Consultant: Social Protection and Climate Change, Programme Group, Social Policy and Social Protection Section, NYHQ, remote. Req#585296

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: Social Protection and Climate Change Consultancy

Duty Station: Global Programme Division, Gender Equality  

Duration: 1 November 2025 – 31 March 2026  

Home/ Office Based: Remote

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The UNICEF Social Policy and Social Protection Programme Team is seeking a short-term consultancy to accelerate progress in the implementation of the Global Accelerator on jobs and social protection for just transitions. This includes:

• Undertaking a synthesis of literature on the effectiveness of social protection in supporting climate change adaptation outcomes for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change ie children and young people, those living with disabilities, women and girls, and children on the move. identify the most salient evidence gaps; and
• Developing the implementation roadmap and action plan for the USP2030 financing group led Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA) initiative on financing social protection

Scope of Work:

Climate change is intensifying existing social and economic inequalities, with its impacts felt most acutely by children living in poverty. Across the globe, nearly 1.9 billion children are estimated to experience at least one extreme climate event per year. Of these, a staggering 774 million children live in poverty and are affected by high climate risk. This number is expected to increase significantly in the coming years as gradual but persistent changes in climate patterns continue to erode livelihoods and household incomes, thus reducing capacities of parents and carers to invest in the human development of children and other vulnerable members of the household.

Social protection systems play a pivotal role in helping households and communities to adapt to the growing climate risks. Even when not explicitly designed with environmental goals in mind, social protection programs such as social assistance or public works enable poor households to prepare for and cope with climate shocks by enabling savings, creating assets, and diversifying livelihoods & income sources. When climate considerations are integrated into their design, for instance, by linking early warning system with social protection or payouts to weather-based triggers or supporting local initiatives like mangrove restoration or flood mitigation, social protection systems evolve into powerful instruments for both shock response and long-term climate resilience. However, despite their obvious potential, social protection is still underutilized within national climate strategies and could be further strengthened to better address climate risks.

Recognizing this gap, the Global Accelerator for jobs and social protection for just transitions was launched by the UN Secretary General in 2021. It is designed to support the creation of jobs in the green economy and extend social protection to the most vulnerable, to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. While social protection appears to be one of the surest means of reducing the impacts of climate change on children's rights, it often remains one of the least funded sectors. In July 2025, world leaders endorsed the Sevilla Platform for Action at FFD4, which includes ambitious targets such as increasing social protection coverage by two percentage points annually, and calls for integrating financing into national strategies, ensuring predictable and uninterrupted funding, especially in crisis and conflict settings

As a part of both these global processes and as the lead of the USP2030 finance working group, UNICEF is seeking a consultant to support the Child Poverty and Social Protection team in NYHQ, to embark on actions that will expedite progress on the global commitments. Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables.

 

Scope of work:

1. Inception report outlining the methodology and