GPE KIX Africa 19 Hub (Inclusive Education, ECE, Gender and Knowledge Exchange) Consultant, Global Education Practice, remote. Req# 591325

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Consultancy: GPE KIX Africa 19 Hub (Inclusive Education, ECE, Gender and Knowledge Exchange) Consultant

Duty Station: PG, Global Education Practice

Duration: 15 March 2026 – 15 January 2027

Home/ Office Based: Remote

 

BACKGROUND

UNICEF works in some of the world’s most challenging contexts to reach the most disadvantaged children to save their lives, defend their rights, and help them realize their full potential. UNICEF provides oversight, quality assurance, and technical assistance as well as building strategic partnerships and generates evidence to strengthen programming. Within education, UNICEF supports country offices by generating quality evidence and building partnerships for risk-informed programming and financing and enhancing the capacity of countries to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate education programmes with a focus on ensuring that all girls and boys, including those with disabilities, complete early learning, primary, and secondary education with grade-level learning outcomes.

Globally, an estimated 240 million children aged 0–17 years live with disabilities with 28.9 million living in Eastern and Southern Africa alone. Yet, many remain out of school, and those enrolled often face barriers to meaningful learning due to lack of inclusive teaching practices, inadequate resources, and persistent stigma. Gender disparities also remain a pressing challenge. Worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school. In Eastern and Southern Africa, gender inequalities are compounded by social and health challenges.

To address these barriers, UNICEF, in partnership with UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) and the Pan-African Institute for Education for Development (AU IPED), co-leads the Knowledge, Innovation and Exchange (KIX) Africa 19 hub. Funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the hub supports 19 Anglophone African countries to generate, share, and apply data, knowledge, and innovations that inform inclusive, gender-responsive education policies and programmes. UNICEF’s priorities within KIX include strengthening early childhood care and education (ECCE), advancing equity and gender equality, building capacities of partner countries, and supporting tailored country-level mechanisms

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

Under the supervision of the Education Specialist, Budget Reform and Financing, the consultant will provide technical and coordination expert advice to Global Education Practice in the implementation of the GPE-KIX Africa 19 initiative. The purpose of the assignment is to contribute specialized expertise to strengthen selected components of the Africa 19 Hub activities, including country support processes, regional knowledge exchange, and documentation and dissemination of evidence and innovations that inform inclusive and gender-responsive education policies and programmes.

Scope of Work

1. Activities and Tasks:

a. Technical coordination support to KIX Africa 19 hub implementation. The consultant will provide technical, coordination, and documentation support to UNICEF GEP and consortium partners through the following tasks:

• Provide technical inputs to hub activities in collaboration with UNESCO-IICBA and AU-IPED, including preparation of background materials, tracking tools, and progress summaries.
• Compile activity tracking updates against workplans and budgets for review by UNICEF staff and consortium partners.
• Participate in consortium meetings, prepare briefing notes, capture key decisions, and circulate meeting summaries and action points.
• Draft technical and financial progress reports based on inputs from partners and consolidate feedback for finalization by UNICEF.
• Provide technical and logistical planning support for the 2026 KIX symposium, including drafting concept notes, compiling inputs, and symposium report