Consultant Programme & Policy

Contract

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Background and Justification

The proportion of children aged 6–23 months receiving the minimum acceptable diet is low in Eastern and Southern Africa region, ranging from 3 per cent in Madagascar to 39 per cent in Kenya. Micronutrient deficiencies – for Vitamin A, iodine, iron and zinc – particularly affect infants, young children and pregnant women in low-income households[1]. Anemia remains common, affecting nearly 33.3 per cent of women and adolescent girls in the Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESA) region[2] and none of the countries is on track to meet the World Health Assembly target of reducing anemia by half by 2025.

Mandatory fortification of staple foods and condiments is increasingly being adopted as part of a nutrition strategy to address micronutrient deficiencies in many countries. ESA countries have variable status of mandatory food fortification for various food vehicles. Nine countries currently mandate the fortification of wheat flour, 7 - edible oil, 8 -maize flour and 20 salt (Global food fortification data exchange, 2022). Despite these achievements, food fortification has not yet met its potential for impact and is far from doing so at the current pace of progress. Many countries that could benefit from fortification programs are not implementing them while at the same time many existing programs are sub-optimally designed and/or implemented. Food fortification is a proven and cost-effective intervention for addressing micronutrient deficiencies by improving the nutritional quality of the food supply in the population. UNICEF global Nutrition Strategy (2020-2030) identified large scale food fortification (LSFF) as a one of the priority actions in food systems to improve the diets of children, adolescents, and women. UNICEF priority areas of work in LSFF is on government engagement, partnership convenings, public communication, policy formulation and programme design. 8 countries in the region identified one or more of these areas for technical support.

It is against this background that UNICEF ESARO proposes to engage a consultant to provide capacity on large scale food fortification to ESA countries.

Scope of Work

1. Goals

This consultancy aims to provide technical support on large scale food fortification strategy development, programme design, legislation formulation, and capacity building on monitoring and enforcement. The support will be provided to 9 countries namely Comoros, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

The consultant will be guided by UNICEF guidance of the vision and approach to Large Scale Food Fortification including other regional and global guidance from SADC and WHO.

The key objectives include:

1. Conduct LSFF feasibility assessment to inform programme design and identification of food vehicles of interest in Comoros
2. Develop and finalize LSFF strategies on agreed food vehicles as informed by consumption patterns and micronutrient status in Rwanda.
3. Facilitate capacity building workshop for governments and UNICEF country teams of Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to integrate effective monitoring activities into existing food control activities.

4. Facilitate establishment of a functional Eastern and Southern Africa region food fortification coordination forum.

5. Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered:

This contract will support the regional Annual Workplan for 2023: and contribute to activity2.1: Technical support and oversight is provided to ESA countries in scaling up optimal maternal, infant and young child nutrition & micronutrient deficiency prevention and control in all contexts

The contract will be issued and managed by the regional office.

3. Activities and Tasks

The consultant will use the UNICEF vision and approach for LSFF guidance and global and regional guidance and standards to support the ESA countries. Under the supervision of the Regional Nutrition Specialist-(Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition) and supported by the Regional Nutrition Advisor, this consultant will focus on the below activities.

Output 1: Effective Large Scale Food Fortification programs designed.

Activity 1.1. Conduct a desktop feasibility assessment of LSFF covering; secondary data on the micronutrient status, food consumption patterns, and industry landscape to identify food vehicles of interest, existing legislative framework, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, stakeholder mapping, and coordination mechanisms in Comoros.

Activity 1.2. Develop a large-scale food fortification strategy that provides assistance to government and stakeholders on the implementation of the LSFF for the identified vehicles in Rwanda

Activity 1.4. Facilitate establishment and functionality of regional (ESAR) food fortification coordination forum.

-develop Tors for the coordination mechanism

-design a regional coordination forum involving all regional economic communities in Eastern and Southern Africa region that is IGAD, EAC and SADC.

-Facilitate convening of 4 regional food fortification coordination meetings

Output #2 – Improved monitoring and enforcement systems for LSFF programme using validated and tested methods.

