ENHANCE- environmental impact of food and diets consultant

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WFP - World Food Programme

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Application deadline 1 year ago: Friday 7 Oct 2022 at 00:59 UTC

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Job Title: ENHANCE- environmental impact of food and diets consultant

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant (the position might also be suitable for a When-Actually-Employed type of contract)

Division: Analytics and Science for Food and Nutrition (AS4FN), NUTRITION DIVISION

Duty Station : HQ, Rome Italy (or home-based)

(City, Country)

Duration: Six (6) months.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Ensuring a diverse and healthy diet for our growing world population through sustainable food systems is one of the greatest challenges of our times. It encompasses the linkages between health, food, purchasing power, and the environment. Food and diets have a direct impact on human health and environmental sustainability. Providing an increasing population with diets that address multiple urgent priorities—nutrition, affordability, and the need to mitigate agriculture’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe), biodiversity loss, soil erosion, freshwater depletion, zoonosis, antimicrobial resistance and other areas of public health and ecological concern—will require the development of long term and context-appropriate strategies for the different components of the entire food system. Investments in sustainable food systems can result in a cascade of positive outcomes, starting with livelihoods in sustainable agriculture production to services and systems that enhance capacities and measures for climate adaptation, mitigation, reducing food loss and innovation.

The ENHANCE project (Environment, Nutrition and Health Analytics for National, Consumer and Emergency diets) envisions the use of analytics to address the challenge of achieving an affordable healthy diet whilst limiting the environmental impacts. ENHANCE aspires to be an open-access platform for data-analysts and policymakers that brings together data from different domains (such as nutrition, environmental science, and food prices), to compare dietary scenarios for their different impacts. Multi-objective linear optimization will allow users to explore synergies and trade-offs between cost, environmental impact, dietary preferences, and nutrient adequacy of dietary scenarios, generating evidence to inform actions and policies for food systems transformation.

The four partners currently involved in the project are Capgemini, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), Zero Hunger Lab of Tilburg University (ZHL), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Each partner brings a combination of specific subject matter knowledge, data science and/or end-user expertise and platforms, as well as specific capacity to work on the solution.

The position will be supporting the development of the environmental component of the ENHANCE analytical suite including data selection and integration, analytics, and capacity building for analysis and interpretation. The consultant will be expected to liaise with team members at the CLF, based in Baltimore (United States) and to carry out this work relatively independently, in coordination with the project team. Consultant should ensure sufficient overlap of working hours between their location and the eastern part of the United States as well as Western Europe.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

  1. Identifying, evaluating, compiling, and documenting data on the GHGe and water footprint of foods/diets
  • Identify, evaluate, and document additional external sources of environmental footprint data, and propose processes to obtain and update ENHANCE’s environmental database going forward (sources, cleaning, matching etc.).

  • Assist with development of a system for linking food items across multiple datasets (e.g. life cycle analyses, food balance sheets, food price information).

  • In collaboration with WFP and Capgemini, support the implementation of a more granular matching coding system between the environmental, nutrient content and price data in the ENHANCE web application database (currently, the environmental data are mostly for categories of foods whereas nutrient content data are for individual foods and price data are food and country specific).

  1. Provide inputs to the ENHANCE tool and its use
  • Contribute to decisions regarding linear optimization parameters for the environmental component of ENHANCE (e.g., environmental targets to be achieved).

  • In collaboration with the CLF team, define and provide inputs to scenarios (agricultural, economic, etc.) for use in the environmental impact scenario modelling.

  • Develop written guidance for WFP users of ENHANCE on the interpretation of results on the environmental footprint of diets and the optimization (e.g., trade-offs).

  • Train WFP colleagues in conducting environmental analysis as part of ENHANCE.

  • Develop policy type recommendations for what could be explored in terms of production methods, policy development, advocacy etc. to limit the environmental footprint of diets.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

Related to ENHANCE database

  • Environmental model on GHGe and water footprint for ENHANCE analysis prepared for integration within the ENHANCE web application

Related to ENHANCE analyses

  • List of parameters for the GHGe and water footprint optimization of ENHANCE

  • Guidance material on GHGe and water footprint results interpretation

  • Guidance material on implementation of production method changes modelling for GHGe and water footprint. If relevant, guidance material on implementation of other modelling.

QUALIFICATIONS and EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Graduate level (Masters or above, PhD preferred) in environmental sciences, environmental economics, sustainable food systems, agronomy,

or other relevant scientific or socio-economic disciplines with a strong environmental/food systems component.

Knowledge of nutrition an asset.

Experience:

Required:

• 4 to 5 years of relevant professional experience with at least 2 years of experience working on agri-food systems and environmental sciences.

• 3+ years of relevant experience using life cycle assessment (LCA) and/or similar methodologies to quantify environmental impacts associated with agriculture and other food system activities, working with LCA datasets, and interpreting LCA results for policymakers, practitioners, and other food system stakeholders.

Desirable:

• Experience with data analysis and data science/operational research.

• Experience conducting research.

• Experience in database management.

• Experience working in low- and middle-income countries.

Required:

• Solid knowledge on food systems and environmental sciences.

• Working with inter-disciplinary teams.

Knowledge and Skills:

  • Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in multicultural setting.

  • Flexibility in thinking, ability to adapt to different situations quickly and with ease.

  • Ability to work with and as part of a team and structure work with little input

Desirable: Proficient use of Excel

Language:

Professional level of written and spoken English.

Other UN official languages (French, Spanish, Arabic) or working language (Portuguese) considered an asset.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 06 October 2022

Ref.: VA No. 173306

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: wfp.org