In Ethiopia, malnutrition is a serious public health concern. Ten percent of Ethiopian children under five years of age and 35.5 percent of women (15 to 19 years) have signs of acute malnutrition. The prevalence has not decreased in the recent years. Wasting contributes to paediatric stunting (38.4 percent), which costs at least sixteen percent of the national gross domestic product, yearly.

In May 2019, the Federal Ministry of Health has signed the new protocol of Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM), designed with support from UNICEF, WHO, WFP and several NGOs (Concern, ACF, GOAL among others). Since then, the rehabilitation of moderate and severe and acute malnutrition requires more coordination than before, among all the MoH partners engaged in fighting acute malnutrition. WFP target caseload of moderate acute malnutrition is the largest among the ones that the other UN Agencies are accountable for.

In accordance with its global nutrition policy the Ethiopia WFP Country Strategic Plan 2020-2025 (CSP) supports supplementary feeding programming (Strategic Outcome no. 1, Activity no. 2). In the last years, WFP needs to support the GoE TSFP programme increased by several thousands of metric tonnes (2018) of Specialized Nutritious Foods (SNF). In 2021, WFP will manage almost 100 staff residing and working the top priority districts, selected by the Nutrition Cluster, to ensure that IMAM (both severe and moderate acute malnutrition) is well monitored, and that IMAM-related issues raised by district-level health authorities and WFP Cooperating Partners are promptly addressed. WFP programming fosters its partners to link moderated wasting rehabilitation to stunting prevention in innovative ways, evidence-based.

Furthermore, WFP Ethiopia Country Office, as per its CSP (Strategic Outcome 3, Activity 6) supports the GoE to fight stunting as per the National Nutrition Plan and the Food and Nutrition Policy. Since 2018, under the umbrella of the Ethiopian national Productive Safety Network Programme (PSNP), in districts of Amhara Region, WFP offers a restricted voucher to purchase fresh foods (fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs) to more than 9,000 vulnerable households with children under two years of age and/or pregnant and lactating women. The vouchers are redeemed by rural market retailers enrolled into the programme. The goal of this project is generating evidence to inform the future nutrition-specific and -sensitive policy of PSNP action plans at federal and regional levels to reduce stunting.

Because of the increasingly important role of evidence in large scale operations supported by WFP, its Country Office seeks a Nutrition Evidence Generation Consultant. Jointly with WFP strategic partners (GoE public and private sectors, NGOs) the Consultant will help in generating information supporting evidence-based future policies and decisions for Ethiopia and WFP, nationally and globally. The Consultant will work in close coordination (a) with WFP Management to ensure that the questions guiding her/is work fill strategic knowledge gaps nationally, regionally and globally, (b) with WFP Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Team to leverage and complement where needed the existing secondary programmatic data, (c) with key GoE stakeholders such as local Academic Bodies or Public Health Research Institute (e.g. EPHI/MoH) to ensure ownership of the results, (d) with other UN Agencies engaged in nutrition-related programmes supporting the GoE, (c) and with the Ethiopian Private Sectors involved in programmes to develop new upscalable and sustainable solutions (e.g. improved specialized nutritious foods). The consultant will go through of a two months’ probation period.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

The Nutrition Evidence Consultant will focus at least on the following areas, leveraging routine or collecting additional programmatic data.

Set up a baseline / end-line implementation research on the National Guidelines for Acute Malnutrition Mgt rollout.
Support to coordination and steering the Nutrition Research Agenda relevant for WFP mandate, internally at Country Office, among its Nutrition partners, while looking at the global WFP corporate research agendas.
Support the introduction of the CMAM coverage indicator (primary data collection) - capacity strengthening of GoE (MoH), WFP Nut Team, and WFP Cooperating Partners (NGOs, national and international) about, and implementation of Surveys to estimate the Coverage of the Management of Acute Malnutrition programme using primary data.
Support for submission of proposals for funding of further evidence generation in uprising areas of interest: social protection and nutrition (FFV), climate / food systems / public health, simplified protocol for wasting rehabilitation, e-Social Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC), School Feeding and any other areas of priorities as per Management and GoE (e.g. Cash-based Transfer modalities coupled with other transfer modalities, such as SBCC, Relief food, others)
Facilitate the submission of manuscripts of operational research work to peer-reviewed journal.
Capacitate and strengthen the national staff on operational research, survey protocol preparation, ethical approval process

The Consultant will coordinate and provide regular (weekly and monthly) updates on the advance of the operational researches areas, will travel to the field on regular basis (in respect of C19 guidelines) and on demand, will promote partnerships with local Academic institutions or Research GoE Institutions, and will supervise national and international interns within the Consultant’s of work.

OVERALL DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

At least x2 operational research paper manuscripts submitted to scientific journals jointly with/without GoE Sectors
Operational evaluation setup for IMAM protocol: selection complemented of national/international academic body, agreements in place, endorsement of the ToR by IMAM partners, inception report finalized and endorsed by GoE, e.g.
IMAM coverage capacity strengthening and surveys reports
At least monthly power points as part of the continuing education in the area of nutrition evidence
Inputs into monthly Programme Coordination updates of WFP programming
Workplans for:
- the Nut Team Research activities
- Internships
WFP Nutrition Research agenda endorsed by GoE Sectors and its partners

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Post-graduate education and experience in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology or related areas

Experience:
At least 5 peer reviewed papers published on journals and related to WFP programming: acute malnutrition rehabilitation and/or stunting reduction intervention approaches, new specialized nutritious foods formulation / testing, and/or coverage surveys.
- Field experience in conducting operational research in poor and challenging settings
- Previous work with Ethiopian GoE Sectors (MoH, e.g.) and local Academic institutions represent an asset.
Knowledge & Skills:
Fluency in MicroSoft package, SPSS or Stata, Epinfo, Epidata, or other statistical software

Languages:
Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Knowledge of the local language is added advantage.