POSITION: - State Consultant – Child Road Safety, Adolescent Mental Health & Climate Change
LOCATION: Pune
DURATION: 8 months
CLOSING DATE: 17th April 2026
Background & Purpose of Assignment:
Maharashtra continues to face a high burden of preventable risks affecting children and adolescents, including (i) road traffic injuries and unsafe mobility, (ii) adolescent mental health and wellbeing concerns that affect learning, relationships, safety and service uptake, and (iii) increasing climate-sensitive health threats such as heat stress, air pollution, urban flooding and vector-borne diseases. These risks often intersect—unsafe mobility affects school attendance and injury burden; climate stressors disrupt schooling and services and can worsen psychosocial stress; and schools remain one of the most scalable platforms to reach adolescents with prevention, early support and appropriate referral linkages.
UNICEF Maharashtra, in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and relevant departments, has been supporting systems strengthening through the School Health and Wellness Programme (SHWP) and convergence with Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK), including adolescent wellbeing actions and nutrition/healthy diets. In parallel, UNICEF is supporting the State under the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH) to strengthen planning and implementation of the State Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health (SAPCCHH), and to build district capacity for preparedness, early warning and anticipatory actions for climate-sensitive health risks—especially those affecting children and adolescents. UNICEF Maharashtra has implemented Phase I and Phase II of child road safety support in selected geographies, focusing on strengthening systems and school-linked mechanisms using a Safe Systems approach, including development of action planning processes, stakeholder coordination, and integration pathways with school platforms. In 2026, the road safety workstream is not an expansion phase, but a time-bound transition and closure effort (through June 2026) to consolidate Phase I–II learnings, complete the handover/transition planning with relevant counterparts (including NSS support as applicable), and develop a robust process documentation and scale-up package to enable institutional ownership and replication.
The purpose of this consultancy (May–December 2026) is to provide dedicated technical assistance to the Government of Maharashtra and UNICEF Maharashtra across three linked workstreams: (a) child road safety transition support, (b) SHWP–RKSK support for adolescent mental health and wellbeing and healthy diets, and (c) climate change and human health under NPCCHH/SAPCCHH. The consultant will support the transition and closure of the road safety portfolio through planning support (including NSS engagement as applicable) and process documentation; strengthen SHWP–RKSK implementation quality through roll-out support for the updated Peer Educator (PE) module (including State ToT and cascade training support in Nashik and one additional district to be confirmed); and advance SAPCCHH operationalization through district-focused vulnerability assessments, district action planning and anticipatory action protocols (e.g., heat and air pollution advisories), including climate-resilient and green health system measures under NPCCHH.
The assignment will focus on strengthening convergence across relevant departments and partners, improving monitoring and review mechanisms, and producing practical guidance and knowledge products that enable learning, scale-up and replication. Overall, the consultancy will support more resilient, integrated and child- and adolescent-responsive systems to reduce injury risk, improve adolescent wellbeing and strengthen preparedness for climate-sensitive health threats in Maharashtra.
Scope of Work (Include Background/Rationale/Key Objectives of the Assignment):
The consultant will provide technical assistance to the Government of Maharashtra and UNICEF Maharashtra to strengthen integrated programming across child road safety, adolescent mental health/wellbeing through SHWP–RKSK, and climate change & human health (NPCCHH/SAPCCHH), with a strong focus on systems strengthening, convergence, monitoring and documentation.
- Provide technical assistance to transition and close the child road safety portfolio, including transition/hand-over planning support (including NSS support as applicable), process documentation, and a closure note with scale-up recommendations.
- Support SHWP implementation and SHWP–RKSK convergence with explicit focus on adolescent mental health and wellbeing and healthy diets, including support for PE module trainings (State ToT and cascade support) in Nashik and one additional district (TBD).
- Support operationalization of NPCCHH/SAPCCHH, including district-focused vulnerability assessment processes, district action planning, and practical anticipatory action protocols for priority climate-sensitive health risks affecting children and adolescents.
- Strengthen interdepartmental convergence, monitoring and knowledge products across the above workstreams to support implementation quality, learning and scale-up.
Duty Station: Pune
Official travel: The consultant will need toundertake District Travels within the State: Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur & SOS district based on program need.
Qualification/Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:
- Masters in following stream: Public Health/ Environmental health/ Climate change/ Road safety engineering or related area from recognized institutions
- More than 5 years of experience in managing health programmes at State/Divisional level.
- Knowledge about climate change and its impacts on health, Road Safety and School Health & Wellness programme
- Knowledge of Public Health Systems in Maharashtra
- Experience in data collection, analysis, impact assessment and production of reports.
- Proficient in MS office and Statistical software
- Experience in developing and executing district/ corporation level road safety programs.
- Strong professional and academic writing skills
Application Procedures
(1) Qualified female/male candidates are requested to please indicate their ability and availability to undertake the terms of reference above.
(2) We request you to please inform us where you have seen this advertisement.
(3) Your application should be sent to mumbai.consultants@unicef.org by COB 17th April 2025 with subject line "State Consultant – Child Road Safety, Adolescent Mental Health & Climate Change" in separate files consisting of:
a. Cover letter
b. CV (clearly mentioning relevant experience and any experience with UN/International/ Bilateral agencies)
c. The General Terms and Conditions of Contract (Consultants) GTC.pdf
e. A financial proposal in PDF format indicating deliverable based fee as per template attached. Please mention your name in the file name while saving.
(4) The selection will be based on technical evaluation & financial proposal in the ratio of 75:25. The technical criterion for evaluation is as follows:
- Educational Qualifications (20)
- Relevant Experience (25)
- Technical Interview (30)
Total Score is 75.
- Minimum overall qualifying score should be 56.
(5) The financial proposals of only those candidates, who are found technically responsive, will be opened.
(6) Any attempt to unduly influence UNICEF’s selection process will lead to automatic disqualification of the applicant.
(7) Joint applications of two or more individuals are not accepted.
(8) Please note, UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the process.