National Consultancy to Support the Implementation of Youth for Children (Y4C) Model through Youth Digital Engagement Platforms

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, Innovation!

Background and justification

In partnership with the Ministry of Youth Affairs State Department for Youth Affairs, UNICEF Kenya launched the Yunitok and YOMA platforms in Kenya in March 2021. Yunitok is a branded version of UNICEF’s global U-Report youth engagement platform. In Kenya, UNICEF and its partners co-created a unique brand name that appealed to young people, as the brand U-report had already been registered and used by the standard media group. Since the platform’s launch, a National Steering Committee (NSC) has been set up. It is co- chaired by the State Department for Youth Affairs and UNICEF to provide guidance and oversight to the use and running of the platform.

Yunitok has reached over 306,000 young people, 49% of whom are girls – an increment of 73% since 2023. The platform has membership spanning all counties and constituencies in Kenya, including the most remote. However, remote communities have fewer members than urban areas and counties. In addition, Yunitok has been utilized to disseminate information to young people on COVID-19, vaccination, and protection services. More recently, Yunitok collected data for over 80,000 out-of-school children in 16 counties and 1700 schools. In terms of feedback, through Yunitok, young people have provided information on 2024 advocacy priorities for the country office, the National Climate Action Plan for Kenya, and protection/disrupting harm and inputs to the midpoint strategic reflection (MPSR) in 2024. Relatedly, young people from Yunitok are directed to YOMA (Youth Market Place) with UNICEF reaching over 50,000 young people with training, skills, opportunities in climate action, digital skills, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.

This consultancy is strategic for UNICEF’s work in young people’s engagement and the Yunitok country strategy. More strategically, the GenZ movement in the country has demonstrated the need for UNICEF to be plugged into young people’s issues to ensure youth programs remain relevant.

Objectives

Under the overall supervision of the Innovation manager, the consultant will:

• Support the scale of Youth for Children model through YOMA and Yunitok.
• Scale the Yunitok and YOMA platforms to an additional 500,000 young people collectively with a gender disaggregation of 50% and disability inclusive.
• Support capacity building of State Department for Youth Affairs in coordination of Youth initiatives including: Yunitok, YOMA, GenU, EKYAN and BeGreen through various governance mechanisms and steering committees.

Activities and Tasks:

1. Collaboration Framework: Establish a collaborative framework in partnership with the State Department for Youth Affairs to convene the national steering committee for Yunitok and facilitate the YOMA learning-to-earning program and other youth initiatives.

2. Opportunity Awareness Campaign: Execute an awareness campaign to inform and engage young people in available opportunities related to green, digital, and girls’ initiatives on Yunitok.

3. Platform Scalability and Maintenance: Deliver a comprehensive sustainable plan for scaling YOMA to 60,000 participants and Yunitok to an additional 440,000, including regular updates to ensure all platforms are functional and current.

4. Youth Engagement in Climate Action: Develop and implement strategies that engage youth on the move in Yunitok and YOMA while documenting their contributions to climate initiatives through the Green Rising program.

5. Virtual Event Series Documentation: Organize and conduct a series of 8 virtual events for Yunitok and YOMA, with all participant insights and experiences documented for future reference. Analyze data from polls from Yunitok to inform programme priorities and areas.

6. Feedback and Poll Mechanisms: Create and execute polling mechanisms to gather participant feedback and document the engagement and success stories of young people, including adaptations for global contexts.

7. Ecosystem Partnership Support: Provide tailored technical support for key partners in the YOMA ecosystem, managing feedback systems and highlighting young people’s achievements within the program.

8. Comprehensive Reporting Framework: Compile a detailed report outlining findings, use cases, and lessons learned from Yunitok and YOMA initiatives, with recommendations for future activities.

Output deliverables:

Work Assignments Overview

Deliverables/Outputs

Delivery deadline

Inception Report

Deliverable 1

15 days

SDYA Governance and capacity building

Deliverable 2

35 days

Learning to Earning for YOMA: Digital, Green

and Girls

Deliverable 3

20 days

Youth for Children rollout on YOMA and

Yunitok

Deliverable 4

33 days

Virtual events for Yunitok and YOMA

Deliverable 5

27 days

YOMA ecosystem functional and operational

Deliverable 6

40 days

Documentation and profiling of young people

Deliverable 7

20 days

Comprehensive report on use cases and

lessons learned

Deliverable 8

30 days

Work relationships:

The consultant will work closely with others in the innovation team and across different programme sections in UNICEF that have engagement work with young people. In addition, the consultant will work closely with the Ministry of Youth, Creative Arts and Sports especially the State Department for Youth Affairs and other partners such as Kenya Scouts Association, Girls Guides Association among other stakeholders.

Minimum Requirements

Education: Bachelors Degree in one of the following areas- Innovation, IT, Computing, Digital Media, International Relations, Social Sciences or Marketing or related field. An advanced degree in one of the key areas is an asset.

Work Experience: 

• A minimum of seven (5) years of professional experience in Innovation, IT, Computing, Digital media, International Relations, Social Sciences or Marketing, or related field.
• Experience in partnership development, youth engagement, and youth outreach and advocacy.
• Demonstrated expertise in conceptualizing, planning, and executing ideas as well as transfer of knowledge and skills.
• Previous working experience with U-Report (Rapid Pro and Partners Page).
• Experience with a high-level communications campaign across multiple mediums, with national brand recognition.
• Expertise in social media platforms, preparing brochures, newsletter, fact sheets, research analysis, feature stories, social media engagement content and online communication
• Understanding of community-based channels of influence, community-based communication, and development. And community-based organizations.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to write succinctly and clearly.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili is required; strong written and verbal competency is necessary.

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. 

How to apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV or P11 form and their technical and financial proposals to the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System). Interested candidates to indicate their ability, availability, and rate expressed in KES for national consultants to undertake the terms of reference. The fees should be inclusive of other costs incurred such as travel/return ticket, VISA (if applicable) and subsistence allowances (if applicable).

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advances purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.

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. 

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. 

Read Full Description