NATIONAL CONSULTANCY – MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION, Ulaanbaatar, MONGOLIA (364 Days) Office Based

Contract

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UNICEF works 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, Strength

Maternal and child nutrition during the first 1,000 days, from conception to age 2 years, is the core to UNICEF programming in both development and humanitarian contexts. To prevent malnutrition in early childhood, infants and young children need breastmilk; age-appropriate nutritious, safe and affordable foods; safe drinking water; appropriate feeding, care, stimulation and hygiene practices; healthy food environments; and adequate nutrition, health services. However, child feeding practices are deteriorating in Mongolia. The latest survey revealed that exclusive breastfeeding of children 0-5 months old declined from 57% to 50% and the early initiation of breastfeeding within an hour of birth from 77.5% to 70.2%. Complementary feeding practices are inadequate with only 28% of children aged 6-23 months receiving minimum acceptable diets.

Due to these poor child feeding practices, children under 5 have the highest prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies: 27% of these children are classified as anemic, 21% as iron-deficient, 70% as insufficient in vitamin A, and 90% as insufficient in vitamin D . The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children under 5 remained high over last 15 years at 10.5%. Stunting is also prevalent among children under 5 from poor households (13.8%), Kazakh ethnic group (17.6%), and in Western region (17%).

Services to prevent malnutrition – such as support for breastfeeding, complementary feeding, micronutrient supplementation, dietary counselling, and maternal nutrition – must be delivered by health care workers, who are the front line between the health system, children and families, play crucial role in prevention of children under 5 years of age. Early detection and treatment of children with wasting, screening for and addressing anemia, micronutrient deficiencies, growth faltering and overweight also require health system skills and supplies.

UNICEF Mongolia aims to support the Government in strengthening the health system’s capacity to deliver essential nutrition services including protection and support of optimal breastfeeding practices; scaling-up the IYCF counselling; early detection and management of acute malnutrition; nutrition interventions in antenatal care; improved quality and coverage of micronutrient supplementation; strengthened nutrition surveillance system with innovative technologies; and increased financing for essential nutrition services.

How can you make a difference?

The purpose of the assignment is to technically support and ensure documentation of the progress of the maternal and child nutrition programme implementation with particular focus on enhancing the capacity of maternity and newborn health facilities to provide quality breastfeeding counselling and support services to newborns, scaling up essential nutrition services in primary health facilities.

Scope of Work:

Provide support for implementation, monitoring and documentation of maternal and child nutrition programme including:

1. Support the Ministry of Health (MoH), the National Centre for Public Health (NCPH) and Health Development Centre to enhance the capacity of maternity and newborn health facilities in UB and selected provinces to provide quality breastfeeding counselling and support services to newborns according to newly adopted ‘Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding’ hospital accreditation programme; strengthening the capacity of hospital accreditation inspectors’ capacity to monitor the implementation.
2. Support the Ministry of Health (MoH), the National Centre for Public Health (NCPH) in scaling up essential nutrition services in primary health facilities: infant and young child feeding counseling , early detection and treatment of children with severe and moderate acute malnutrition in selected high-burden areas; sustainable implementation, financing and monitoring of the multiple micronutrient supplementation of children 6-23 months of age, and pregnant and lactating women; as well as high-dose vitamin A supplementation.
3. Support the MoH and the Agency of Fair Competition and Consumer Protection to revise the regulation on monitoring the Infant and Young Child Food Act implementation.
4. Develop and implement the strategy on behavior change and communication campaign for breastfeeding and complementary feeding in collaboration with MoH, NCPH and UNICEF relevant staffs from the country and regional offices.
5. Monitor, report, document, and disseminate processes and lessons learned to sustainable scaling-up essential nutrition services in health system
6. Formulate and conduct capacity building strategies and activities to drive continuous policy and programme improvements through transfer of skills, training, webinars and south-south learnings.

Programme Area and Specific Project Involved: Health, Early Childhood Development, Private Sector engagement, Social Behaviour Change and Communications.

WORK ASSIGNMENT, DELIVERABLES, TIME FRAME AND PAYMENT

Deliverables

Timeline

Payment in (%) of the total amount

Finalization of handbooks on ‘Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding’ and support the publication lay-outs.

30 October 2023

10%

Development of the workplan/strategy to nationwide roll-out of ‘Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding’ in consultation with key stakeholders. Training of hospital accreditation inspectors on the implementation of the ‘Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding’.

30 November 2023

10%

Training and follow-up support for health workers in maternity and newborn health facilities in UB and selected provinces.

30 March 2024

10%

Follow-up training reports received from 21 provinces and 9 districts; Final data on IYCF counselling coverage for 2023.

15 December 2023

10%

Training on early detection and treatment of children with severe and moderate acute malnutrition; SAM children data for 2023.

30 April 2024

10%

Final draft of updated regulation on multiple micronutrient supplementation of children 6-23 months of age, and pregnant and lactating women;

30 May 2024

10%

Final draft regulations on monitoring of the Infant and Young Child Food Act implementation by MoH and AFCCP;

30 June 2024

10%

Advocacy meetings on the state budget allocation for essential supplies for treatment of malnourished children, and on routine data collection of nutrition indicators.

30 July 2024

10%

Final draft 2 human interest stories, 3 videos related to maternal and child nutrition programme

30 August 2024

10%

Final report

30 September 2024

10%

TOTAL

364 Days

100%

PAYMENT SCHEDULE. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/output is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

ASSESSMENT / SELECTION PROCESS AND METHODS Evaluations: The applicant should submit both technical and financial proposal (in local currency - MNT) which clearly stipulate how the work will be conducted. The Financial Proposal should include all costs of this assignment including fee, travel costs, accommodation as UNICEF will not pay any DSA. Proposals will be both technically and financially evaluated.

LOCATION, DURATION & LOGISTIC The consultant will be based in the office.

The validity of the contract will be for 364 days. The consultant might be required to travel to other province in Mongolia.

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

• Minimum qualifications required: Bachelor or advanced degree in medicine, public health, nutrition or related field.
• Relevant working experience: At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional work experience at the national and/or international levels in nutrition, medicine, health, programme/project development, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, communication, and information management.
• Knowledge/expertise/ skills required: Fluency in Mongolian and English (verbal and written). Good written and spoken skills in the language of the development programme.

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.