Youth Innovation Consultant, UNICEF – Generation Unlimited, NYHQ, remote. Req# 588512

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: Youth Innovation Consultant 

Duty Station: Programme Group – Generation Unlimited

Duration: 10 January 2026 - 30th December 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

Generation Unlimited (GenU) is a global public–private–youth partnership dedicated to expanding opportunities for young people aged 10–24 to transition from learning to earning by 2030. Through its Entrepreneurship and Livelihoods workstream, GenU partners with governments, the private sector, and youth networks to design and scale models that equip young people with skills, mentorship, and pathways to dignified livelihoods.

This consultancy will strengthen the operational delivery and youth integration functions across GenU’s programme initiatives, with an emphasis on structured coordination, mentorship systematization, and cross-portfolio continuity. The consultant will ensure that programme frameworks—across employment and entrepreneurship clusters such as AI-enabled, green, health, and necessity/subsistence—translate into actionable plans with clear milestones, consistent follow-up, and meaningful youth engagement.

The consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director of Programmes, the direct supervision and oversight of the Youth Engagement and Entrepreneurship Lead and will collaborate closely with the Country Support and Global Solutions hubs. The consultant will also coordinate with colleagues leading the Evidence/MERL, Communications, and Programme Operations functions to ensure coherence, alignment, and timely execution of deliverables.

The consultant will:

• provide project management and coordination support across ongoing and emerging entrepreneurship and livelihoods initiatives;
• build and manage the mentorship and incubation support architecture, ensuring continuity and institutional learning; and embed youth centrality as a functional component of programme design and delivery, connecting young people’s perspectives to real-time implementation improvements.

Scope of Work

The consultant will be responsible for the coordinated delivery of outputs that strengthen the operational execution, mentorship architecture, and youth integration across Generation Unlimited’s entrepreneurship and livelihoods initiatives.

The consultant will focus on the following interlinked areas of work:

• Programme Coordination and Delivery Management
• Mentorship System Development and Knowledge Continuity
• Youth Integration and Cross-Portfolio Alignment

Each area is designed to result in time-bound, tangible deliverables that contribute to GenU’s entrepreneurship portfolio implementation quality and coherence.

Programme Coordination and Delivery Management

The consultant will strengthen the operational backbone of entrepreneurship and livelihoods initiatives by ensuring consistent follow-up, documentation, and supporting coordination across stakeholders. This includes:

• Supporting coordinating cross-functional collaboration programme hubs to ensure milestone-based delivery and information flow.
• Supporting work planning, synthesis of action points, and preparation of progress updates and briefing notes

Mentorship System Development and Knowledge Continuity

To strengthen incubation support for young entrepreneurs, the consultant will:

• Design, document, and operationalize the mentorship framework for entrepreneurship programmes, outlining structures for matching, onboarding, and engagement of mentors and mentees.
• Support coordinating with internal teams and partners to align mentorship support with ongoing entrepreneurship and innovation activities (e.g., AI, health, green, and necessity entrepreneurship).
• Track mentorship outcomes and compile insights to inform the evolution of mentorship and inc