International individual consultancy on green school standards in Kazakhstan with UNICEF in Kazakhstan

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For every child, the right to Education! 

Background and Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
UNICEF Kazakhstan is looking for a consultant to build the capacity of the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan and the National Education Academy in green school standards conceptualization and roll out in Kazakhstan. This consultancy aims to support the review of international approaches and localization of green school standards for schools in close dialogue with the Ministry of Education and the National Education Academy for advancing climate smart education and schools’ resilience.

Kazakhstan, the largest landlocked country in the world, is situated in Central Asia and borders Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. It has a diverse landscape that includes vast steppes, deserts, mountains, and lakes. Kazakhstan faces significant environmental challenges, including desertification, water scarcity, and pollution. The country is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as extreme weather events, which can exacerbate these issues.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change in the country, 55% of them are already exposed to water scarcity, particularly in the Southern and Western parts of the country and 84% are exposed to heatwaves. More than 600,000 children are exposed to riverine flooding in the country. Environment pollution is an area of particular concern, with 73% of children in Kazakhstan being exposed to ambient air pollution PM2.5 >= 10 μg/m3, particularly in cold season and in the regions prone to air pollution (Karaganda, Eastern Kazakhstan, Astana and Almaty cities), and 42% exposed to pesticide pollution.

Kazakhstan has committed to several international climate agreements, including the Paris Agreement. At COP29, Kazakhstan committed to tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, along with other nations. The country signed a memorandum of understanding on regenerative agriculture and expressed a commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 through a strategy approved by the President. Furthermore, Kazakhstan showcases its initiatives and achievements in green technologies, renewable energy, and climate adaptation. The recent address of the President of the country calls to instill a culture of cleanliness in society, tasking the government introduce a unified standard of environmental education that will cover all levels, from schools to universities . The country has recently signed the Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action.

Education systems need to be resilient and climate SMART so they can continue to function, better cope with and swiftly recover from disruption caused by climate and environmental hazards and shocks. Climate change mitigation and adaptation and environmental considerations, in short, need to be applied to and become comprehensively embedded throughout entire education systems. Critical aspects in this regard are: policies and planning; finance; school physical infrastructure; coordination and partnership; data and evidence gathering, monitoring and evaluation.

Since 2024 the national project "Comfortable School" in Kazakhstan has been rolled out aiming at solving the problems of shortage of student places, liquidation of emergency schools and transfer of education to two and three shifts. The project plans to build new modern schools equipped with advanced equipment and meeting high standards of education quality. The project includes the construction of 369 schools with 740 thousand student places. In 2025, the Keleshek Mektepteri project is being implemented upon the request of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is aimed at providing high-quality and accessible education in comfortable conditions. This way 217 new-format schools for 460,000 student places are being built over two years. While these national projects are being implemented, it is important that the schools follow green school standards for climate change mitigation and adaptation, specifically in relation to infrastructure (energy saving, water management, quality of air, waste management). The overall approach is to improve schools' environmental footprint (i.e. biodiversity, energy, waste and recycling, paper and printing, water, travel and food and food waste), green skills building (through curriculum improvement, ecoculture promotion,), personnel (administrators’ and teachers’ guidance, green pedagogy and capacity) and community engagement (project-based experience and interaction on environment sites (tree planting and forestation, adopting rivers, cleaning environment).

UNICEF Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources have partnered for climate SMART education and green school standards development. UNICEF has committed to support the National Education Academy and the established technical working group on developing green school concept, green school standards and schools’ self-assessment tools, informed by the international best practices and the country context. It will also consult the ongoing study on school energy efficiency supported by UNICEF in parallel. It will be accompanied by promotion of the green school concept, standards and tools for self-assessment, training of school administrators and teachers.

Scope Of Work:

The overall goal is to further support the integration of climate change mitigation and adaptation and environmental issues into the education system. The purpose of the consultancy is to build the capacity of local experts in green school standards conceptualization and its roll out in Kazakhstan. This consultancy aims to guide the established technical working group in developing standards and self-assessment tools for green schools and capacities for implementation nationwide.

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the National Education Academy and guide the technical working group established under its leadership in development of the reference framework for green school (standards) and co-create the implementation package for building green, climate smart, and environmentally-resilient education organizations and systems.

The scope of this international consultancy is as follows:

Develop the reference framework for green school (standards) and co-create the implementation package for building green, climate smart and environmentally-resilient education organizations and systems

1. 1. Evidence generation and creation of green school framework (standards) • Conduct a desk review of existing green school concepts and frameworks and present the recommendations for the development of the national framework (standards) • Organize interviews and consultations with the key stakeholders in green school standards including government, NGOs, academia and business to solicit their opinion about the green school framework (standards) • In consultation with the National working group support the drafting and finalization of the framework with key standards and indicators for educational institutions to comply with climate change mitigation and adaptation and environmental protection criteria.
2. 2. Development of implementation and capacity building self-assessment package

• Draft, discuss and finalize self-assessment tools with green school standards/criteria
• Develop guidance for school managers to undertake the self-assessment tools including M&E plan
• Guide the National technical working group in the development of modules for training and professional development institutes for managers and education professionals on self-assessment tools.
• Contribute to the design of the agenda and present the results of developing and testing the capacity building package at the final conference for the exchange of experience on integration of climate change mitigation/adaptation and environmental issues into the education system.

The proposed methodology for the assignment:
Consultations with the National working group: the international consultant will work with the established National working group on a regular basis by organizing on-line and off-line consultations. Each consultation will have its agenda and outcomes.

