Assistant Nutritionist and Food Security

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

As part of its assistance to refugees in Chad, UNHCR provides them with primary health care. Primary health activities are implemented through implementing partners including IRC and ADES in refugee camps in Chad. The main objective of this project is to coordinate nutrition and food assistance activities in the public health sector, refugees and displaced persons, the host population and returnees in Chad. Chad, a country in the Sahel strip, faces recurrent crises related to floods, droughts, epidemics, food insecurity and the influx of refugees from neighbouring countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation with the measures taken by the government to combat the disease. The health situation remains bleak with a high infant and child mortality rate of around 122 per 1,000 (EDS-MICS 2019) . Thus, one in eight children dies before reaching the age of 5. This situation is due to the lack of basic services (limited access to drinking water, sanitation, and primary and reproductive health care), and low vaccination coverage leading to the emergence of diseases with epidemic poten-tial. Regarding COVID-19, since its outbreak in March 2020, the pandemic has reached 7,641 people and led to 194 deaths. Food insecurity and malnutrition affect 5.1 million people, of whom more than 1.7 million are severely food insecure. Since 2010, the government, accompanied by its partners, has been committed to a nutritional surveillance system in Chad through the conduct of regular nutritional surveys according to the SMART SENS methodology (refugees and host villages up to 25 km from refugee camps).

Chad is one of the largest countries of asylum in Africa, with more than 576,645 refugees (statis-tics as of 31 October 2022); from Sudan (396,652), CAR (126,874), Cameroon (35,937), Nigeria (20,597), asylum seekers and other nationalities (1,472).
Despite the country's policy of opening up to the influx of refugees with the Humanitarian Devel-opment Nexus approach, the inclusion of refugees in Chad is difficult, , especially in the east of the country in the provinces (Ouaddaï, Sila, Wadi Fira and Ennedi) where the challenges of inclusion are enormous with new waves of refugees from Sudan. This situation stems from the fact that political tensions and inter-communal conflicts persist in the Darfur region of Sudan.. Added to this is the very precarious socio-economic situation of the en-tire Eastern Zone, accentuated by the weakness of the health system, persistent malnutrition and the scarcity of natural resources. Indeed, in eastern Chad, there are currently 397 and 388 refugees, or 68% of the refugees living throughout the country. Their numbers are growing as a result of inter-communal conflicts that cause displacement into Chad every year. Their presence intensifies the pressure on already scarce and limited natural resources and also social infrastructure that is also scarce and some-times almost non-existent. In addition, eastern Chad is facing the adverse effects of climate change, with recurrent rainfall deficits and drought affecting the Sahelo-Sudanese zone. These constraints cause the degradation of natural resources, the decline in agricultural and pastoral production, as well as the erosion of biodiversity. The result is a weak health system, food and nutrition insecurity, and a loss of purchasing power and livelihoods for poorer households.

Under the technical supervision of the Senior Nutrition and Security Officer Food based in N'Djamena, the Assistant Nutritionist will be responsible for:

• Ensure that nutrition interventions are properly managed in accordance with UNHCR's international and/or international humanitarian standards to keep mal-nutrition at acceptable levels;

• Ensure that coordination mechanisms are strengthened and maintained with all nutrition and food security stakeholders; • Ensures that UNHCR's nutrition and food security policies, standards and pro-cedures are consistently and consistently applied; • Ensure that the nutritional needs of persons of concern to UNHCR such as chil-dren under 5 years of age, pregnant and all-too-ages women and others with special needs are taken into account. • Ensure that food security and self-sufficiency activities are promoted and imple-mented • Ensure that up-to-date nutritional data are integrated into the health information system. • Ensure that nutrition and food aid data are analysed and interpreted to serve as an evidence base for planning and response. • Ensure that JAM, nutrition surveys, Post-Distribution-Monitoring surveys and other evaluations are properly planned, implemented and implemented in a time-ly manner. • Coordinates nutrition programmes to ensure that UNHCR and international min-imum standards are met, including inter-sectoral coordination within UNHCR and with partners on all matters related to nutrition and food assistance. • Ensures that UNHCR's policies, standards and procedures on nu-trition and food security are applied. • Support the Nutritionist and Security Officer in the nutrition and food assistance strategy with a focus on prevention and treatment activities, including ensuring appropriate food availability, guidance and management of MAM and SAM, IYCF, community nutrition linkages and monitoring components. • Ensure that timely nutrition data are available for integration into the health in-formation system and that nutrition and food aid data are analysed and interpret-ed to serve as an evidence base for planning and interventions. • Ensure that the WFP/UNHCR "memorandum of understanding" and general policies on the management of food and nutrition programmes are respected, in-cluding the provision of complementary foods, micronutrients, feeding pro-grammes, etc. • Ensure that nutrition is clearly defined in attached documents, such as the Memorandum of Understanding with WFP and UNICEF. • Assists the Nutritionist and Food Security Officer in liaising with WFP on all as-pects related to general food distribution and food aid. • Contribute to ensuring that regular nutrition coordination meetings are held with all relevant partners. • Support the Ministry of Health in coordinating and responding to refugee nutri-tion activities. • Provides technical assistance to UNHCR field offices and implementing partners in the development and integration of appropriate nutrition programmes. • Promote basic health and nutrition education for populations of concern to UN-HCR and train refugee health workers (e.g. community health workers, mothers' groups, etc.); • Strengthening multisectoral local capacities ensuring strong linkages between health, nutrition, food security, and protection; • Use community-based approaches, including clear involvement of refugees in nutrition and public health programmes. • Promote information sharing on all aspects related to the nutritional health of refugees. • Support the establishment of refugee nutrition committees to enable them to ac-tively participate in the nutrition planning, implementation, monitoring and evalua-tion process. • Advocacy, inform and communicate among stakeholders to ensure that refugee nutrition issues are addressed and that their nutritional needs and the status of refugees and others of concern to UNHCR are properly documented and dissemi-nated.

Expected results : • Adequate response of the management of the nutritional situation; • Nutrition indicators at the standard level; • Provides guidance, strategic direction and recommendations on nutrition and food securi-ty programmes to UNHCR partners; • Provide technical support and coordination related to nutrition and food security; Represents UNHCR in meetings on nutrition and food security at country level; Periodic reports submitted on time and IRHIS up to date;

• Experience in a humanitarian context; • Minimum 4 years with a non-governmental organization or UN agency; • Minimum 4 years of management responsibilities in the field of coordination and planning; • Proven ability to conceptualize, plan, manage, implement and supervise programmes in- dependently; • Critical analysis, communication and advocacy skills; • Honesty, integrity and fexibility; • Stress management ability; • Computer proficiency (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Internet) and Epi info and SPSS

The contract covers the period indicated above, renewable depending on the availability of funds, operational needs and satisfactory performance. However, there is no guarantee whatsoever to extend beyond the initial contract.