Programme pilot and design Climate Facility for Children West Africa (CF4C-WA) Consultant, WCARO, Dakar, Senegal, 12 months (110 effective days), (Home-based with country visits to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger)

The UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office is looking for consultancy to coordinate the design of the Climate Facility for Children – West Africa (CF4C-WA), including the monitoring of and reporting on pilot interventions in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger.

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, Hope

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

oordinate the design of the Climate Facility for Children – West Africa (CF4C-WA), including the monitoring of and reporting on pilot interventions in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger.

How can you make a difference? 

Background and purpose

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, and have expertise in the field of climate change, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For more than 70 years, UNICEF has been working in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. As the world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation and HIV and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

UNICEF works towards the realization of the rights of children as prescribed in the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Over the past decade, climate change - which affects all children’s rights - has become a top priority for UNICEF. As a matter of fact, the climate crisis is a child rights crisis.

UNICEF Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO), in coordination with partners and UNICEF country offices in selected countries, is planning to develop of a multi-country proposal entitled Climate Facility for Children – West Africa (CF4C-WA), for submission to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The CF4C-WA will initially focus on Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger, all within the GCF priority areas: (i) African States; and (ii) Least Developed Countries (LDCs). These countries respectively rank 15th, 15th, 22nd, 29th, and 7th in the CCRI, placing them among the countries where children are the most exposed to climate risks globally.

In each of these five countries, children are facing a multitude of climate risks, including drought, flooding and coastal erosion. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, these risks are combined with the Central Sahel security crisis, which also spill overs in northern Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

Specifically, the CF4C-WA will increase policy ambitions and address climate vulnerabilities and financing needs for climate-resilient social infrastructures and sustainable, inclusive and low-emission provision of essential social services in the disaster risk reduction (DRR), child health, nutrition, education, social protection, child protection and sustainable energy sectors.

Scope of Work:

The purpose of the international consultancy is to coordinate the initial phase of the C4FC-WCA, which will consist in designing the programme and piloting it in five countries. This includes country missions, the organization of a series of design workshops at country and regional levels, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of pilot interventions and preparing initial drafts of the proposal to be submitted to the GCF, including various annexes such as the Results Framework. The ideal candidate will possess 

strong humanitarian project/programme design and management experience, and ideally extensive experience of GCF concept note/proposal writing, or equivalent.

Number of Working Days: 110 days corresponding to an average of 10 days per month (from November 1st, 2024, to September 30th, 2025)

Activities, deliverables and timeline

The International Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Overall coordination of the pilot and design phase of the CF4C-WA
• Planning and coordination of a series of programme design workshop at country and regional level
• Planning and leading country visits to monitor and report on the implementation of pilot interventions in five countries.
• Manage the collection, analysis, and sharing of relevant data, information, and documents among stakeholders.
• Coordinate and facilitate online meetings, discussions, and workshops among all parties.
• Prepare monthly reports on the concept note preparation progress, challenges, and proposed solutions to UNICEF WCARO, UNICEF Country Offices and the NDAs.
• Develop and maintain a database on a spreadsheet of documents, reports, and correspondences.
• Prepare the proposal’s initial draft(s), including annexes such as the Results Framework
• Ensure that all outputs and deliverables meet the quality standards and requirements set by UNICEF WCARO.
• Ensure the confidentiality and security of all consultancy-related information.
• Any other tasks related to the C4FC-WA as instructed by UNICEF WCARO.

Work Assignments Overview	Deliverables/Outputs	Delivery deadline
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 1), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 1) Inception report	1 month
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 2), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 2)	2 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 3), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 3) Analytical report including context analysis and stakeholder mapping	3 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 4), including a workplan for the next month. Prepare a draft 0 proposal	Monthly report (Month 4)	4 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 5), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 5) including country visit report Draft 0 proposal	5 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 6), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 6)	6 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 7), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 7)	7 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 8), including a workplan for the next month. Prepare a draft 1 proposal	Monthly report (Month 8) Draft 1 proposal	8 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 9), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 9)	9 months
Produce a monthly activity report (Month 10), including a workplan for the next month.	Monthly report (Month 10), including country visit report Lessons learnt / handover report	10 months
Produce a final report Prepare a draft 2 proposal	Monthly report (Month 11) Draft 2 proposal (by December 31st, 2025)	11 months

Administrative and planning support:

The International Consultant will be home-based (ideally in Dakar). All costs related to the work, including one field mission to each of the five countries, will be included in the financial proposal and subsequent contract. Daily monitoring and supervision will be provided by UNICEF Regional Climate Specialist, with support from the UNICEF Country Offices focal points, under the overall direction of UNICEF Regional WASH/Climate Resilience Advisor.

The consultant is expected to be able to work independently to organize and facilitate internal meetings, external meetings/roundtables, presentations stakeholder meetings.

The consultant is required to provide his/her own computer and communications equipment (laptops, telephones, etc.).

No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the consultant/ contractor.

Consultant/Contractor will be required to complete mandatory online courses (e.g. Ethics, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Security) upon receipt of offer and before the signature of contract.

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

• An advanced degree in Climate Studies, Environmental Science, DRR, Social Sciences, Education, Project Management or related fields is required.
• At least 7 years of experience in project coordination or management, preferably in climate-related proposal development with international organizations.
• Excellent writing skills and demonstrated ability to communicate scientific and technical ideas clearly using simple, commonly accepted language.
• Proven experience in liaising with government partners.
• Comfort making presentations to clients and presenting information in a compelling, informative, and persuasive fashion.
• Proven experience working in (one or more) social sectors (DRR, WASH, Education, Health, etc.).
• Excellent attention to detail complemented by strong organizational skills.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines.
• Ability to work in teams as well as independently.
• Experience in West and Central Africa Region context is considered as an asset.
• Intermediate to advanced experience with producing deliverables with Microsoft Office 365 programs including SharePoint, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Fluency in English (oral and written) and French.

Application Requirements

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system /Resume
• Academic credentials/certificates
• Consultancy proposal
• Financial proposal that will include:
  • Costs for each deliverable and total all-inclusive (lump sum) fees for the whole assignment
  • Travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per ToR
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable
• Previously relevant consultancy products & final evaluations (if available)
• Indicate your availability
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold. payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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.