Pacific regional review of initiatives to promote parent engagement in early learning and ECD, Suva, Fiji, 5.5 Months (120 working days)

UNICEF Pacific is in search of a dedicated and proactive international Consultant. The consultant will work remotely ensuring availability to work at times suitable to the Pacific Islands region when required. All costs related to the work will be included in the financial proposal and subsequent contract (90 days remote/30 days in-country for Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tuvalu). Daily monitoring and supervision will be provided by the ECD Specialist in collaboration with the Chief of Education and the Deputy Representative. This includes analyzing existing policies, identifying gaps, and aligning efforts with regional frameworks such as the Pasifika Call to Action on ECD. The consultant will collaborate closely with Pacific Island governments, ensuring the participation of key ministries, and will engage with regional bodies like the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Pacific Community (SPC), and the University of the South Pacific (USP).

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Education. 

The Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) highlights the importance of schools, families, and communities, alongside key stakeholders such as churches, faith-based organizations, traditional elders, and peers, all of whom play integral roles in shaping each child’s broader learning environment. PacREF stresses the need for collaboration across these stakeholders—within the education system, across government agencies, and with civil society—to create supportive environments at all stages of a child’s development.

PacREF incorporates research-based insights from a Pacific perspective, offering a deeper understanding of education through Pasifika cultural lenses. It acknowledges traditional Pacific concepts of learning and recognizes the eco-social contexts in which Pacific youth have gained knowledge and skills over generations. By focusing on the support systems that children depend on throughout their education, PacREF ensures a culturally relevant approach that reflects how Pacific people are socialized, how they learn, and how they communicate.

Complementing PacREF, the Pacific Regional Council for Early Childhood Development (PRC4ECD) unites Ministers and Permanent Secretaries from sectors including education, health, finance, and social welfare under the Pasifika Call to Action on ECD. This regional initiative encourages countries to tailor the Call to Action to their specific contexts, driving collaboration among leaders, policymakers, and program implementers to address gaps in health, nutrition, protection, care, and stimulation that affect the development of young children across the region. The Pasifika Call to Action leverages the Pacific's rich cultural heritage, family values, and national strengths, while emphasizing the critical need to support parents and caregivers.

These efforts align with broader regional priorities, such as the 2050 Blue Pacific Strategy, the Pacific Culture Strategy, and sectoral goals set by Pacific Ministers of Education, Health, and Women. Together, these frameworks underscore the importance of parenting engagement as a central element in the holistic development of young children.

However, despite national and regional commitments, parents and caregivers in the Pacific face significant challenges that demand immediate attention and support. Limited access to resources, financial pressures, and underdeveloped support systems often leaves parents feeling isolated and overwhelmed. Additionally, Pacific parents must navigate cultural expectations, societal pressures, and the complexities of modern-day parenting, including the impact of technology on their children. Parents of children with disabilities or at risk of disability need additional support.

The active involvement of parents and caregivers is especially crucial during the pre-primary years, as children transition to formal learning environments such as preschools or kindergartens. Research shows that learning continues just as much, if not more, at home, making family engagement a vital component of early childhood education (UNICEF, 2020). The Pacific Guidelines for Early Childhood Education (ECE) position ECE as a shared responsibility between the education system and the family, with parents recognized as the child’s first and most important teachers (UNICEF and PRC4ECE, 2017).

Most countries in the Pacific explicitly include family engagement as a priority in their national ECE policies, recognizing that parental involvement in the early years is key to a child’s success. Ministries of Education across the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have employed various strategies to promote parental engagement and support families with young children. These include initiatives aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the early years and encouraging positive parent-child interactions (UNICEF-Innocenti-Early-Childhood-Education-Pacific-2024).

UNICEF Pacific is seeking a consultant to support the goals of PacREF and the PRC4ECD by reviewing existing efforts within Pacific education systems to engage and support parents. This includes both supporting children's learning and providing guidance and support to parents. The consultant will help identify ways to make parental engagement in early learning culturally relevant, sustainable, and effective across Pacific countries.

How can you make a difference? 

The consultant will complete a review of regional initiatives that promote parenting engagement in Early Learning and Early Childhood Development (ECD).

This includes analyzing existing policies, identifying gaps, and aligning efforts with regional frameworks such as the Pasifika Call to Action on ECD. The consultant will collaborate closely with Pacific Island governments, ensuring the participation of key ministries, and will engage with regional bodies like the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the Pacific Community (SPC), and the University of the South Pacific (USP).

• Draft an inception report outlining the scope of the work, activities, key stakeholders, methodology to be implemented and tentative timeline.
• Pacific regional review of initiatives to promote parenting engagement in ECD
• Draft framework of culturally relevant and inclusive parenting engagement strategies
• Develop tools for scaling up parenting engagement strategies
• Create a monitoring framework to assess the impact of parenting engagement strategies
• Final toolkit to design, implement, scale up and monitor parenting engagement strategies in early learning

Please refer to the ToR ( TOR_ParentingEngagement.pdf) for further information on the deliverables and the timelines. 

GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS:  

Please submit a separate financial offer along with your application. The financial proposal should be a lump sum amount for all the deliverables and should show a break down for the following:

• Monthly / Daily fees– based on the deliverables in the Terms of Reference above.
• Travel (economy air ticket where applicable to take up assignment and field mission travel - 90 days remote/30 days in-country for Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tuvalu).
• Living allowance where travel is required.
• Miscellaneous- to cover visa, health insurance (including medical evacuation for international consultants), communications, and other costs.

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

Education:

• A Master’s degree in social policy, Development Studies, Early Childhood Development, Education, Family Health, or a relevant field.

Experience & Skills:

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience related to early childhood, parenting and parent engagement in the early years, including policy, planning, programming and/or research.
• Experience designing and implementing participatory and inclusive processes engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, including governments, with attention to cultural and contextual relevance, and local ownership of processes and outputs.
• Work experience in the Pacific Islands region is required.
• Experience working in UNICEF, a UN system agency or a CROP agency is an asset.
• Proven ability to work independently under difficult conditions.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy 2022-2030, UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

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.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and individual contractors 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 is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.