Consultancy - Nutrition Databases (Consultant), Data and Analytics Team (DAT), DAPM NYHQ (remote-based)

Contract

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Consultancy Title: Nutrition Databases (Consultant)

Section/Division/Duty Station: Data & Analytics Team (DAT), DAPM NYHQ (remote-based)

Duration: 01 December 2023- 30 November 2024 (11.5 months approximately)

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

To primarily support the D&A nutrition team in collating and undertaking data analysis data for the upcoming 2025 Flagship Child Nutrition Report on overweight and obesity throughout the various stages of childhood following the agreed outline. This is an entirely new area of work for the team and a huge undertaking as there are currently limited data to systematically assess the nutritional status and diets of older children. There are no existing datasets that include cross-country comparable data for monitoring diets of children 2+years of age or assessing inequities in nutritional status of children 5+. The incumbent will support the team to develop the first global database on anthropometry for children 5-19 years of age.

Scope of Work:

• Identify, collate relevant data sources for pre-school, school-age children, adolescents nutrition – The nutrition team currently maintains an internal catalogue of several types of data sources including household surveys, surveillance and administrative systems. The incumbent will be required to undertake a detailed review of all files for individual data sources (including reports, questionnaires, individual level datasets, etc.,) in the catalogue and fill out a standard template containing several fields of metadata for each source.
• Ongoing maintenance and expansion of survey catalogue – The incumbent will be required to update UNICEF’s nutrition survey catalogue with key parameters as nutrition specific topics covered by a survey and dates of field work/data collection and support the ongoing maintenance of the data source catalogue. Additionally, the incumbent will expand the metadata maintained for each source by tagging the sources with key nutrition domains.
• Support data analysis for global databases – The incumbent will be required to develop code or use existing code developed by the team to generate estimates from household surveys for several nutrition indicators especially those related to anthropometry for children 0-19 years of age. Further, support review of new data sources against a set of data review criteria for inclusion in nutrition global databases.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

• Fill out a standard metadata template for 800 data sources within UNICEF survey catalogue

Deliverables/Outputs: Completed metadata template for 800 data sources

Deliverable date: 31 January 2024

• Fill out a standard metadata template for an additional 800 data sources within UNICEF survey catalogue

Deliverables/Outputs: Completed metadata template for a total of 1600 data sources

Deliverable date: 31 March 2024

• Fill out a standard metadata template for an additional 800 data sources within UNICEF survey catalogue

Deliverables/Outputs: Completed metadata template for a total 2400 data sources

Deliverable date: 31 May 2024

• Fill out a standard metadata template for an additional 800 data sources

Deliverables/Outputs: Completed metadata template for a total 3200 data sources

Deliverable date: 31 July 2024

• Fill out a standard metadata template for an additional 800 data sources

Deliverables/Outputs: Completed metadata template for a total 4000 data sources

Deliverable date: 30 September 2024

• Update of survey catalogue including adding additional metadata

Deliverables/Outputs: Catalogue expanded with new sources and metadata fields

Deliverable date: 31 October 2024

• Develop code where needed and use existing code for reanalyzing survey microdata for anthropometry databases

Deliverables/Outputs: Surveys reanalyzed and reanalysis incorporated within the Common Minimum Reporting Standard system used for nutrition indicators and databases

Deliverable date: 30 November 2024

NO TRAVEL

Qualifications

Education

• A Master’s degree in statistics, nutrition, public health or related field.

Work experience

• A minimum of two (2) years experience analysing nutrition indicators using household survey data. Experience analysing anthropometry data is an asset.
• Experience analysing data from large-scale household surveys like MICS and DHS is preferred.
• Previous experience in database management is an asset.

Competencies

• Experience with STATA, R or any other statistical software is required.
• Strong computer skills including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), data bases (Access), share point
• Fluency in English is required.
• Fluency in another UN language especially Spanish or French is an asset.
• Detail oriented with strong organizational and planning skills.

Requirements****:

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system
• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• the costs per each deliverable and the total all-inclusive (lump-sum) fees for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.