Home-based in Czechia: Consultant for Pathways (CESTY) Programme Sustainability (73 working days) - ECARO

UNICEF ECARO is looking for a qualified national consultant to provide technical and coordination support to strengthen the sustainability of the CESTY programme, including facilitation of the Coordination Platform, partner engagement, and monitoring of sustainability commitments.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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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, education.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to support the sustainability of the CESTY (Pathways) programme in Czechia by providing technical and coordination support to ensure that programme tools, partnerships and approaches are fully institutionalized within national systems. The consultant will support the continuation of coordinated, inclusive education, skills development and employment pathways for refugee youth, with a focus on strengthening government ownership, partner coordination and long-term integration of CESTY approaches beyond UNICEF’s direct involvement.

Youth Situation

Nearly 90,000 Ukrainian refugee youth aged 15–24 with temporary protection reside in Czechia as of November 2025. Adolescents and youth face heightened vulnerabilities in displacement, including barriers to accessing secondary education, language challenges, pressure to work or care for family members, risks of labour exploitation, and mental health concerns. Missed learning and skills development opportunities during this critical life stage can have lasting impacts on young people’s career prospects, earning potential, and ability to contribute to the future reconstruction of Ukraine.

UNICEF Response – CESTY Programme

To address these challenges, UNICEF implemented the CESTY (Pathways) programme in 2024–2025 to support Ukrainian refugee youth in Czechia to access education, develop skills and transition to quality first jobs. Implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and the Ministry of Interior, the programme brought together government institutions, civil society, private sector actors, academia and young people themselves to promote coordinated, inclusive pathways to education and employment.

Sustainability

With the planned closure of the UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Czechia at the end of 2025, the sustainability of CESTY has been secured through strong institutional anchoring and government ownership. Key public institutions, including the Ministry of Interior, Regional Integration Centres, the Labour Office, MoLSA and MoEYS, are integrating CESTY tools, materials and approaches into their standard services, ensuring continued access to education, skills development and employment support for refugee youth.

Youth participation mechanisms, psychosocial and mental health support delivered by Ukrainian-speaking professionals, education resources and ethical employment tools developed under CESTY are being embedded into national systems. In the education sector, CESTY-developed training and methodological resources are being incorporated into pre-service and in-service teacher training, while UNICEF-supported helplines, information resources and accredited Czech-language courses continue through institutional channels.

Remaining Agenda

Despite progress, several gaps remain that require continued technical and coordination support. These include sustaining multi-stakeholder coordination, monitoring implementation of agreed sustainability measures, renewing engagement with the Labour Office following leadership changes, formalizing “know your rights” and ethical employment materials, and completing the handover or decommissioning of CESTY communication and digital assets in line with UNICEF procedures.

This consultancy is essential to accompany the transition and consolidation of sustainability measures, particularly in the context of government transition and institutional changes expected in late 2025 and early 2026. The assignment will help ensure that CESTY’s tools, partnerships and innovations are fully embedded within national systems, safeguarding continuity of services for refugee youth beyond UNICEF’s direct involvement. The consultancy will also contribute to regional Pathways knowledge sharing and cross-country learning.

Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the Programme Manager (Pathways), ECARO, and in close collaboration with the Education and Emergency sections of ECARO, the Consultant will provide technical and coordination support to advance the sustainability of the CESTY programme. This includes facilitating the CESTY Programme Coordination Platform, engaging government and private sector partners to institutionalize CESTY approaches, supporting new partners in assuming enhanced coordination responsibilities, and monitoring implementation of sustainability commitments made in 2025.

The consultant will:

• Monitor implementation of sustainability measures agreed with partners by RRO in 2025: Track progress on implementation of the strategy, identify challenges, and propose solutions to ensure continuous progress after the closure of UNICEF RRO; draft and negotiate the UNICEF exit strategy from Cesty with the local counterparts.
• Facilitate coordination platform: Serve as a co-facilitator for the CESTY Programme for Ukrainian Refugee Youth Coordination Platform.
• Coordinate private sector engagement and accompany institutionalization of preventative measures against labour exploitation of Ukrainian Refugee Youth: Maintain and further develop private sector companies interest in hiring refugee youth (working with the Labour Office) and ensure that there is a plan in place for long-term use of ethical employment and know your rights measures and materials produced as part of CESTY by SIMI, La Strada (in cooperation with MoLSA, SIMI and LaStrada, IOM).
• Facilitate a gradual handover of CESTY coordination in Czechia to local counterparts (IOM): Ensure that communication assets (including cesty.space), coordination of refugee youth agenda with CESTY partners on the national and regional levels and coordination of private sector engagement is handed over to IOM.
• Contribute to regional Pathways knowledge sharing by providing input for the exchange of best practices and ensuring dissemination of relevant CESTY resources and lessons learned across country offices.
• Submit a final report: Provide a situation overview, a sustainability plan for the next 12 months, and concrete recommendations for the following 12 months.

Estimated Duration of the Contract

73 working days between 1 February 2026 and 31 July 2026.

Work Modality

The consultancy is remote/home-based. The assignment will be carried out over a period of six months between February and July 2026. The consultancy is open to national consultants, with an estimated input of 73 working days.

Minimum requirements:

• Master or equivalent degree in humanities, social sciences, development planning, planning, evaluation, survey implementation, advanced statistical research.
• At least, two years of relevant professional work experience.
• Experience in humanitarian response programming, including preparedness planning.
• Experience with the coordination of support to Ukrainian refugee youth in Czechia
• Experience working with UNICEF and/or another UN agency.
• Fluency in English language; fluency in Czech

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:  

Please submit a full CV and a financial proposal (in USD) in your application. Applications submitted without a 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.