Tracking Resilience in Education for Environment (TREE) Consultant, Programme Group, Education, NYHQ, remote. Req# 587250

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: Tracking Resilience in Education for Environment (TREE) Consultant

Duty Station: Programme Group, Education Section

Duration: 1 November 2025 (funding secured until 30 June 2026 with the possibility of extension to 31 January 2027)

Home/ Office Based: remote

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The world faces interconnected environmental and education crises, with two-thirds of children unable to read by age 10 and nearly 1 billion living in high-risk climate zones. In 2024 alone, 242 million students experienced school disruptions due to climate hazards—a trend projected to worsen, disproportionately affecting low-income regions. By 2030, climate-related school closures may rise by 30%, with sub-Saharan Africa facing 40% disruptions.

Despite education's recognized role in climate resilience, it remains overlooked in policy and financing. Only 1% of climate-related development finance targets education, and only a fraction of multilateral climate projects address it. While frameworks like the Paris Agreement and COP29's Baku Initiative emphasize education's importance, national implementation lags: fewer than one-third of updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) mention climate education, and none mandate it as a strategic priority.

This gap stems from weak data systems, limited cross-sector coordination, and a lack of evidence on climate impacts on education. Existing risk assessments rarely capture school-specific disruptions or child-disaggregated data, hindering targeted action.

To address this, the Education team at UNICEF will work with partners to develop and operate the TREE (Tracking Resilience in Education for Environment) Global Observatory. A consultant is requested to implement the key functions of the Observatory, including evidence generation on climate-related learning loss and system vulnerabilities, data mobilization to inform financing, policy, and resilience-building in education systems.

The consultant will also investigate to what extent countries are positioning digital education investments as a form of climate/disaster resilience infrastructure, and if so, the degree to which they are cost-effective compared to other physical contingency investments. This work will support the production of a think piece with recommendations on how countries can themselves conduct a similar cost-effectiveness and resilience analysis, exploring key issues such as equity-adjusted cost-effectiveness, (under)utilization, and dual-use investments that can support teaching and learning during normal times. In addition, the consultant will produce 7 case studies, based on desk research, of cost-effective business models that have successfully enabled EdTech to reach scale and resilience in resource-limited country contexts. 

This initiative aligns with global goals (SDGs 4 and 13, Sendai Framework) and responds to urgent calls for resilient education systems. By bridging data gaps and amplifying evidence, TREE will catalyse investment and policy shifts to safeguard learning in a changing climate.

Working in close coordination with education teams at headquarters/regional/country office, IT, the upcoming Global Office of Evidence, Strategy, and Effectiveness (GOESE), the Climate, Environment, Energy, and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) team, the Global Learning Innovation Hub (LIH), the Division of Global Communication and Advocacy (DGCA) and other internal and external stakeholders, the consultant will support on:

• Establish the foundational data system to systematically track, validate, and report climate-related school disruptions (e.g., closures, infrastructure damage) by developing standardized indicators, communicating with regional and country office teams, aligning with national education and disaster databases, and supporting the development/deployment of tools for on-time monitoring and early warning.
• Propose and pilot a