National Consultant to conduct children and young people centered climate change programming training, Windhoek, Namibia (For Namibia Nationals only)

Namibia Country Office seeks to engage the services of a highly experienced climate expert to design and deliver a 2-day training for all staff in climate change and climate change programming. This training aims to create awareness and understanding of Namibia’s specific climate change projections and its implications for UNICEF NCO staff and equip them with both theoretical and practical knowledge on how children and youth can be impacted by climate change, how their resilience to climate change can be strengthened, and how they can act on climate change.

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For every child, clean environment

BACKGROUND
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (4AR, 2007) establish that African countries are most vulnerable, especially those that are arid to semi-arid. Namibia is one of the largest and driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa and has been classified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in 2002. Namibia is characterized by high climatic variability in the form of persistent droughts, unpredictable and variable rainfall patterns, floods, temperatures variability and water scarcity. Water scarcity is the primary limiting factor to development and most of the population and economic activities rely on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, tourism, livestock management and fisheries.

The impacts of climate changes thus threaten the livelihood of the entire Namibian population. The Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) has recognized the challenge of climate change and its consequences and included priorities and actions towards enhanced community resilience in the national climate action plans. Namibia has a National Climate Change Policy of 2011, the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) 2021 and is currently formulating the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) which will be the guiding document to implement adaptation actions in Namibia. Other National Policies also address different elements of climate change, vulnerability, and resilience, either directly through the National Climate Change Policy, Disaster Risk Management Act of 2012, National Disaster Risk Management Plan 2011, and the National Development Plan (NDP5) or through sector-based policies and strategies in resilience, agriculture, energy, forestry, fisheries, social development, health, nutrition, etc.

Climate Landscape Analysis for Children (CLAC) 2018 report established that the available instruments advocate for improved government, private sector, civil society, and development agency coordination to improve efficacy and potential impact of climate financing, and to attract increased funds to offset the severe national budget shortfalls. However, the vast majority of Climate, environment, and energy (CEE) policy and programming largely neglects the scale and importance of CEE impacts on children, and as such, inadequately address children’s needs. This is a concern as climate change place thousands of children at higher risk from malnutrition, disease, and injury, and worsen their access to essential services including schools and health centers and compound the devastating and lifelong impacts of HIV/AIDS on children. The UNICEF 2021 report, Reimagining Water security for all has identified Namibia as a climate hotspot with 63% of children living in communities experiencing high to extremely high-water vulnerability. Climate change have severe implications for community resilience, child rights, threatening to undo the gains made and impede realization of the rights of children as captured in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

JUSTIFICATION
UNICEF Namibia Country Office (NCO) is in the process of developing a child right centered new Country Programme Document (CPD) 2025-2029, and Climate Change and Community Resilience agenda is a key programmatic pillar to be mainstreamed across the different social sectors and areas of intervention. This is a new area for NCO programming, as a result, a broad understanding of the sector is critical for the NCO team to integrate climate change in programming and effectively support the climate change agenda. It is therefore of strategic importance to build the capacity of the NCO staff to ensure that a child centered approach and resilience mechanisms are mainstreamed and advocated for, as priority focus within the UNICEF NCO and GRN climate agenda. Against this background, NCO seeks to engage the services of a highly experienced climate expert to design and deliver a 2-day training for NCO staff in climate change and climate change programming.

How can you make a difference? Scope of Work
1.  Goal and Objective:
This training aims to create awareness and understanding of Namibia’s specific climate change projections and its implications for UNICEF NCO staff and equip them with both theoretical and practical knowledge on how children and youth can be impacted by climate change, how their resilience to climate change can be strengthened, and how they can act on climate change.
Specific learning objectives of the envisaged training courses are that participants will gain:

1. Understanding of climate change.
2. The Impact of Climate Change on Children.
3. Explain how climate change affects health.
4. Strengthening Children’s Resilience to Climate Change.
5. The Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation for Children.
6. Empowering Children to Act on Climate Change through Education.
7. A Climate Change Agenda for Children.
8. Explain the key principles for designing climate programmes/projects.
9. Understanding Climate Finance opportunities for Namibia.
10. Recognize the international climate change policy framework.

Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this specialized training, participants will be able to:

1. Explain how climate change can affect children.
2. Describe how measures to build climate resilience and mitigate climate change can benefit children.
3. Illustrate key instruments and good practices for empowering children to act on climate change.
4. Design and implement climate change programmes/ projects for children.
5. Develop funding proposals for climate change programming for the NCO.
6. Identify opportunities for protecting children’s rights in a changing climate.

2. Activities and Tasks:
The consultant will work with the Staff Development Committee (SDC) Chairman, in close collaboration with the NCO Climate Committee to:

• Design the agenda, session flow and session plans.
• Assist in the practical preparation of the workshop, for e.g., by listing out the training requirements, resources and spaces needed, etc.
• Design the necessary modules and training materials with most relevant and context specific materials, etc.
• Use participatory methodologies to ensure learning and sharing during sessions.
• Ensure that a pre-post assessment of trainee expectations and feedback is done, and results analyzed so that the findings can be used in future trainings.
• Lead and facilitate the training programme.
• After completion of the training submit two short reports:

o A 10-pager training assessment of the workshop, with recommendations and highlights of lessons learned, to inform future training plans.
o A 10-pager brief proposal for UNICEF’s climate change programme, with clear entry points and priorities that will be used for advocacy and resource mobilization.

3. Programme area and specific results to which the consultancy is related

• Programme Area: CFE
• Specific Results: WBS: 6980/A0/06/883/003/003

4. Deliverables

• Training Materials – including training plan, agenda, session plans, modules and presentations to be made during the training sessions, etc.
• Assessment of the training /or workshop (pre- and post).
• A short report (max 10 pages) submitted post the training that captures feedback from participants, highlights lessons learned and make key recommendations to inform future climate change trainings.
• A short (max 10 pages brief proposal of UNICEF’s climate change programme, with clear entry points and priorities that will be used for advocacy and resource mobilization.

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

Minimum Qualifications required:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s) in one of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Environmental and Climate Studies, or another field relevant to international development and humanitarian assistance with a strong educational background on climate change.
• Excellent English oral and written skills; proficient in local language is an asset.
• A minimum of 5 years of progressive responsible professional work experience in the UN or other international development organization, national government, or the private sector.
• Field experience overseeing programming or research in climate change and related areas, is required.
• Relevant technical experience with gender analysis, gender mainstreaming in climate action and disaster preparedness is required.
• Relevant experience supporting targeted climate action/ humanitarian programming that reaches and engages the sub-populations of displaced and host communities who are often among the hardest to reach, least mobile and/or least likely to access available services, including women and adolescent girls.
• Relevant experience in working with civil society organizations (CSOs) in climate action/humanitarian response.
• Experience supporting and building the capacity of stakeholders in climate change and climate programming.
• Experience developing relevant guidance and tools, especially practitioner-friendly resources that are actionable and results-oriented is an asset.
• Experience working with research universities and training institutes considered an advantage.

 

How to Apply

Qualified and interested candidates are encouraged to submit an online application before the closing date.

Please submit expression of interest together with:

• A cover letter, no longer than 1 page, and curriculum vitae showing how the consultant meets the required qualifications, experience and expertise.
• Technical Proposal demonstrating the consultant’s understanding of the Terms of Reference (ToR), the proposed methodology/approach and timelines for the respective deliverables; and
• A financial proposal/budget, which must include all expenses related to the assignment.

Incomplete applications e.g. without financial/budget proposal will not be considered. 

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

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

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 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:  

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.