Home-based: Climate Change and Nutrition in Emergencies Consultant (100 working days between Dec 2023 and June 2024) - Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS)

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a champion

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

The prevalence of undernutrition at the global level has been increasing since 2021, after several years of decrease and/or stabilisation. It is now recognized that the international context linked to the intensification of climatic and ecological crises have exacerbated all forms of malnutrition and food insecurity in recent years. This is alarming for the one billion children who live in the 33 countries classified as ‘extremely high-risk’ to the impacts of climate change. Climate variability and extremes lead to shortfalls in food availability by reducing and destroying crop yields and stocks. A combination of spikes in food prices, reduced incomes, disruption of trade and transport, and damage to market infrastructures hinder vulnerable people’s access to food, leading to poor quality, and diversity of diets. This combined with water insecurity and disease outbreaks arising as a result of climate change, creates a perfect storm for unprecedented global nutrition crises – particularly for emergency and fragile contexts.

One of the major strategic priorities of the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) is to provide operational support to countries before, during and after emergencies. Given the impact of climate change on both food systems and frequency and intensity of emergencies, it can be assumed that there will be a greater demand on the GNC and country-level coordination mechanisms. Specifically, in the number of countries that require preparedness support and the number of countries that have nutrition coordination mechanisms and that require ongoing coordination support. In 2022, the Global Nutrition Cluster established the Climate Change and Nutrition In Emergencies Working Group. The purpose of this group is to provide thematic support to the GNC technical and coordination arms, although progress has been limited due to a number of reasons including understanding how the GNC can contribute towards the Climate Change agenda and no dedicated capacity to support the establishment and outputs of this group.

The purpose of this consultancy is to position nutrition in emergency – including nutrition coordination – in the climate change agenda, take stock of current actions and initiatives by the nutrition cluster and partners, to develop a set of recommendations and advocacy tools to enable the GNC to better engage in this space and to adapt its ways of workings, and to support with the development of key documents that will help the GNC Climate Change and NIE WG move forward.

Scope of work

The Climate Change and Nutrition in Emergencies Consultant will be a temporary deliverable-based consultancy on the GNC Coordination Team under the Partnerships and Advocacy unit. The consultant will work closely both with the PPA team as well as the technical arm of the GNC to achieve deliverables specific to both the coordination and technical arms of the GNC.

Methodology

The selected methodology to be chosen will be proposed by and agreed upon with the consultant through the development of an inception report. The methodology will consider qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and will consist of the following:

1. Briefing: the consultant will have briefings with colleagues from the GNC’s Coordination Team, Technical Alliance, Climate Change and NiE WG and SAG.
2. Desk review: the consultant will be expected to review all relevant documentation and identified publications on climate change and NiE (including coordination); in addition, the consultant is expected to identify and map all key Nutrition in Emergency (NiE) and Climate Change platforms, forums, events and initiatives relevant to the GNC.
3. Key Informant Interviews: the consultant will have to undertake interviews with the GNC’s Coordination Team, Technical Alliance, SAG, Operations team, WGs, GNC members, Nutrition Clusters/Sectors, key members from Inter-Cluster/Sector Collaboration Working Group, key members of the Climate Change and NIE Working Group, agreed donors, and the Global Cluster Coordinator Group. It is estimated that 25 – 30 interviews will be conducted.
4. Stakeholder Survey: an online survey will be shared with the GNC team, global members and Nutrition Cluster/Sector coordination mechanisms.
5. Webinars: a series of online webinars will be conducted to present initial findings and provide an opportunity to brainstorm with key stakeholders.

Work Assignment Overview

The consultant will produce the following outputs, that will be reviewed by the GNC’s Coordination Management Team (CMT), the Technical Alliance (TA) Leadership Team (LT) and SAG for approval prior to finalization and dissemination.

These include:

Tasks / Milestone******Deliverables / Outputs******Timeline / Deadline1. Inception reportProduce inception report

• Briefings with CMT, TA and SAG
• Conduct literature review of all relevant documents and publications
• Develop data collection tools and analysis framework
• Identify key stakeholders
• Propose work plan

15 working days;

By 01 January 2024

2. Research methodology, analysis and final reportResearch methodology conducted:

• Establish a reference group
• Collect data and analyze
• Conduct modelling
• Share key findings and recommendations with reference group
• Host up to two online meetings to share findings/updates
• Develop draft report (with recommendations) and circulate twice for input (inputs and red line)
• Produce final report

45 working days;

By 15 March 2024

3. Advocacy tools- Develop 2-pager advocacy note on NiE and climate change (positioning GNC in climate change)

- Develop two case studies on NiE and Climate change (country-level) - PowerPoint with TPs developed for external audiences - Powerpoint with TPs developed for internal audiences - Webinar conducted with PPT - Develop series of infographics (tables, etc.) - Draft abstract and prepare journal article (for Field Exchange)

20 working days;

By 15 April 2024

4. Climate Change and Nutrition in Emergency Working Group core documents- Develop a Climate Change WG ToR in consultation with the Climate Change WG chairs and members.

- Develop a climate change WG workplan, with defined priorities, for 2024-(end) 2025 (linking with report recommendations and action plans, where possible. - Develop advocacy note (1-2 pager) on the Climate Change and NIE WG, highlighting its purpose, composition, and key actions (to be used to raise profile of group) - Develop a key messages document (1-2 pager) for the Climate change and NIE WG.

20 working days;

By 15 May 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

100 working days (between December 2023 and June 2024).

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be home-based.

As part of this assignment, one (1) travel to Geneva, Switzerland is foreseen. The consultant will arrange her/his travel as and when they take place, and related costs will be reimbursed per UNICEF travel policy.

Travel Clause

• All UNICEF rules and regulations related to travel of Consultants apply.
• All travels shall be undertaken only upon the prior written approval by UNICEF.
• The consultant must be fit to travel, be in a possession of the valid UN BSAFE certificate, obligatory inoculation(s) and have a valid own travel/medical insurance and an immunization/vaccination card.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned 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.

Please propose a professional fee (in USD) based on 100 working days to undertake this assignment. Please do not include travel fees as this will be reimbursed as and when they take place.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: food security, climate change, economics, international development, nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, global/international health and nutrition, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, humanitarian assistance and development or another nutrition-related science.
• 9 years of relevant work experience combined with a first University degree may be considered in lieu of the master’s degree.
• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in nutrition in emergencies programming, nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, including proven experience in climate change and food security and/or nutrition in a range of settings including sudden onset natural disasters and conflict settings.
• Fluency in English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Please include a full CV and a Financial Proposal in your application by indicating your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a proposed professional fee will not be considered. 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.