Senior Programme Planning & Coordination Consultant – 6‑Month Remote (Barbados)

About the role

UNICEF is seeking a senior consultant to design, facilitate and document a structured, time‑bound planning process for the 2027 annual/rolling work‑planning package of the Caribbean Multi‑Country Programme. The assignment is six months, remote, and will support the Representative, Deputy Representative and thematic leads across 12 programme countries.

Key responsibilities

• Support finalisation of the MCP planning process ensuring the results architecture aligns with the approved MCPD/RRF and the Global Monitoring Framework.
• Develop interventions that combine regional coherence with appropriate country differentiation.
• Prepare and validate the outcome‑output‑key‑intervention structure, PIDB coding and indicative budget architecture for VISION configuration.
• Coordinate the end‑to‑end work‑planning process, including methodology, calendar, templates, consultations, facilitation, documentation and quality assurance.
• Ensure work plans are jointly developed with government counterparts and anchored in national priorities, sector plans and commitments.
• Align annual and rolling work plans with MCPD priorities, outputs, indicators and implementation strategies.
• Identify and organise data, baselines and indicator metadata required for monitoring and reporting.
• Support programme teams in translating strategic priorities into realistic, costed and implementation‑ready plans.
• Review ongoing grants, donor conditions and partnership commitments to reflect them in work plans.
• Document planning assumptions, risks and handover information to maintain continuity during staff transitions.

Required profile

• Master’s degree in international development, public policy, strategic planning, programme management or a related field.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience in strategic planning, results‑based management or programme coordination.
• Demonstrated experience supporting UNICEF country programme planning or similar multi‑country work‑planning processes.
• Strong knowledge of results‑based management and ability to translate strategic frameworks into implementation‑ready plans.
• Experience facilitating complex multi‑country or multi‑stakeholder planning processes.
• Experience with donor‑funded programmes, partnership commitments and grant deliverables.
• Fluency in English; knowledge of Spanish or Dutch is an asset.
• Knowledge of the Caribbean context is highly desirable.

Required skills

• VISION coding for programme configuration.
• PIDB coding for outcome‑output‑intervention structure.