Evidence generation: The desk review and semi-structured interviews of existing international and national green school frameworks and standards will consider the following questions:

Policy framework:
• How are the green school standards defined by different sources of information available internationally?
• What are the core principles and definitions of a "green school" across different frameworks?
• How do various green school models integrate climate change into education, infrastructure, and community engagement?
• What are the common goals and intended outcomes of green school initiatives?
• What role do green schools play in national climate and education strategies?
• How does this work relate to SDG agenda nationally?
Components and Indicators:
• What are the key components or pillars (e.g., curriculum, infrastructure, operations, community) included in existing green school frameworks and standards?
• How do these frameworks address environmental, social, and economic dimensions of climate change?
• What indicators or benchmarks are used to assess green school performance?
Governance
• What institutional structures and policies support the implementation of green school standards?
• How are green school initiatives funded and sustained over time?
• What roles do government, NGOs, and private sector actors play in promoting green schools?
Localization
• How are green school frameworks and standards adapted to different geographic, cultural, and socio-economic contexts? What is appropriate for Kazakhstan contexts and regional differences in adaptation to climate change (high or low temperatures, air pollution, scarcity of water resources, etc.)
• What lessons can be learned from successful regional or country-specific green school programmes? What green school programmes exist in Kazakhstan (specific regions, focus)?
M&E
• What tools and methodologies are used to monitor and evaluate green school initiatives? What is the certification process?
• How is impact measured in terms of environmental outcomes, student learning, and community engagement?
Challenges and lessons learnt
• What are the common challenges faced in implementing green school frameworks and standards?
• What innovations or best practices have emerged to overcome these challenges?

Self-assessment tools: The self-assessment tools should consider the dimensions described in the Annex 1 of the TORs.

Guides for administrators and teachers will include the following content: Key concepts, what is included into the green school standard and self-assessment tools, how to use self-assessment tools, recommendations on school improvement plans to address gaps, how to monitor and assess the effectiveness of the actions (surveys for school administrators, staff and children), e-version of materials (green school standards and self-assessment tools), checklists for administrators and teachers, references.

Main Deliverables:

The consultancy will have the following deliverables:

Develop the reference framework (standards) for green school and co-create the implementation package for building green, climate-smart and environmentally-resilient education organizations and systems

Evidence generation and creation of green school framework (standards)
• The report with the desk review of existing green school frameworks and standards and present the recommendations for the development of the national green school standards
• Completed consultations, including semi-structured interviews, with the key stakeholders in green school standards including government, NGOs, academia and business to solicit their opinion about the green school framework (standards)
• Finalized framework with key standards for the assessment of educational institutions to climate change and environmental aspects
Development of implementation and capacity building package on self-assessment
• Validated self-assessment tools with green school standards/criteria,
• Finalized guidance for central level and school managers to implement self-assessment tools, including M&E plan
• Finalized modules for training and professional development institutes for decision makers, managers and education professionals on self-assessment tools.
• Finalized agenda and presentation of results of developing and testing the capacity building package at the final conference.

Coordination and logistics:
All the deliverables will be implemented under the supervision of UNICEF Kazakhstan Education Specialist and UNICEF Climate Change/DRR Officer, in close collaboration with UNICEF Deputy Representative, other relevant program staff. The consultant will work in close contact with national counterparts of the Education sector.

Timeframe (tentative)
The envisioned duration of the consultancy is for 8 months from October 2025 to May 2026. The actual duration of the assignment and schedule of activities will be agreed upon with the selected consultant based on the proposed implementation plan. The total number of working days is 50 days, within 8 months period between October 2025 and May 2026.

Sensitivity and ethical considerations

All UNICEF-led or associated research and implementation activities are required to adhere to ethical principles and standards. These standards provide clear information on engaging children as research subjects and further reporting on them. Interviews and conversations with children must comply with ethical guidelines on interviewing children.

This project is of high-sensitivity nature as it concerns children with special education needs, their families and are trying to mainstream them into education.

Given the above, the design and implementation of the research components should consider ethical safeguards, including protection of privacy, confidentiality, dignity, rights and welfare of human subjects particularly children and their families, and respect of the values of the local community.

In addition, the following procedures are an important guide in ensuring high quality of studies and research: UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis and Procedures for Quality Assurance in Research

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete TOR here

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

Minimum Requirements:

• Education: Advanced university degree in education, environment/climate change science, engineering.
• Work Experience required:
• Senior expertise and experience in climate change education and greening education
• Expertise and experience in developing standards and M&E frameworks in the education sector
• Experience in conducting research, analysis, or institutional audits in the education system
• Experience in designing training materials for administrators and teachers
• Work experience and/or technical knowledge on greening education in the Europe and Central Asia region is a strong asset
• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrated with sample products, reports or publications
• Strong communication and negotiation skills
• At least 5 years of relevant work experience in in education, environment/climate change science, engineering.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English, knowledge of Kazakh or Russian is an asset.
• Senior expertise and experience in climate change education and greening education
• Expertise and experience in developing standards and M&E frameworks in the education sector
• Experience in conducting research, analysis, or institutional audits in the education system
• Experience in designing training materials for administrators and teachers
• Work experience and/or technical knowledge on greening education in the Europe and Central Asia region is a strong asset
• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrated with sample products, reports or publications
• Strong communication and negotiation skills

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

• The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…
• (1) Builds and maintains partnerships
• (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• (3) Drive to achieve results for impact
• (4) Innovates and embraces change
• (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
• (6) Thinks and acts strategically
• (7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

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Remarks:

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