Individual Consultancy to Provide Technical Guidance on Disability Inclusive Climate Action Programming at UNICEF

Goal And Objective
Under the supervision of the ESARO Programme Specialist (Climate), the consultant will:

• Assess the inclusiveness or lack thereof of UNICEF’s climate action programming in ESAR, including relevant frameworks and guidelines, capacity and practices.
• Map lessons learned from other UN agencies, INGOs and CSOs that UNICEF can use to inform its climate action programming
• Provide recommendations to ensure UNICEF’s climate action programming in ESAR is inclusive of children and young persons with disabilities.

Provide Details/reference To AWP Areas Covered

• The AWP activity “BMZ/KFW MULTI-SECTORAL CLIMATE RESILIENT HUB” is one of the key areas of implementation for the Climate Resilience Hub. At the same time disability inclusion is highly prioritized and this consultancy will strengthen the programming in that regard.

Activities And Tasks

• The primary task of the consultant is to review UNICEF’s climate action programming in ESAR for its disability inclusiveness, and map lessons learned from other UN agencies, INGOs and CSOs that UNICEF can use to inform its climate action programming. The end goal of the assignment is to produce a technical guidance document for disability inclusive climate action programming in ESAR strengthening capacity of Country offices to plan, implement and monitor disability inclusive climate action programming.

The Methodology Should Include The Following Steps

• Step 1. Desk review. The consultant will review relevant evidence and data on the impact of climate change on youth with disabilities, data (where available), and policy and programme documents provided by country offices.
• Step 2. Data collection and analysis. The consultant will develop a tool to collect feedback from UNICEF country offices, other UN agencies, relevant government counterparts, relevant international development agencies and organizations of persons with disabilities in the countries. The tool will be used to compile feedback from each country to document past and ongoing initiatives, approaches used, opportunities and challenges faced at the country level. The analysis should aim to identify the future climate action needs and areas where support is needed, including how to make them inclusive of and accessible to children and young persons with disabilities.
• Step 3. Good practices and lessons learned. The consultant will identify good/promising practices and lessons learned, if any, as well as the use of innovative approaches and develop case studies to document them.
• Step 4. Present the findings. After sharing the draft report with UNICEF and receiving feedback from the RO, the consultant will develop a PowerPoint presentation, which will be presented to relevant UNICEF colleagues via webinars.

Step 5. Report. The Consultant Will Prepare An ESAR Report Of Maximum 20 Pages, With At Least The Following Sections Included

• Executive summary (2-3 pages)
• Impact of climate change on children and young persons with disabilities in the region and review of the level of progress of countries
• Recommendations to improve policies and frameworks to support child- and disability inclusive climate action programming
• Mapping of UNICEF programmes in climate action and the inclusiveness of children and young persons with disabilities in the region or lack thereof
• Good practice and lessons learned from other organizations
• Successes, challenges and gaps in climate action programming at the country level in view of disability inclusion, in selected countries where children are most at risk according to the Children Climate Risk Index (CCR 2021)
• Recommendations on how to make UNICEF ESAR climate action programming inclusive of children and young persons with disabilities
• Annexes:
  • Acronyms
  • Bibliography
  • Methodology and approach
  • Tools used for data collection
  • List of respondents to the survey and interviewees

The following cross-cutting issues should be kept in mind.

• To what extent do initiatives address gender specific needs and barriers?
• To what extent do initiatives address the specific needs and barriers of children and young persons with different disabilities?
• To what extent are initiatives specific to a particular country context (HIC, LMIC, LIC, humanitarian, emergency…), needs and available resources?
• To what extent has COVID-19 accelerated/frozen/given new opportunity to climate action programming for children and young persons with disabilities?

Work Relationships

• The consultant will report to the Programme Specialist (Climate) at ESARO with regular virtual meetings with relevant colleagues including the Disability Inclusion team at ESARO. The consultant will engage also directly with COs, government counterparts, international development agencies and OPDs when collecting country information.

Outputs/Deliverables

• The Inception Report will describe the strategic directions of the work, the methodology to be followed, the different steps to deliver the expected results, potential limitations, the framework/tools for information collection and analysis, and the detailed timetable that the consultant will use to deliver the main results of the study.
• The main findings of the survey/interviews with COs, government counterparts and stakeholders on the level of progress of climate action programming and initiatives at national levels according to the analysis grid used and the good practices identified.
• The report, the final deliverable, will consist of all the sections listed above. The consultant will present this work at a regional webinar to be scheduled.

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

• Advanced degree in environmental, earth science or related discipline.
• Minimum 8 years relevant professional experience, experience working in issues relating to climate action, disability, social inclusion and/or related fields in developing country contexts.
• Strong experience in research, program management, monitoring and reporting.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and previous experience communicating with partners at different levels.
• Demonstrated ability in work planning and report preparation.
• Demonstrated skills in professional high-quality writing in English.
• Experience working in the Eastern and Southern Africa region highly desirable.
• Previous experience working with UNICEF is an asset.
• Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:
  • Care
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Trust
  • Accountability
  • Sustainability

Competencies

• Builds and maintains partnerships..
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others
• Excellent communication skills in English.