Senior International Consultant for Skills Strategy Development in Afghanistan

UNESCO has been supporting Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and skills development in Afghanistan through multiple strategies and programmes, including the TVET Strategy 2020–2024 and other sectoral frameworks. These efforts have focused on strengthening skills development systems, improving employability, and promoting socio-economic resilience. However, significant contextual changes following the August 2021 power shift have fundamentally altered the education and skills development landscape. These include: A shift from formal, system-based TVET delivery to community-based and non-formal modalities; Severe restrictions on girls’ and women’s education, particularly beyond Grade 6, and on women’s participation in work and public spaces; A sharp decline in international aid, affecting employment opportunities and service delivery systems; A substantial increase in returnees from Iran and Pakistan, now estimated at around 10% of the population; Weak coordination, standardization, certification, and accreditation systems for community-based non-formal skills development. To respond to this evolving education, skills and labour-market context in Afghanistan, UNESCO seeks to lead a structured process to develop a strategy for skills development interventions by adapting, revising and updating past TVET and skills development strategies. The assignment will realign previous frameworks with current socio-economic realities, emerging learner and labour-market needs, delivery modalities, stakeholder configurations, and relevant global frameworks and priorities, including the SDGs, UNESCO’s Strategy for TVET 2022–2029, the 2015 UNESCO Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education and Training, and ILO frameworks on skills development as well as lifelong learning frameworks.