Senior Consultant Debt and Impact Investing, Office of Innovation, Innovative Finance Hub, 12 months (remote)

<p><span>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.</span></p> <p><span>Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.</span></p> <p><span>And we never give up.</span></p> <p><span><strong>For every child...innovate</strong></span></p> <p><span>UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.</span></p> <p><span>The <strong>Office of Innovation</strong> is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.</span></p> <p><span>UNICEF's Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:</span></p> <ul> <li><span>Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.</span></li> <li><span>Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.</span></li> <li><span>Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.</span></li> </ul> <p><span>The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form <strong>partnerships around frontier technologies</strong> (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets, and 1 billion person needs – and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively. </span></p> <p><span><strong>Our team</strong> </span><br/><br/><span>UNICEF’s Innovative Finance Hub, based in Helsinki, aims to catalyze global capital in support of children to fill the SDG gap and radically accelerate progress towards the SDGs. It sits at a unique vantage point where an organization working on global issues meets the startup thinking, new ideas, and partners to turn this energy into scalable solutions.</span></p> <p><span>A leading product of the Hub has been the development of Child-Lens Investing, a field to guide investors incorporating child-related considerations in decision-making. Since the publication of the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/innovation/child-lens-investing">Child-Lens Investing Framework</a> in September 2023, the nascent field has seen significant uptake and interest by the investment community. One important area of work is the applicability of CLIF to broad reference criteria for labelled debt instruments, such as bonds and loans. UNICEF is interested in exploring how such criteria and, consequently, guidelines could be developed both methodologically and practically. As seen with other thematic bonds and loans, the establishment of widely accepted reference standards would enable issuers to define what constitutes a credible child-lens debt instrument, while providing investors with greater confidence that their investments align with recognized market standards.</span></p> <p><span>Beyond expanding into other asset classes, the Hub is also exploring advancing thematic integration, demonstrating how Child-Lens Investing can complement and strengthen established investment lenses and themes, starting with Gender-Lens Investing and climate finance, and with the aim to expand to other investment lenses over time. By ensuring interoperability between these frameworks, the Hub seeks to enable issuers and investors to assess, report and compare performance across multiple lenses, thereby strengthening both market credibility and impact delivery.</span></p> <p><span><strong>How can you make a difference? </strong></span></p> <p><span>Under the direct supervision of the Senior Impact Analyst, the consultant will support the Hub in its work around Child-Lens Investing and the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/innovation/child-lens-investing">Child-lens Investing Framework</a> (CLIF). The consultant's responsibilities will be organized into three key areas: 1) supporting the development of guidelines for Child-Lens Investing in Debt Markets, 2) supporting the development of guidelines for the interoperability between Child-Lens Investing and Gender-Lens Investing and 3) supporting interoperability with climate finance. Specifically, the consultant will