Consultant, Child Protection Systems and Social Service Workforce

Provide UNICEF country-office technical support on child protection and social-service workforce. Two 14.5-month remote consultancies with travel, linked to Amman.

Assignment and coverage

• Two individual consultants for 14.5 months. Duty station: Amman, Jordan; remote work with travel. Primary, non-exclusive coverage is Africa for one consultant and Asia/Europe for the other.
• Collaborate with the Global Programme Division technical lead and time-zone senior protection advisers to meet country-office requests while maintaining global consistency.

Child-protection systems

• Advise on national and subnational system mapping, assessment and strengthening, adapting UNICEF tools and benchmarks where appropriate.
• Develop assessment methodologies and reports, roadmaps, action plans and programme strategies; review technical products, policies and programme documents and recommend improvements.
• Share practice on governance, coordination, services, minimum standards, data, monitoring and staffing; advise on costing, budgets, financing strategies and advocacy.
• Support technical positioning, messaging and engagement with governments, donors, development partners and other stakeholders.

Social-service workforce

• Support workforce mapping and assessment, data collection and analysis.
• Advise on workforce strategies, competencies, curricula, training, supervision, professional development, planning and deployment.
• Support workforce and service costing and public financing, linking investment to protection-system outcomes.
• Document and disseminate approaches to staff development, retention, deployment, supervision and quality assurance.
• Develop or adapt training, curricula, presentations, messages and guidance, and support national, regional and global technical positioning.

Coordination and knowledge

• Triage requests, provide support and escalate strategic or specialist issues in coordination with the relevant adviser.
• Maintain a request/output/follow-up tracker and identify offices needing proactive support through programme cycles, reform opportunities and financing prospects.
• Connect offices to relevant experiences, practitioners and resources; contribute to practice communities, webinars, workshops and peer learning.
• Prepare briefs, slides, talking points, concepts, proposals, donor materials and strategic reports; coordinate advice across programme teams to avoid duplication.

Outputs

• Support at least 20 country offices, maintain the tracker and escalate strategic issues; review or develop assessment tools, terms of reference, roadmaps and action plans.
• Provide inputs to workforce mapping, strategies, competencies and curricula, financing/costing/budget work and technical-product quality assurance.
• Produce or contribute country/regional practices, examples and evidence summaries by 31 December 2026 and adapt learning products to regional priorities.
• Support at least four learning events according to event calendars and contribute to positioning, partnerships and resource mobilisation.
• Submit periodic/quarterly syntheses and a final report by 31 December 2027. Most outputs span 15 October 2026–31 December 2027.

Essential qualifications

• Master’s in social work, law, social or international development, social sciences or a related discipline.
• At least ten years of progressively responsible child-protection experience focused on systems and workforce strengthening across humanitarian/development programming, including UN-agency work.
• Proven national-system, workforce, policy and systems-based expertise and country-level technical assistance and strategic support.
• Extensive knowledge management, evidence generation, donor reporting, learning products and programme documentation; resource mobilisation, technical proposals, donor engagement and strategic/advocacy outputs.
• Experience organising and facilitating regional/global workshops, technical exchanges, webinars and practice communities, and public finance for child protection.
• Strong analysis, writing, editing and synthesis; knowledge of protection-system benchmarks, workforce strengthening, UNICEF frameworks and international standards.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, public-speaking and stakeholder relationships across governments, UN agencies, donors, academia, NGOs and civil society.
• English is essential. Other UN languages are desirable, particularly French for the Africa time-zone assignment.

Desirable experience

• Previous UNICEF/UN-agency work and regional/global protection-system and workforce programmes.
• Guidance, tools, learning and evidence synthesis, system measurement, workforce ratios and costing; ability to cover the target time zones.

Application

• Apply by 6 October 2026, 11:55 PM Jordan time, with updated portal profile, CV, cover letter and separate financial proposal using the linked template.
• Technical proposal of no more than five pages: understanding of systems/workforce requirements; approach to timely, quality assistance; financing, costing and quality-assurance experience.
• Also cover knowledge management, documentation, learning and capacity building; convening, partnerships and advocacy; coordination workplan with GPD, advisers and offices; and two or three relevant past assignments.

Contract and recruitment conditions

• Fees are payable after deliverables are submitted and accepted. Payment may be withheld for late or inadequate outputs; service conditions are governed by the consultancy contract.
• Consultants are not UN or UNICEF staff members and do not receive staff leave or medical-insurance benefits. They are responsible for applicable taxes, valid health insurance and any required visa throughout the contract.
• Selected candidates undergo credential, employment-history and reference checks. UNICEF requires child safeguarding and prohibits exploitation, abuse, harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority; applicants married to a child under 18 are ineligible.
• All qualified applicants are welcome and reasonable accommodation is available for applicants with disabilities. The organisation’s values are care, respect, integrity, trust, accountability and sustainability.
• WHO-endorsed full COVID-19 vaccination may be required before assignment. The exemption covers fully remote consultants with no UNICEF premises or programme-site visits, direct community interaction or assignment travel.
• No recruitment fees or bank-account information are requested. Only shortlisted candidates are contacted.