Current vacancies

Climate Adaptation Economics Consultant

Home-based with no travel

8 months

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.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package. Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to resilience

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Assignment

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to child health and development in the 21st century. Even under full implementation of current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the world is on track for approximately 2.3–2.5°C by 2100 – well above the 1.5°C threshold. Children are disproportionately exposed to climate hazards and uniquely vulnerable to their impacts across health, nutrition, water, education, and protection systems. Historically, climate science, policy and finance have systematically omitted children.

While growing policy recognition is encouraging, this has yet to translate into financing or implementation. These commitments remain largely uncosted, and without clear estimates of the investment required—and the returns these investments deliver—countries and climate finance institutions lack the tools needed to act.

Between 2006–2023, only 2.4% of climate finance from major multilateral climate funds supported child-responsive programmes. At the same time, the global adaptation finance gap is estimated at $310-

365 billion annually, meaning current adaptation finance flows are approximately 12-14 times lower than developing countries’ estimated needs. However, the adaptation gap for social services that children depend on — health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene; education, child protection and social protection — is not even measured, let alone funded.

This is not only a failure of child rights and equity; it is a failure of economic efficiency. Studies suggest that investing in the climate-resilience of essential services that children and their communities rely on is cost-effective over the long run, while delivering measurable improvements in outcomes for children. However, this research lacks a systematic approach to costing adaptation needs and assessing the economic and wider socio-economic returns of adaptation investments benefiting children.

To address this critical gap, a consultant is required to support the development and application of a policy-relevant evidence base on the adaptation finance gap for children. In particular, the consultant will support research that quantifies the cost of adapting child-critical social services to climate change, and estimates the economic and socio-economic returns of these investments. The study may also consider relevant environmental or mitigation co-benefits, where these are material to the adaptation investment and can be assessed robustly. The analysis should, to the extent feasible, distinguish between the underlying costs of delivering or expanding social services and the incremental costs associated with making those services resilience to current and projected climate risks.

The consultant will develop and apply a methodology capable of generating actionable estimates at country level and assess options for its wider application across countries and regions and, where methodologically feasible, for informing regional or global estimates. The precise geographic scope and level of aggregation will be determined during the inception phase, taking into account data availability and methodological robustness.

The work will inform policy, planning and financing decisions – specifically, to support the costing and implementation of social sector commitments in NDCs 3.0 and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), as well as the development of investment cases, national financing strategies and climate finance proposals for child-responsive adaptation.

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Programme Specialist (Results & Learning), and in close collaboration with the Climate Policy Unit of the Climate and Environment Global Practice and the Office of Strategy and Evidence (OSE).

Scope of Work

The consultant will be expected to undertake the following activities:

1. Conduct baseline and evidence mapping of existing data and research on adaptation needs and costs of child-critical social services, including relevant approaches to assessing the economic and socio-economic returns of adaptation investments.

2. Develop a replicable costing framework for child-responsive adaptation, including the financial costs of adaptation and the full scope of returns.

3. Apply and test the methodology in one or more selected country contexts, to be agreed during the inception phase, and taking into account data availability, methodological requirements, and policy relevance.

4. Generate country-level estimates and assess feasibility of developing broader headline estimates if adaptation finance needs and returns for children, including through application across additional countries, regional analysis and/or extrapolation.

Produce a scalable model and methodological framework that can support wider application by UNICEF, governments and partners.

If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:  ToRTMC0004896.pdf

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

Minimum requirements:

· Education: masters in Economics, climate economics, data science, statistics, environmental economics, public policy, climate science or equivalent areas

· Work Experience: A minimum of 8 years of relevant experience with a specialized focus on associated fields (environment and climate change, economics, data science, statistics, econometrics, financial analysis, sustainable development etc.) is required

· Skills: - Demonstrated experience developing economic simulation models, cost-benefit analyses, or macroeconomic analytical frameworks.

- Demonstrated experience in climate change adaptation economics, including costing adaptation needs and/or assessing costs and returns of resilience investments is highly desirable.

- Experience working with international datasets and cross-country comparative analysis.

- Experience conducting policy-oriented analytical work and producing technical reports or knowledge products.

- Strong understanding of climate finance architecture and adaptation finance required.

- Demonstrated expertise in economic modelling, statistical analysis, and sensitivity analysis.

- Proficiency in Excel and at least one statistical software package (R, Stata, Python, or equivalent)

· Language Requirements: English is required; knowledge of another UN language would be advantageous

· Desirables: Experience applying economic analysis to child-critical or social sectors would be an asset. 1. Educational background: Max 15 points 2. Relevant work experience: Max 60 points Qualifying score: 65 out of 75 points Technical proposal requirement: NO 25 points Enter Disciplines: Economics, climate economics, data science, statistics, environmental economics, public policy, climate science or equivalent areas

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

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 reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. 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.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System):

· An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)

· Cover letter

· A separate financial proposal (only acceptable in the format of the linked template)  Financial proposal TMC0004896.xlsx

Remarks: If the TOR or financial proposal documents are not downloadable on certain recruitment platforms, please visit our official page Vacancies | UNICEF Careers.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.