Consultant (12 months, home-based): Consultant for Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP)

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 to learn more about what we do at UNICEF. For every child, the right to hope Since 1991, the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) has helped to motivate facilities providing maternity and newborn services worldwide to better support breastfeeding. Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the BFHI focuses on providing optimal clinical care for new mothers and their infants. There is substantial evidence that implementing the Ten Steps significantly improves breastfeeding rates. In 2018, UNICEF and WHO released a guide for global BFHI implementation: Implementation Guidance: Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding in maternity and newborn services facilities: the revised Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. This guidance emphasizes scaling up to universal coverage and ensuring sustainability over time by fully integrating BFHI into the health system. The guidance also recommends strengthening existing standards of care based on the updated ten steps.  About 13 National Committees are currently, or have been in the past, engaged with and supporting BFHI as part of their advocacy and fundraising efforts in HICs. For most of the National Committees this 'platform initiative' have been long-standing programmes that have given UNICEF's National Committees significant visibility.  In 2023, as part of a broader effort to strengthen alignment with existing UNICEF programme guidance and standards (including Guidance for Programming in HICs) and based on the parameters set out in the Cooperation Agreement(1), PG has been working with National Committees, in collaboration with PFP, to assess the alignment, relevance and appropriateness of specific activities including BFHI. The purpose of the consultant is to ensure continued support to National Committees related to BFHI, and to support their overall alignment. This is primarily achieved via bilateral support to countries. Additionally, the consultant will support the identification of solutions to bottlenecks and facilitate learning between National Committees and other parts of UNICEF. In 2026, UNICEF's flagship Child Nutrition Report will focus on the topic of breastfeeding and the consultancy will provide tailored support to National Committees to leverage the report for their advocacy purposes. How can you make a difference?  Scope of Work: Under the joint supervision of PFP and Programme Group and PFP (Child Rights Advocacy Unit), where appropriate, the consultant will undertake the following: Build and elaborate on the existing analysis on the current diverse programmatic and other arrangements in National Committees in relation to BFHI.  This analytical piece was started in 2025 and will maintain key information on operational modalities, arrangements, and role(s) of each National Committee. In consultation with the National Committees engaged in BFHI, PG and PFP, define and support a change management strategy for the given context to facilitate a positive and sustainable way forward.   This should specifically include programme recommendations that i) highlight the implications of the revised guidelines  on National Committees activities and ii) facilitate realignment of the National Committees activities where needed, through the identification of evidence-based approaches and concrete entry points to pursue an advocacy focused agenda aligned to their remit and value proposition, recognizing that UNICEF's role in advocating with governments in these (high-income) contexts to integrate the ten steps into quality of care standards. Provide support for identifying solutions to bottlenecks and facilitate learning between National Committees. Engage with technical colleagues across HQ and Regional Offices to provide capacity building opportunities. Activities and Tasks: Build on the existing mapping and analysis of current BFHI activities in each National Committee engaged in the initiative. Support the rollout of the 'Reframing BFHI in HICs' document Provide customized and tailored support on countries planning, monitoring and evaluation activities, with a focus on the Theory of Change. Depending on the forthcoming institutional changes (notably the COEs and country typologies), define and support a change management strategy for the given context to facilitate a positive and sustainable way forward. Elevate individual and collective advocacy focused interventions by identifying key opportunities to amplify UNICEF's key messages on breastfeeding. Provide bilateral support to the national Committees engaged in the initiative based on demand, for the implementation of the programme recommendations and agreed actions.