.
3. Research, analysis, and evidence generation
Consultants will support the coordination of global research studies and reviews in the area of SBC in emergency and transition contexts, enhancing the emergency-development-peacebuilding nexus. This support can also include the establishment of mechanisms and platforms for the collection and use of social, behavioural and community-sourced data in emergency initiatives at country level, including community feedback mechanisms ensuring systematic analysis of feedback and its use in decision-making, as well as communication back to communities. Consultants will also conduct analyses of country level SBC dimensions of humanitarian actions of UNICEF and partners to identify, assess, and report on outcomes, innovations, lessons learned and good practices.
4. Capacity building and knowledge management
Consultants will support and facilitate mechanisms and resources for systemic knowledge generation such as case studies, acquisition, dissemination and sharing of experiences among UNICEF staff and partners on SBC evidence-based strategies, tools, lessons learned and behaviourally informed innovations to prevent and mitigate the impact of emergencies. Consultants will also support capacity strengthening initiatives focusing on SBCiE/RCCE and its principals to external and internal stakeholders.
Travel
Consultants may need to travel to UNICEF offices for on-site or in-country support. Consultants will need to make their travel arrangements and will be reimbursed for travel costs and subsistence allowance in line with and limited to those payable by UNICEF. Travel requirements will be explicitly mentioned in the specific contracts established through the LTAS mechanism. The payment of travel costs shall be limited to economy class air travel, regardless of the length of travel. Airfare and terminal expenses will be paid upon completion of each duty travel against the invoices.
Estimated duration of LTA
Payment Schedule
The LTA to be signed will have a fixed fee rate reflecting deliverables and including daily fee. However, UNICEF does not guarantee that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of the LTA as this will depend on forthcoming requests.
The consultant is expected to provide a quotation for the services he/she will provide as part of the application.
LTA Financial Proposal Template
Whenever consultancy services are required, details of the services will be presented according to the availability of the LTA holder.
Upon receipt of confirmation of availability and interest in the assignment, a contract will be issued with the prices/fees agreed in the LTA. The consultant must sign the contract prior to commencement of work.
Payment will be made after the completion of deliverables and submission of invoices for the actual work completed, subject to satisfactory performance.
The application to be submitted through the online portal should contain four separate attachments
- Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.
- Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
- Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.
- Female candidates meeting the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.
- UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.
- 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.
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.
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.
UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.
As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.
UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce.
Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.
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Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.
All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.