Local Consultancy with travel: Youth Participation Consultant, Prague, Czech Republic (116 days between March and December 2024)

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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. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, a voice

As of December 2023, 5,9 million Ukrainian refugees have been recorded across Europe1. As national social protection measures decrease, the risk of refugee children from Ukraine falling into poverty is growing. The re-registration data show that currently there are 375,021 refugees from Ukraine with Temporary Protection in the Czech Republic. This includes 97,054 children under the age of 18 years (26%), 176,907 women aged 18+ years (47%), and 101,060 men aged 18+ (27%)2. There are 21,996 Ukrainian refugee youth aged 15-18 in the country. Ukrainian refugee youth are living in every single region of the Czech Republic, with the highest number of adolescent refugees in the regions of Prague (5,635) and Central Bohemia (2,978). The trends indicate an average of 1,100 newly registered refugees per week.
 
As such, UNICEF Refugee Response in the Czech Republic will work with partners to incorporate youth into defining and designing interventions that impact youth. This will include working with youth to lead data collection through participatory activities, co-create programmes, and conduct qualitative assessments of UNICEF-funded programmes. The goal is to influence key decision makers by incorporating youth perspective into all programme activities that impact them.
 
As part of this, UNICEF Refugee Response Office seeks a youth consultant who will be responsible for co-creating, designing and implementing an outreach strategy using participatory approaches while reaching and connecting with displaced youth from Ukraine residing in the Czech Republic. The youth consultant will design the strategy based on collection of qualitative data and youth consultations in various regions across the Czech Republic to identify and understand youth needs, opportunities and challenges they face. An integral part of the consultant work will be developing communication strategy which involves designing relevant tools, forms, channels and content as well as testing and prototyping it to ensure the information are reaching relevant youth and content is accessible and comprehensive. The youth consultant will use design methodologies including human center design. The consultant will collaborate with designated UNICEF Refugee Response staff and other partners.

How can you make a difference? 

The key tasks for the youth consultant include:
1. Identifying Ukrainian refugee youth through UNICEF supported programs in the Czech Republic while using various outreach methodologies and tools
2. Conducting youth co-creation consultations, trainings, and workshops in person and online about employment, skills building, education and wellbeing and mental health. This will include using various tools and participatory approaches.
3. Collecting information and data, analyzing, and synthetizing the data, interpreting, and understanding the information while using various tools for that. In this activity proposing insights and actionable points is required.
4. Training and working with Ukrainian youth representatives (Regional Integration Centers) in various regions of the Czech Republic to design and implement local outreach strategies reaching out to young people in their regions, understanding their situation with focus on their educational and financial needs, and connecting them to relevant local and other services and support programs.
5. Planning, coordinating, and communicating with Ukrainian youth across the country as well as other relevant partners, namely the personnel of Regional Integration Centers and other partners in form of written report and presentations on relevant platforms. This will include incorporating feedback mechanisms and information sharing. This process will be ongoing and will be done online and/or in person to meet stakeholders’ needs.
6. Representing the youth voice, needs and viewpoints on relevant platforms and forums (decision making events, Cesty working group, media and others)
7. Supporting development of the youth employment and learning program CESTY with insights from the young Ukrainian refugees in the regions.
 
Given the youth design nature of the consultancy it will require a candidate to thoroughly relate to the young target audience beyond acquired knowledge. This consultancy requires a candidate who can naturally understand the life experience of young Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. 
 
Deliverables/Outputs Tasks/Milestones Timeline

Two youth-led design processes are completed in collaboration with youth representatives in regional integration centres, around youth-defined priorities.

Outputs: Plan of activities, Set of HCD Tools,Co-creation workshops conducted, FCM developed.

  • Lead the youth-led design process in regional hubs
  • Travel to regions and conduct approx. 8-10 in person and/or online co-creation workshops with youth reached out through the outreach strategy development 
  • Design tools to be implemented through the co-creation sessions
  • Support youth to co-create and develop outreach tools
  • Maintain database of contacts for further engagement
  • Co-create and develop youth friendly feedback mechanisms, apply and facilitate feedback from youth
56 days by July 2024

Youth-led research project on barriers to accessing services among displaced youth is completed

Outputs: written form of identified barriers, priority challenges and youth-proposed solutions

  • Youth-lead research to identify barriers to accessing key services is planned and conducted
  • Key priority challenges and needs in the areas of employment, education and mental health are identified
  • Youth-led research to define solutions to priority challenges and needs which are desirable and accessible by youth
  • Large amounts of qualitative data are synthesised into actionable insights
45 days by September 2024

Report on youth-led research (progress/final) on barriers to access to key services is communicated and outcomes are presented on relevant platforms

Outputs: min. 4 Political/decision makers platforms, min. 2 Cesty working group meetings, min. 5 selected media outcomes.

  • Data and outcomes are presented by the youth consultant on min 4 decision makers platforms
  • Data and outcomes are presented and fed into broader employment and learning program CESTY via participation at the working group platform
  • Relevant online and/or broadcasting media are used to present and represent the voice of youth, min 5 media outcomes
15 days by October 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

116 working days between March and December 2024.

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be office-based in the UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Prague, Czech Republic.

As part of this assignment, several travels within Czech Republic are foreseen. The consultant will arrange their travel as and when they take place, and related costs will be reimbursed per UNICEF travel policy.

Travel Clause

  • All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
  • All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
  • The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSAFE certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance and an immunization/vaccination card.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Please submit a cover letter, CV and financial proposal (in USD) based on 116 working days to undertake this assignment. Please do not include travel fees as these will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

  • Secondary school diploma
  • Fluent in English and either Ukranian/Russian or Czech.
  • Training in human centered design, participatory research, or qualitative research methodologies is highly desirable.
  • “Context expertise”, e.g. has experience being displaced youth in the Czech Republic is highly desirable.
  • Strong ability to synthesize multiple streams of information
  • Strong communication skills and planning skills
  • Training in research ethics, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, and familiarity with child safeguarding principles is highly desirable.
  • Experience working with UNICEF or another UN Agency is highly desirable.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Please include a full CV, Cover Letter and a Financial Proposal in your application by indicating your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a proposed professional fee will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. 

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