Consultancy: Child Protection Systems Strengthening Consultant - Req.#581393

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!

Vacancy Announcement: Consultant Consultancy Title: Child Protection Systems Strengthening Consultancy Section/Division/Duty Station: Child Protection Programme Team, New York Duration: June 1, 2025, May 31, 2026 Home/ Office Based: REMOTE   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. 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.   BACKGROUND Purpose of Activity/Assignment:   In 2021, UNICEF launched its updated approach to Child Protection Systems Strengthening (CPSS). At present, UNICEF, together with other partners, is implementing an ambitious child protection programme to support global, regional and country-level actors to operationalize and implement inclusive and effective child protection systems, including children on the move (migrants and refugees) and children with disability.  The purpose of this consultancy is to provide high-quality technical assistance to the child protection team by supporting several initiatives for dissemination and implementation of the CPSS approach on the ground and to strengthen the inclusion agenda, especially with a focus on children on the move in national CP systems through comprehensive and effective knowledge generation, dissemination and utilization. This will include the development, validation, and dissemination of several global public goods in the form of technical notes/guidance on various aspects of the CPSS approach.  UNICEF HQ supports country offices to apply the CPSS benchmarking tool to measure the effectiveness of CPSS interventions across 158 countries. In 2024, UNICEF, along with partners, developed and launched the Child Protection Systems Strengthening Framework of Action during the 1st Ministerial Conference to end violence against children in Bogota, Colombia. UNICEF will continue to work with partners to advocate for endorsement of the framework by countries and its implementation. As part of our CPSS work, UNICEF also prioritizes social service workforce strengthening (SSWS) as a strategic intervention. UNICEF has undertaken several initiatives to provide technical assistance to governments and local partners to better plan, develop, and support the social service workforce for child protection.  This consultancy will be aimed at supporting these strategic initiatives by providing ongoing technical assistance to UNICEF offices, in collaboration with our partners, to develop and deliver a series of discrete outputs.   Scope of Work: UNICEF Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and Child Protection Strategy (2021-2030) identify strengthening inclusive child protection systems as one of the three core programming strategies to ensure that every child is protected from violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect, and harmful practices. In line with this priority, the purpose of this consultancy is to support the implementation of key UNICEF programme priorities in child protection systems strengthening (CPSS) work.  There are four key objectives to this consultancy in terms of high-quality technical support to global, regional, and national initiatives: (1) Strengthen UNICEF CPSS work including by providing high-quality technical assistance to develop, disseminate and facilitate uptake of several guidance and technical notes on various aspects and pillars of child protection systems, with a focus on inclusive child protection systems, particularly children on the move. (2) Develop, document and disseminate the knowledge around emerging practices to strengthen inclusive CP systems through a vibrant community of practice. (3) Support UNICEF’s social service workforce strengthening work as a critical element of CP Systems, with a particular focus on children on the move. (4) Facilitate dissemination and endorsement of the Child Protection Framework of Action that was developed and launched with partners at the 1st Global Ministerial Conference to end violence against children.    Terms of Reference / Specific Deliverables 1. Support the UNICEF HQ team to pro