Contract Duration – 2 months

Working arrangement: Remote with travel to Cambodia

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.

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TERMS OF REFERENCE

The social service workforce (SSW) is a cornerstone of an effective child protection system and plays a critical role in protecting children from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation, and other protection concerns. A competent and well-supported workforce ensures that children and families can access timely, quality services and support. In Cambodia, social work remains a relatively young profession. There is currently no mandated body responsible for regulating social work education and ensuring compliance with national and regional standards. Most short- and medium-term training programmes are delivered on an ad hoc basis by government and non-government actors, resulting in fragmented and insufficiently coordinated capacity development efforts. To address these challenges, UNICEF has supported the Government to develop a standardized social service workforce curriculum and training packages, which have now been finalized and are being rolled out nationally.

At the same time, Cambodia is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including floods, droughts, extreme weather events, and climate-induced displacement. These hazards can exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and heighten risks to children, including family separation, violence, exploitation, child labour, trafficking, psychosocial distress, and disruptions to essential services. Children living in poverty, children with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups are often disproportionately affected. The ASEAN Regional Guidance for Member States on the Role of Social Workers and the Wider Social Service Workforce in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Resilience recognizes these challenges and highlights the critical role of social service workers in disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, emergency preparedness, and resilience-building. Beyond responding to immediate protection concerns, social service workers are increasingly required to identify climate-related risks, support vulnerable households before, during, and after disasters, facilitate access to social protection and essential services, strengthen community resilience, and ensure that child protection considerations are integrated into climate and disaster response efforts.

In line with Cambodia's commitment to operationalize the ASEAN Guidance and its climate resilience agenda, which identifies child protection as a priority adaptation sector under the Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), the National Institute of Social Affairs (NISA) has begun integrating climate change considerations into social service workforce development. With support from UNICEF, a pilot training for selected social service workers was delivered in November 2025 with a view to strengthening their capacity to integrate child protection into disaster risk management and climate action, promote climate adaptation approaches, and enhance preparedness, inclusivity, and resilience within child protection systems. While the pilot training demonstrated the relevance and demand for climate-responsive social service workforce competencies, these capacities are not yet systematically embedded within pre-service or in-service training programmes. To ensure sustainability and scale, NISA has requested UNICEF's support to contextualize and integrate climate change and climate-resilient child protection competencies into the existing social service workforce curriculum and training modules, thereby institutionalizing these skills across the workforce.

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

Minimum requirements:

Education:
- Advanced university degree (Master) of Laws, Human Rights, Child Rights, Migration, or Social Work
- Relevant trainings in climate change and/or environmental issues and/or child protection
Work Experience:
- Minimum of 8 years of proven experience in writing, editing and policy analysis (research reports, funding proposals, advocacy briefs, programming guidance, speeches, communication and editorial content);
- Proven experience in strengthening resilient, mobile and inclusive systems and services for children, including social service workforce;
- Experience in facilitating workshops, training and consultations on climate change and social service workforce with senior government officials, NGOs and UN agencies.
Language Requirements: English
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills
- Knowledge and experience in working with Government and UN agencies in areas related to child-centered climate action, policy development focused on adaptation, and/or climate-related protection risks

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 for Climate Consultant.docx

Remarks:

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.

International Consultancy for development of climate change module for social workers Cambodia, Phnom Penh (Remote with travel)