National Consultancy for ‘Supporting the Social and Economic Engagement of Youth with Disabilities’ Project, Baku, Azerbaijan

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, care 

Azerbaijan joined the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006 and has been successfully implementing the obligations arising from the Convention in our country. The Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2018, determines the foundations of the state policy towards persons with disabilities and delineates the state’s responsibilities for the protection of their rights.

In recent years, numerous projects have been implemented and are ongoing in the country to support the societal integration and employment of persons with disabilities. However, there is a need for cross-sectoral collaboration and the application of international practices to realize sustainable solutions and mechanisms in this domain.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development especially emphasizes the importance of persons with disabilities in the SDG 8, which centres on decent work and economic growth. Supporting the social and economic engagement of everyone contributes significantly to national development. Global experience shows that access to education and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities is lower than for non-disabled persons, which is driven by multiple factors. From an early age, persons with disabilities face a variety of barriers, adversely impacting their transition from education to employment. Challenges such as the inaccessibility of formal and informal educational institutions for continuous learning further limit these youths’ opportunities to acquire appropriate professional skills and transition to employment, thus hindering their skills and knowledge from aligning with labour market demands. Moreover, societal disability-related stereotypes perpetuate negative perceptions about the health and capabilities of persons with disabilities, impeding their societal integration and fostering discrimination.

Recognizing these challenges, UNICEF Azerbaijan with a view to supporting the equal societal integration of young people with disabilities, plans to implement joint activities aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of these youths, addressing the difficulties they face due to negative attitudes and behaviours in society, and creating internship and employment opportunities. 

Within the framework of the project, selected youths will develop social-emotional, digital, and other essential skills for transitioning into work life, and highly performing individuals will benefit from employment and internship opportunities. The project will establish collaborative relations with public and private institutions and implement activities to transform the negative behaviours and stereotypes related to disability in society. 

How can you make a difference? 

To support the social and economic engagement of young people with disabilities by enhancing their skills for transitioning into work life and creating internship opportunities.

Scope of Work:

1. Personal development program: Developing and implementing a program for participants to discover themselves, define their goals, formulate a personal development plan, and prepare for job applications and interviews, along with analyzing their emotional state and shaping their outlook into future.
2. Development of social and soft skills: Preparing and conducting a program to enhance the participants’ social and soft skills that are in high demand in the labour market.
3. Continuous monitoring and evaluation: Consistently tracking and assessing the participants’ individual development and the advancement of their social skills throughout the program.
4. Mentorship support: Providing mentorship to participants throughout the program to effectively apply the learned knowledge.

Tasks/Milestone:	Deliverables/Outputs:	Timeline:
Personal development program: Developing and implementing a program for participants to discover themselves, define their goals, formulate a personal development plan, and prepare for job applications and interviews, along with analysing their emotional state and shaping their outlook into future.	Training package with theoretical and practical content, guiding handouts, report on the training with analysis of each participant’s capacity, recommendations for further development.	42 days
Development of social and soft skills: Preparing and conducting a program to enhance the participants’ social and soft skills that are in high demand in the labour market.		45 days
Mentorship support: Providing mentorship to participants throughout the program to effectively apply the learned knowledge.	A report on mentorship support	25 days
Continuous monitoring and evaluation: Consistently tracking and assessing the participants’ individual development and the advancement of their social skills throughout the program.	A report on the progress of the participants in the program (individually for each participant).	21 days
		133 days

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

• A master’s degree or higher in a relevant field such as Education, Career Counselling, Employment and teaching/training.
• Strong expertise and minimum of 3 years’ experience in development of individual development, career development/soft skills development related training modules.
• Experience working with people with disabilities.
• Excellent communication skills to interact with project participants, engaged partners and present recommendations on existing gaps and way forward to address them.
• Experience in working with developmental partners, including UN, and governmental partners.
• Excellent Azerbaijani communication and writing skills.

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.