International Consultancy – Adolescents Girls and Ending Child Marriage (ECM), Kathmandu, Nepal (ROSA), 4 months

UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) requires a consultant to join and support the Gender team in ROSA to implement the Gender component of the GP-ECM Phase III.

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, dedication.

UNICEF is committed to promote Gender Equality and empowerment of adolescent girls – across all sectors. UNICEF made several ambitious commitments in 2021. By adopting Its most progressive and forward-looking strategic plan, Gender Policy and Gender Action Plan 2022-2025, UNICEF committed to advance bold, transformative change towards a more gender equal world and a world where an adolescent girl is empowered to realise her full potential in life. In South Asia, progress on gender equality has been remarkably uneven, and recent crises- the COVID-19 pandemic, climate breakdowns, Humanitarian crisis and shifting economic opportunities have further challenged gender-equitable growth. Adolescents especially girls continue to face tremendous barriers to accessing the information, services, and support they need to achieve their agency, voice and full potential. Girls tend to face more limitations on their ability to move freely and to make decisions affecting their work, education, marriage, Health and social relationships. These constraints deny them the ability to make informed decisions and choices for themselves, to care for their health and bodily autonomy, and to be treated as equals. To address this, UNICEF South Asia, has developed an adolescent girl framework 2022-25 to accelerate programming and reach with and for girls especially the marginalized, through investment in intentional interventions for girls’ and multi-sectoral and integrated programs focusing on their overall empowerment and wellbeing for holistic development.

Despite the significant progress of reduction in the last decades, South Asia is still home to 290 million child brides – representing 45 per cent of all child brides globally. Big disparities are evident not only between countries but also within them, exacerbated by factors such as caste, urban-rural divides, entrenched social and gender norms, the challenges posed by the impact of COVID-19, and protracted/ongoing humanitarian crises. GP-ECM Phase III- a joint programme of UNFPA and UNICEF in its third phase has clearly articulated gender transformative approaches to address child marriage, especially focusing the most marginalized girls, including the poorest, girls in slums, girls from lower caste, pregnant & married girls, and those affected by humanitarian crises.

How can you make a difference? 

Working directly under the supervision of the Regional Gender Advisor and in close collaboration with the overall ROSA Gender and CP teams, the consultant will be responsible for the following general/specific tasks:

Child marriage

•Support RO and GPECM III countries in integrating gender components into their programmes

•Develop a tailored capacity framework for women/girl-led organizations working on ending child marriage

•Support scale-up of digital solutions for ending child marriage

•Support capacity building on Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) across South Asia programming

•Knowledge Management around gender in ECM

Adolescent pregnancies initiative

•Support with the study on needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents (ToR and coordination of the study)

•Support SAARC and ROSA Multi sectoral team on the technical working group on adolescent pregnancy and care, that has been recently activated to oversee implementation of the Regional Action plan on Adolescent pregnancies and care

•Coordinate the TWG on Adolescent pregnancies in consultation with SAARC, UNFPA and WHO

Knowledge management and reporting

•Work with CP on  GPECM programming for 2024, that robustly captures the gender related elements

•Support Cos on annual reporting

•Documentation of good practices for annual report

Work Assignments Overview	Deliverables/Outputs	Delivery  deadline
GPECM Support RO and GPECM III countries in integrating gender components into their programmes Guidance note on working with women-led organisations SAARC Adolescent Pregnancies Support to the technical working group on adolescent pregnancy	Guidance note on women led organization is issued and used by all   Functional TWG on Adolescent pregnancies	30th September 2024
GPECM Develop a tailored capacity framework for women/girl-led organizations working on ending child marriage Adolescent Pregnancies Support the study on needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents (ToR and coordination of the study) Support to technical working group meeting on adolescent pregnancy	Capacity Building workshop conducted for women led organisations implementing GPECM   ToR for the Study on pregnant and parenting adolescents finalized and endorsed by UNICEF and UNFPA   First official meeting of the TWG conducted	31st October 2024
GPECM Scale-up of digital solutions for ending child marriage. Webinar on Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) Support capacity building training on Gender Transformative Approach (GTA) across South Asia programming Coordinate with CP on documentation in child marriage in emergencies Adolescent Pregnancies Support the study on needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents (coordination of the study)	Webinar to all NGOs on examples of digital solutions that are working to scale up Child marriage interventions.   Training to all partners on application of GTA in ending Child marriage.   Study report on pregnant and parenting adolescent conducted	30 November 2024
GPECM Reporting on GPECM programming for 2024 Support Cos on annual reporting Documentation of good practices for annual report   Adolescent Pregnancies Support the study on needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents (coordination of the study) Support to technical working group meeting on adolescent pregnancy   Gender Annual Report Contribution to the gender annual report	Annual report on GPECM done-with key Gender related deliverables and results       Minutes of the TWG and next steps       Gender Annual report 2024	31st December 2024

 

 

 

 

 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Gender studies, International development or related fields.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in gender work.
• Experience in working with UN agencies from the South Asia region is required.
• Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
• Be fully computer literate in standard software applications.
• Have good analytical skills and possess good report writing skills.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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. 

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. 

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.