Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for Individual Consultant as International Consultants Systems Strengthening & Governance, WASH, Remote based, UNICEF, Req 592815

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 [link removed] to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

Background and Rationale

UNICEF supports both humanitarian response and long-term development programming in line with the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2026–2029 [link removed] which directly integrates Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) across two major impact results:

• Impact Result 1: Enabling child survival, health and development — including reaching: 100 million people with safely managed drinking water and 200 million with safely managed sanitation/hygiene.
• Impact Result 5: Protecting children from climate and environmental risks — including: 300 million children benefiting from climate-resilient WASH, health, and education services.

Reaching these targets at scale requires transforming how WASH services are planned, financed, governed, and sustained over time. By focusing on WASH systems and governance functions, UNICEF supports governments in countries to address the underlying structural and political constraints that limit service delivery. Strengthened systems enable governments not only to expand access, but to ensure that services are inclusive, resilient to climate shocks, and sustainably managed, directly contributing to both child survival and environmental protection outcomes under the Strategic Plan.

Investing in systems strengthening also maximizes impact by prioritizing equity. Through better data, planning, and regulations, governments can identify and reach underserved populations, ensuring that progress toward SDG6 leaves no one behind. At the same time, stronger governance and accountability frameworks improve transparency and performance across the sector, building trust and enabling more efficient use of public and donor resources.

UNICEF working alongside governments and other stakeholders, further amplifies this impact helps countries move from fragmented interventions to coherent, country-led systems capable of delivering sustained WASH services at scale.

UNICEF works with governments and partners to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), emphasizing universal access to sustainable and equitable water, sanitation and hygiene services. Achieving SDG6 requires moving beyond infrastructure delivery to strengthening WASH systems, addressing the governance functions, and tackling the structural, institutional and political drivers of WASH performance. These principles, and the 3-level systems model, are defined in the UNICEF WASH Systems Strengthening Framework and operationalized in its companion Reference Guide for Programming.

UNICEF country offices increasingly require specialized expertise to support governments in:

• diagnosing systemic bottlenecks,
• facilitating sector dialogue and coordination,
• strengthening governance functions at national and subnational levels, and
• developing and implementing roadmaps for long-term systems strengthening.

In this context, the establishment of a roster of specialized consultants is a strategic investment. These experts provide the technical and facilitation capacity needed to diagnose bottlenecks, strengthen institutions, and operationalize systems approaches in diverse country contexts. Their support enables UNICEF and its partners to translate global ambitions into practical, country-level reforms, ultimately ensuring that WASH services are equitable, accountable, climate-resilient, and sustainable for all.

To meet these needs, the UNICEF Centre of Excellence is establishing an LTA of international consultants with demonstrated experience in WASH systems strengthening and governance that is open to UNICEF Regional and Country Offices. Selected consultants will be eligible for a long-term agreement contract to provide on-demand technical support to UNICEF Centre of Excellence, Regional and Country Offices. LTAs are non-binding arrangements that do not constitute a commitment to acquire a consultant service.

Purpose

To meet these requirements, UNICEF would like to engage the services of consultants to enable to provide high-quality technical assistance, capacity strengthening and facilitation support to governments and UNICEF country offices to strengthen national and subnational WASH systems, improve governance, enhance sector performance, and support sustainable and resilient service delivery.

Objective

The overall objective is to set up a Long-Term Agreement to facilitate and expedite the process by which the UNICEF Global WASH Practice will hire consultants to provide technical support in different parts of the world.

How can you make a difference? 

Key Tasks/Specific Programme Areas

Specific programme areas of the consultations may vary depending on support needs, which would be defined at the start of the engagement. It is anticipated that international consultants will provide countries and/or regional offices with technical guidance on a range of different aspects related to WASH system strengthening and governance, including :

• Conducting systemic assessments using UNICEF endorsed tools and methodologies, or others.
• Supporting policy, institutional and financial reforms to strengthen WASH governance functions.
• Developing national and subnational WASH systems strengthening roadmaps and related implementation plans.
• Building strong sector coordination platforms and multi-stakeholder processes.
• Strengthening monitoring, accountability, regulation, and learning mechanisms.
• Enhancing government capacity to develop, implement and monitor WASH sector policies, strategies and service delivery arrangements.

Deliverables/Scope of Work

The consultants may be contracted to provide support in one of several of the (5) areas described below:

Travel

Consultants that apply may be asked to travel to UNICEF regions for in-country support. Consultants will need to make their travel arrangements and will be reimbursed for travel costs and subsistence allowance in line with and limited to those payable by UNICEF. The payment of travel costs shall be limited to economy class air travel, regardless of the length of travel. Airfare and terminal expenses will be paid upon completion of each duty travel against the invoices.

