International Consultancy - Mainstreaming the Demographic Dividend into National Youth Policies in Three Selected SYP Countries

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

The East and Southern Africa (ESA) region is experiencing a pivotal population transition, with the total population anticipated to reach 1.1 billion by 2050. Approximately 33% of this population consists of young people aged 10–24, presenting a transient opportunity to capitalise on a Demographic Dividend (DD)—the rapid economic development resulting from a shift in age distribution where the working-age population surpasses dependents.

However, this dividend is not automated. It necessitates a swift decrease in fertility rates alongside targeted investments in health, education, and economic reforms to convert human capital into sustained growth and productivity. Current development strategies often lack alignment with demographic realities, sometimes failing to connect population data—such as fertility rates and migration trends—to infrastructure projects and sectoral financial allocations.

Effective planning must therefore move beyond static census data. By leveraging demographic intelligence through megatrends and predictive modelling, stakeholders can illustrate the "cost of inaction" relative to a prospective dividend scenario. This approach ensures the youth population is converted from a dependency challenge into a catalyst for sustainable growth. The Safeguard Young People (SYP) program, executed by UNFPA and its partners, is strategically positioned to advance this initiative through the "3Es" framework: Education, Employment, and Empowerment.

Although most SYP countries have established national demographic dividend (DD) profiles using frameworks such as DemDiv and National Transfer Accounts (NTA), a critical disparity persists between diagnostic findings and policy execution. Current youth policies frequently lack targeted investment cases and predictive modelling that connect demographic shifts to concrete economic outcomes.

While high adolescent birth rates and youth unemployment are recognised barriers to transformation, there is a failure to acknowledge the fleeting nature of this demographic window. Without immediate, multi-sectoral intervention, the current "youth bulge" will shift from a potential dividend to a permanent dependency burden. This consultancy serves as the "missing link" by transforming static census data into forward-looking implementation roadmaps through megatrend analysis.

Leveraging the DD necessitates a strategy that transcends the singular ministry typically responsible for youth development. To bridge this operational gap, the consultancy will focus on:

UNFPA invites qualified individuals to submit an application for individual consultancy services. The individual identified will be offered a consultancy contract over a 60-day period with UNFPA ESARO.

The offer will be awarded to the most qualified individual whose application presents the greatest advantages to UNFPA, in terms of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and other factors specified in this request for proposals.

Under the overall supervision of the Technical Advisor, Population Data Policy, the selected individual will perform the following tasks:

The assignment is scheduled from June 1 to December 31, 2026. The total commitment is 60 working days, which will be spread across the period based on the completion of specific deliverables.

The consultancy is home-based, though travel to SYP countries and the ESARO region may be required. 

All deliverables must be submitted between June 1  and December 31, 2026. Specific timelines include

DeliverableTimelineEvidence generation  (Outputs per country)June 26, 2026Strategic alignment (the Demographic Dividend framework and Policy gap assessment output per country)July 30, 2026Youth policy revision implementation plan (For each country indicating outlines of the youth policy revisions; review process; etc)November 30, 2026

UNFPA ESARO Technical Advisor for Population Data Policy at UNFPA ESARO, alongside the Program Monitoring Specialist and Population Data Analyst.

Pre-approved travel is expected, and a tentative plan should be included in the interpretation of the ToR. 

Essential: Expert knowledge of English (as native language)

The UNFPA will provide the international consultant with all necessary materials, data, information, and reports that are available.

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here [link removed] to learn more.

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts. 

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.