Contract Duration – 6.5months

Working arrangement: Remote

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.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Bhutan is increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change, with rising temperature variability, changing weather patterns, and growing pressure on natural resources affecting children’s learning environments. Many schools, particularly in remote areas, rely heavily on fuelwood for cooking and heating, contributing to deforestation and indoor air pollution. At the same time, frequent power outages and inefficient energy systems disrupt teaching and learning, limit access to digital education, and compromise safety. School infrastructure is often not climate resilient. Poor insulation, lack of heating or cooling, and inadequate lighting affect student comfort, concentration, and performance, while weak waste management systems pose environmental and health risks.

To take the initiative a step further, UNICEF Bhutan, in partnership with MoESD), Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MoENR), and other stakeholders, is supporting the implementation of the Climate Smart School Initiative to transform schools into climate-resilient, low-carbon, energy-efficient and sustainable learning environments. The initiative aims to pilot and scale interventions including renewable energy systems, energy-efficiency retrofits, climate-resilient infrastructure, sustainable waste management, climate education, and institutional strengthening across selected schools in Bhutan. Once there is sufficient evidence from the pilot, recommendations will be made to the government to scale up.

The consultant will provide strategic programming and design, technical guidance and support to UNICEF and government partners to operationalize the Climate Smart School Initiative, oversee technical quality, support strengthening stakeholder coordination, develop implementation frameworks, support capacity building, establish monitoring systems, and contribute to national scale-up of climate-smart school models.

If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here: ToR x TMC0004770.pdf

Minimum requirements:

Education: master`s university degree in

• Renewable Energy Engineering

• Environmental Engineering

• Climate Change

• Sustainable Development

• Energy Management

• Climate Resilience

Work Experience:

• Minimum five years of progressively responsible experience:

• Experience in climate-resilient infrastructure projects.

• Experience in renewable energy systems and energy efficiency.

• Experience with education sector projects.

• Experience working with governments and development partners.

• Experience developing policy frameworks and guidelines.

• Demonstrated expertise in stakeholder engagement and capacity building.

Skills (optional):

• Climate-smart infrastructure.

• Renewable energy systems.

• Sustainable schools.

• Climate adaptation and resilience.

• Monitoring and evaluation.

• Project management.

• Technical report writing.

• Facilitation and training.

Language Requirements: Excellent written and spoken English
Desirables:

• Experience in Bhutan or South Asia.

• Experience with UNICEF, UN agencies, GCF or climate-financing initiatives.

• Experience working in child-centred and inclusive education programme

• Experience in Bhutan or South Asia.

• Experience with UNICEF, UN agencies, GCF or climate-financing initiatives.

• Experience working in child-centred and inclusive education programme

Technical requirements:

• Technical proposal.

• Methodology.

• Workplan.

• Relevant work samples.

• CV.

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 TMC0004770.xlsx
A detailed technical proposal including methodology, workplan and relevant work samples

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 inform

NATIONAL Consultant for Technical Support to Implement the Climate Smart School Initiative in Bhutan, Thimphu, Education, 6.5 months (REMOTE with trip)