Local Youth Innovation Specialist – Timor-Leste

Aninver Development Partners SL (www.aninver.com) is looking for a Local Youth Innovation Specialist for a urban consultancy assignment financed by UNICEF in Timor-Leste.

Aninver Development Partners is seeking an expert Local Youth Innovation Specialist for an upcoming UNICEF consultancy assignment in Timor-Leste. The initiative focuses on empowering young people through green skills development, climate resilience, and sustainable entrepreneurship across selected municipalities. The programme utilizes human-centered design principles and structured youth innovation models to identify, incubate, and scale youth-led green business ideas.

The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in driving local youth engagement, delivering capacity-building workshops, and managing seed funding mechanisms. Working closely with community stakeholders and youth networks, the specialist will facilitate hands-on training and provide structured mentorship to ensure the viability and growth of green enterprises, ultimately fostering sustainable local livelihoods in the urban and regional sectors.

Aninver is preparing a proposal for this assignment. The selected expert will be part of the proposed team; the engagement is conditional on the contract being awarded to Aninver. The full Terms of Reference for the position are shared with shortlisted candidates.

Objectives of the assignment

• Foster youth-led social innovation and green entrepreneurship in Timor-Leste.
• Mobilize and engage diverse youth groups across target municipalities.
• Design and deliver green skills innovation workshops utilizing Human-Centered Design and UPSHIFT methodologies.
• Select and award seed funding to top youth-led green innovation groups.
• Provide a structured, multi-month mentoring and incubation programme to ensure venture viability.

Scope of work

• Map and engage local youth networks, community leaders, and municipal authorities to ensure broad participation.
• Establish selection criteria and launch an open call for youth-led green innovation ideas.
• Adapt and facilitate training curricula focusing on green skills, climate-related livelihoods, and social entrepreneurship.
• Implement Human-Centered Design and UPSHIFT-aligned bootcamps guiding participants from problem identification to prototyping.
• Manage a competitive evaluation process to select winning youth groups to receive seed funding.
• Oversee the transparent disbursement and monitoring of grant utilization.
• Deliver a structured mentoring and incubation programme tailored to selected youth enterprises.
• Track project milestones, conduct field visits, and produce progress reports and visibility materials.

Your role as Local Youth Innovation Specialist

• Lead local youth mobilization and stakeholder engagement activities within target municipalities.
• Facilitate capacity-building workshops and bootcamps focusing on green skills and social entrepreneurship.
• Guide participants through problem identification, human-centered design, and prototyping processes.
• Support the management of the competitive seed funding selection and grant disbursement process.
• Provide technical guidance, business development mentoring, and market linkage support to youth enterprises.
• Conduct regular field visits to monitor project implementation and enterprise progress.
• Contribute to project monitoring, documentation of lessons learned, and the production of final evaluation reports.

Requirements

• Relevant higher education qualifications in environmental science, climate change, green economy, business incubation, social sciences, or a related field.
• Proven experience and technical competencies in green skills development, climate-related livelihoods, and community-level training.
• Strong background in designing and delivering capacity-building workshops, mentoring programmes, and technical documentation.
• Demonstrated familiarity with human-centered design and youth innovation models.
• Professional proficiency in English with strong written and verbal communication skills.

Desirable

• Previous professional experience working on UNICEF or other international donor-funded youth initiatives in Timor-Leste or the region.
• Familiarity with local languages and context in the target municipalities.

A dynamic professional with a strong background in green skills development, youth innovation, and workshop facilitation, eager to empower young entrepreneurs in Timor-Leste.

Assignment details

• Location: Timor-Leste
• Financed by: UNICEF
• Sector: Urban
• Estimated duration: 8 months
• Contract: individual consultancy (conditional on award)

About Aninver Development Partners

Aninver is an international development consulting firm headquartered in Spain. It supports governments, development banks, UN agencies and bilateral donors with feasibility studies, technical assistance, evaluations and capacity building across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Asia-Pacific, working with a network of international and national experts.

Why apply

• Join a multidisciplinary team on a UNICEF-financed project in Timor-Leste.
• Individual consultancy: flexible, output-based engagement with an experienced proposal team.
• Your CV stays in Aninver's expert network for future assignments that match your profile.

How to apply

Sign in (or create a free account) and upload your CV in English. Add your LinkedIn profile, indicative daily rate and availability to speed up the assessment. Aninver will contact the shortlisted candidates.

Frequently asked questions

Is the position confirmed? The engagement depends on the contract being awarded to Aninver. Shortlisted experts are included in the proposal with their consent.

Can I apply if I am not based in the country? Yes, unless the requirements say otherwise; relevant regional experience is an asset.

What happens with my CV? It is used to assess your fit for this and future positions and is not shared with third parties without your consent.