BACKGROUND / RATIONALE

Digital Community Engagement (DCE) has become central to UNICEF Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) work as digital platforms continue to shape how people form opinions, seek information, and interact with institutions. Communities now use a mix of messaging apps, social media channels, creator networks, and local online groups to discuss concerns, share lived experiences, and respond to services. These environments influence trust, participation, and uptake of behaviours linked to health, education, protection, climate resilience, and other programme areas. The speed and scale of digital communication also mean that concerns, gaps in understanding, and community needs appear earlier online than through traditional feedback channels.

UNICEF SBC Functional Capabilities Mapping 2025 categorized DCE as an insufficient internal capability, necessitating the need for external exports. Programmes increasingly require structured ways to build relationships with digital communities, strengthen two-way communication, support moderators and influencers who serve as community anchors, and translate insights from online conversations into programmatic interventions and communication products. Offices also need practical support to develop digital engagement strategies, design digital content and user experiences that responds to community priorities, manage creator partnerships, and ensure that digital communication aligns with participation and accountability principles.

This Long-Term Arrangement for Services (LTAS) creates a pool of individual consultants to support DCE across regions and contexts. Consultants will provide technical guidance, design and implement engagement strategies, conduct ecosystem research and audience segmentation, develop and localize digital behavior-change content, advise on influencer partnerships, strengthen community management practices, build staff and partner capacity, produce guidance materials, and deliver evaluation and learning products. By securing specialised expertise, UNICEF SBC teams can expand their ability to engage communities in digital spaces, improve the quality of insights informing communication and programme decisions, and ensure that community voices are accurately and consistently reflected in planning and response.

Selected consultants will be eligible for a Long-Term agreement for services (LTAS) contract to provide on-demand technical support to UNICEF Centers of Excellence (CoE) and COs and to other UN agencies. LTASs are non-binding arrangements that do not constitute a commitment to acquire a consultant’s services.

PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT

The purpose of this Terms of Reference is to establish Long Term Arrangements for services (LTAS) with individual consultants who can provide UNICEF with reliable, on demand technical support in DCE. These consultants will help offices design and strengthen digital engagement systems, build and manage community centred content and messaging workflows, advise on creator and influencer collaborations, support two-way communication models, and translate digital insights into practical actions for programmes. The arrangement ensures that teams across the world can access consistent expertise to enhance digital participation, improve communication quality, and respond more effectively to community needs across UNICEF programme areas.

SCOPE OF WORK

The contract holders will support UNICEF in strengthening DCE as an integrated component of SBC programming. This involves helping teams understand how communities use digital spaces to interpret services, discuss concerns, and shape everyday decisions, and translating that understanding into practical strategies, content pathways, and engagement models. The consultant will work with UNICEF teams globally to design evidence informed approaches that connect digital behaviour, community insight, and programme intent - ensuring that digital channels contribute to participation, trust building, and equitable access to information. This may include shaping strategic direction, advising on community activation, and guiding the design and management of content, campaigns, platforms, and partnerships that reflect SBC principles and behavioural drivers.

Alongside this strategic support, the consultant will help strengthen the systems and competencies needed for sustained digital engagement. This includes advising on digital governance, workflows, moderation practices, safeguarding protocols, and measurement frameworks that link engagement to behavioural outcomes. The consultant will also contribute to capacity development by designing modular learning programs, delivering training or workshops, and supporting knowledge exchange through case studies and practical tools. They will help produce guidance documentation such messaging playbooks and user journey maps and oversee the development and localization of content and accessibility enhancements.

Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting may be required to help teams design and deploy measurement frameworks, identify emerging needs, and continuously refine their digital engagement approaches. All work will be carried out in close collaboration with UNICEF teams to ensure relevance, quality, and alignment with programme goals.

RESPONSIBILITY OF CONSULTANT(S):

• The consultant(s) will use their own equipment; laptops, software, and other accessories that may be required for this task.
• The consultant(s) will not give the content/material or any part thereof to any third party without the written permission of UNICEF. All components will be the property of UNICEF, and the consultant will not share the same with anyone else.
• The consultant(s) will not put their own name or logo/emblem on the content / final product. The only organization's branding will be UNICEF, if required.
• The consultant(s) will follow UNICEF’s Data Protection & Privacy Framework and follow information security standards when managing UNICEF’s supported digital platforms.
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
• The selected candidate(s) is solely responsible for ensuring that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF UNICEF:

• UNICEF will provide all available details pertaining to the activity and the requirements.
• UNICEF will orient the consultant on UNICEF’s branding guidelines.
• UNICEF will provide access to specialized tools, resources, and platforms deemed necessary by UNICEF to successfully complete the assignment.

DELIVERABLES

S. No. Work Assignment Overview Deliverables–Outputs

1 Digital Community Engagement Strategy: Development of a structured DCE strategy for a geography, programme, or population segment, aligned to programme needs. Strategy document of 25 to 30 pages maximum excluding annexes, covering context, behavioural objectives, theory of change, priority audiences, channel m

• Provide technical guidance, design and implement engagement strategies, conduct ecosystem research and audience segmentation, develop and localize digital behavior-change content, advise on influencer partnerships, strengthen community management practices, build staff and partner capacity, produce guidance materials, and deliver evaluation and learning products.
• Help offices design and strengthen digital engagement systems, build and manage community centred content and messaging workflows, advise on creator and influencer collaborations, support two-way communication models, and translate digital insights into practical actions for programmes.
• Support UNICEF in strengthening DCE as an integrated component of SBC programming. This involves helping teams understand how communities use digital spaces to interpret services, discuss concerns, and shape everyday decisions, and translating that understanding into practical strategies, content pathways, and engagement models.
• Work with UNICEF teams globally to design evidence informed approaches that connect digital behaviour, community insight, and programme intent - ensuring that digital channels contribute to participation, trust building, and equitable access to information.
• Help strengthen the systems and competencies needed for sustained digital engagement. This includes advising on digital governance, workflows, moderation practices, safeguarding protocols, and measurement frameworks that link engagement to behavioural outcomes.
• Contribute to capacity development by designing modular learning programs, delivering training or workshops, and supporting knowledge exchange through case studies and practical tools.
• Help produce guidance documentation such messaging playbooks and user journey maps and oversee the development and localization of content and accessibility enhancements.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting may be required to help teams design and deploy measurement frameworks, identify emerging needs, and continuously refine their digital engagement approaches.