Sustained and effective internal and external quality assurance, regulatory monitoring and enforcement systems are one of the key conditions for successful food fortification programmes. Under the consultancy, countries will be supported and capacitated on monitoring and enforcement as follows:

Activity 2.1. Provide technical assistance for government to integrate effective monitoring activities into existing food control activities to effectively enforce food fortification, and ensuring monitoring is consistent, periodic and structured in Namibia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

4. Work relationships and terms of collaboration:

5. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Regional Nutrition Advisor, supported by the Regional Nutrition Specialist-(Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition) both of whom will orient the regional component and assist in coordination of the work with the various UNICEF country offices for the regional and country component of this consultancy

6. The consultant will develop within 7 working days of contract signing, a technical proposal including a work plan in consultation with the UNICEF nutrition team;
7. The Regional Nutrition Advisor and the Regional Nutrition Specialist (MIYCN) will lead on the country level and regional accountabilities and will monitor the progress of the consultancy through regular progress updates and reviews
8. The consultant and UNICEF ESARO will have access to all documents, for the purpose of technical review and quality assurance.
9. End of contract performance review will be conducted upon receipt of all deliverables by UNICEF, inputs from the respective COs and finalized by the ESARO.

Outputs/Deliverables

Deliverable

Duration* (working days)

Timeline

Payment schedule

Draft report on feasibility assessment on LSFF for Comoros.

20 days

By December 2023

On completion

Draft Large scale food fortification Strategy for Rwanda

60 days

By June 2024

On completion

Tors for Food Fortification developed and at least 2 coordination meetings conducted. Facilitate establishment and

20 days

By June 2024

On completion

Report on capacity building activities on large scale food fortification, focusing on

quality assurance, quality control monitoring and enforcement for Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

10 days per country (70days)

By June 2024

On completion

TOTAL

170 days

Reimbursable expenses – e.g., travel costs -Upon receipt of invoices for actual costs

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

• Qualification: Eeexperienced food technologist, nutritionist or specific expertise in large scale food fortification programming with special focus on large scale food fortification programme design, legislation and strategy development and capacity building on monitoring and enforcement of large scale food fortification programmes.

The individuals assigned for this work must have:

• A University degree in Nutrition, Food Science, Food Technology or Food Engineering is required. A diploma in Food Science, Food Engineering, with additional work experience may be used in lieu of degree. Postgraduate qualification is an added advantage
• At minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience in large scale food fortification
• Competencies: Excellent communication skills; excellent analysis skills; good teamwork; training and facilitation skills and good drive for results
• Fluent written and spoken English required.

1. *Must exhibit UNICEF Core Values of**:*

2. Care

3. Respect
4. Integrity
5. Trust
6. Accountability

7. Sustainability

8. The Consultant must have the following competencies:

9. Work collaboratively with others

10. Thinks and acts strategically
11. Manages ambiguity and complexity

12. Drive to achieve results for impact

13. English both oral and written is a must and ability to read, analyze and interpret complex documents

Administrative issues

• The Consultant will be working remotely with potential travel to up to eight countries (Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Comoros) in the ESA region for which the UNICEF office would cover subsistence allowances and travel costs. The consultant is expected to complete the deeper dives within 10 days for each country.
• Monthly progress meetings will be scheduled throughout the contract duration.
• When requested, the Consultant should be available for scheduled meetings between 10 am to 4 pm Nairobi time.
• 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.
• The Consultant 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.

Conditions

• The consultancy is based remotely. No office space or equipment will be provided from UNICEF and will be the sole responsibility of the consultant.
• The consultant is expected to use their own IT equipment (laptop, cell-phone etc.), where operating communication costs – long-distance calls, internet if any should be part of the overall quoted fees (no reimbursement will be applied).
• As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.
• The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.
• As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary”.
• 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 Consultants. Consultants and individual consultants 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.

Risks

• Risks include a delay in progress of the work due to country level instabilities like elections or changes in political situation that can impact on decision making of policy makers, or simply a lack of responses from countries. To avoid any foreseen and unforeseen delays, this will be mitigated having regular check in calls with targeted countries to monitor progress of the consultancy and to ensure the country offices have adequately consulted with Government.

How to apply

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV or P11 form and their technical proposals to the online recruitment portal (Talent Management System) or email provided.

Interested candidates to indicate their ability, availability, and rate (daily/monthly) expressed in US$ for international or KES for national consultancy or individual consultant contract to undertake the terms of reference. The fees should be inclusive of other costs incurred such as travel or subsistence allowances for international consultants who will be based in Nairobi.

Applications submitted without a fee/ rate will not be considered.

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[1] UNICEF. (2019). The State of the World’s Children 2019. Children, Food and Nutrition: Growing well in a changing world: East and Southern Africa. UNICEF, New York. https://www.unicef.org/media/60831/file/SOWC-2019-ESA.pdf

[2] United Nations Children’s Fund. Good nutrition, bright futures: Towards an Africa without malnutrition by 2030, UNICEF, 2022.

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Added 9 months ago - Updated 9 months ago - Source: unicef.org