Consultant to Promote Corporate Reporting Child Rights Impacts in Relation to Digital

Consultancy

Title:

Consultant to Promote Corporate Reporting on Child Rights Impacts in Relation to the Digital Environment

Section/Division/Duty Station: Programme Group/Child Protection

Duration: 01 March 2026 – 15 December 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.

UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Purpose Of Activity/ Assignment

UNICEF is globally mandated to promote the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The age of technology and the internet have brought tremendous benefits, including for children. Digital access provides opportunities for learning, communication, play, and social interaction, creating vast potential for realizing children’s rights. However, the spread of digital technologies also comes with a broad spectrum of risks and harms to which children can be particularly vulnerable.

Children may be impacted directly as users of technology products or services; or as a result of the development, deployment, and use of digital technologies in the world around them. For example, children can be victims, targets, participants, and initiators of risky or harmful online behavior. Children may also encounter technology design features or limitations that are associated with impacts on their right to privacy and freedom of expression, among other rights.

UNICEF’s Strategic Plan  recognises the importance of tackling technology-facilitated violence against children and promoting rights-respecting digital governance (Impact Result
4). UNICEF is increasingly engaging in discussions shaping how digital technologies are regulated across the world.

As part of this engagement, advancing responsible business conduct in the digital environment is a core pillar of UNICEF’s work. UNICEF has recently released a set of Disclosure Recommendations, a Child Rights Impact Assessment (D‑CRIA) tool for the digital environment, and will shortly launch a toolkit on responsible digital marketing practices. UNICEF has also developed guidance to support industry to seize positive opportunities to promote child well-being (RITEC Design Toolbox).

These resources aim to strengthen child rights due diligence in the technology and digital sectors by providing robust, rights-based, and stakeholder-informed guidance for companies. They are also complementary: understanding potential child rights impacts is a critical precursor to meaningful and decision-useful disclosure.

The next step is to accelerate uptake of these resources by companies operating in the digital ecosystem. Adoption may occur directly (through companies integrating the tools into their policies, processes, and governance) or indirectly (through the inclusion of child‑rights elements in external standards, benchmarks, and framework documents that shape corporate behaviour). To support this objective, the consultancy will focus on three core engagement work streams:

• Company Engagement - Targeted outreach and one‑to‑one engagement with companies across the digital and technology sectors.
• Standards and Framework Engagement - Engage relevant standards‑setting organizations, industry initiatives, benchmarking bodies, and reporting frameworks to explore and pursue pathways for alignment.
• Field Engagement - Collaborate with experts and engage at key global events to elevate the visibility, credibility, and practical value of UNICEF’s child rights guidance.

Travel -…