Consultant for documentation and analysis of digital determinants of adolescent SRHR and promising digital CSE models

Backgroud:

UNFPA works across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure adolescents and youth have access to age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education in and out-of-school settings. Doing so equips young people with essential information and skills to have healthy relationships, promote gender-equitable social norms (including positive masculinity), and make informed decisions about their body and rights. 

Young people increasingly turn to online spaces, social media, digital technologies and other platforms for information about sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and other issues. Their knowledge, attitudes, and norms are increasingly influenced or ‘made’ in these digital spaces that were not originally designed to provide comprehensive health information. However, current digital SRHR work is often narrow, focusing primarily on informational websites, mHealth apps, or referrals to service delivery. Furthermore, the rise of generative AI – also increasingly used by youth for health information and emotional companionship—presents an urgent, unstudied area with direct implications for how young people form attitudes around intimacy, consent, and sexuality. 

 

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead United Nations agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is intended, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan for 2026-2029 articulates the organization’s response to a complex global environment, providing a roadmap for resilience and renewal. It is designed to accelerate the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This mandate is pursued through a focus on four interconnected outcomes: ending the unmet need for family planning; ending preventable maternal deaths; ending gender-based violence and harmful practices; and adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff who embody these international norms and standards and will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact sustained results, ensuring effective external relations, communications, partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results

 

Purpose of Consultancy:

The purpose of this international consultancy is to document, compile, curate promising digital CSE models relevant in the Asia Pacific region, and the factors influencing adolescents’ use of these platforms. The documentation process will give particular focus to gender equality, healthy and respectful relationships, informed and affirmative consent, online safety, TfGBV, and CSE-ASRH linkages). 

The curation and documentation process will also entail a rapid landscape analysis to map the factors surrounding young people’s access, habits, and use of digital technologies that impact their SRHR.

 

Scope of work:

The consultant will be responsible for conducting a landscape analysis of promising digital CSE models with potential for adaptation and scaling in the Asia Pacific region. The curation and documentation process will entail a rapid landscape analysis to map the factors and digital determinants for adolescent SRHR in the region. To scope and curate the most promising CSE models, the consultant will identify the common pathways through which digital ecosystems impact adolescent knowledge, attitudes, norms, practices and online safety.

Key components will include:

• Conceptual framework mapping the digital ecosystem factors (e.g., social media feeds, online communities and peer influences, etc.) affecting adolescent SRHR (on and off-line)
• State of Evidence and Scoping Review to map the field of digital ASRHR and CSE models, with a focus on countries in the Asia Pacific region
• Analysis of ‘digital determinants’, including digital information ecosystems most frequently used by young people (ranging from e-modules, social media platforms, digital online communities, conversational AI/chatbots, generative AI platforms, and others) and how this affects their knowledge, attitudes and skills
• Scoping and documentation of promising digital CSE models, especially those for sub-regions in the Asia Pacific that are youth-led, scalable, and/or demonstrate strong potential as sustainab