Estimated duration of LTA

The Long-Term Agreement will be for a duration of three years. The initial period would be for two years with an option for renewal for a subsequent year on the same rates, terms and conditions, subject to satisfactory performance evaluation and continuing need for the service. The services of the consultants selected under the LTA would also be made available to UNICEF Regional and Country offices. 

Payment Schedule

The LTA to be signed will have a fixed fee rate reflecting deliverables and including daily fee. However, UNICEF does not guarantee that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of the LTA as this will depend on forthcoming requests.

The consultant is expected to provide a quotation for the services he/she will provide as part of the application.

Financial Proposal Template

 LTA Financial Proposal Template [link removed]

Contracts Created Against The LTA

Whenever consultancy services are required, details of the services will be presented according to the availability of the LTA holder.

Upon receipt of confirmation of availability and interest in the assignment, a contract will be issued with the prices/fees agreed in the LTA. The consultant must sign the contract prior to commencement of work.

Payment will be made after the completion of deliverables and submission of invoices for the actual work completed, subject to satisfactory performance.

Application Process/How to Apply:

The application to be submitted through the online portal should contain five separate attachments:

1. A Cover letter explaining the motivation for applying and explaining how the qualifications and skillset of the candidate (to be uploaded online)
2. Curriculum Vitae (CV) (to be uploaded online)
3. Two Work Samples – This includes two previously written reports, studies, or other WASH related written documents. It is critical to submit work samples as you will observe from the advertisement that marks have been assigned to these criteria for arriving at the most suitable candidate
4. A  Financial Proposal [link removed] indicating professional fee as per the above template. Please do not forget to specify your name in the file while saving. (To be uploaded under other supporting documents).
5. Copy of educational qualifications (to be uploaded online)

Without all the above 5 documents your application will be considered incomplete and invalid and will not be considered further.

• Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.
• Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
• Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.
• Female candidates meeting the requirements are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds including persons living with disabilities to apply.

Note: Courses will be required for the successful LTA holders: Certificates of mandatory courses (Ethics and Integrity at UNICEF; Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority & Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA) consolidated in one single pdf. For LTAs which include travel assignments, BSAFE will be a mandatory course requirement to be added to the list of certificates to be uploaded.

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

• Education:
• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or higher) in one of the following fields is required: civil or environmental engineering, natural or social sciences, environmental or public health, water resource management or another relevant technical field. Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree is an asset.
• Work Experience:
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in WASH systems strengthening sector governance, policy development, institutional analysis, or technical assistance at national and/or international levels.
• Knowledge/Skills/Expertise:
• Demonstrated experience supporting government-led sector reforms, strengthening governance functions, developing policies, roadmaps or financing strategies, or coordinating multi-stakeholder processes. 
• Experience conducting or supporting systemic assessments (WASH BAT, political economy, capacity assessments, budgeting/financial diagnostics, regulatory reviews).
• Proven track record of working in low- and middle-income countries, including fragile, conflict-affected or emergency contexts (desirable).
• Experience with UNICEF or other UN agencies in WASH or governance-related areas is an asset.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, communication and report-writing skills, with ability to translate complex system issues into operational recommendations.
• Language Requirements:
• Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in at least one additional language is highly desirable.

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or higher) in one of the following fields is required: civil or environmental engineering, natural or social sciences, environmental or public health, water resource management or another relevant technical field. Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree is an asset.

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in WASH systems strengthening sector governance, policy development, institutional analysis, or technical assistance at national and/or international levels.

• Demonstrated experience supporting government-led sector reforms, strengthening governance functions, developing policies, roadmaps or financing strategies, or coordinating multi-stakeholder processes. 
• Experience conducting or supporting systemic assessments (WASH BAT, political economy, capacity assessments, budgeting/financial diagnostics, regulatory reviews).
• Proven track record of working in low- and middle-income countries, including fragile, conflict-affected or emergency contexts (desirable).
• Experience with UNICEF or other UN agencies in WASH or governance-related areas is an asset.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, communication and report-writing skills, with ability to translate complex system issues into operational recommendations.

• Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in at least one additional language is highly desirable.

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 [link removed]

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others 
Familiarize yourself with our competency framework [link removed] and its different levels.

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 [link removed], 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 a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation 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 [link removed]. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:  

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. 

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

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.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here [link removed].