National Consultancy: Nutrition Consultant, 60 days, Islamabad, Req

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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, good health!

Pakistan was the sixth country in the world to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, less than one year after it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. However, children and adolescents living in Pakistan still face acute challenges.

In particular, UNICEF will work so that:

• Every child survives and thrives -- being in good health, immunized, protected from polio and accessing nutritious food.
• Every child learns.
• Every child is protected from violence and exploitation and registered at birth.
• Every child lives in a safe and clean environment, with access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

To learn more about UNICEF’s work in Pakistan, please visit the country website www.unicef.org/pakistan and videos on YouTube and Vimeo

How can you make a difference?

Pakistan is confronted with a triple burden of malnutrition affecting young children adolescent and pregnant and lactating women. Diverse forms of malnutrition including wasting, stunting and micronutrient deficiencies, as revealed by the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2018 are public health issue in Pakistan. According to the NNS 2018, 42.7% of women are suffering from anemia and 14.4% of women are suffering from energy /caloric deficiency, while overweight and obesity have increased from 28% (2011) to 38% (2018) among women of reproductive age.

UNICEF is continuously supporting MoNHSR&C on the health system strengthening and ensuring the integration of nutrition commodities into the essential medicine list. The provision of nutrition supplies is one of the essential components of primary health care and through the Essential Medicines List can meet end users’ requirements and help in rationalizing the purchase and distribution of medicines, thereby, reducing costs of the healthcare. The major challenge in the scale up of nutrition interventions is the nutrition supply gap which has not been addressed so far and there is inadequate supply of essential nutrition commodities and is further compounded by a weak supply management system un-integrated in the health system (LMIS). Most of the nutrition supplies including RUTF, Multimicronutrient supplementation, F100 , F75 , Vitamin A are not part of Government essential drug list. UNICEF nutrition program advocate Essential drug list for the country that includes RUTF , MNP and MNTs to combat all forms malnutrition among children and women. The purpose of the consultant is to provide technical and administrative support to MoNHSR&C to work closely with Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for inclusion of nutrition supplies into essential drug list and also support on the Health LMIS system by facilitating the process for incorporation of nutrition commodities into the H-LMIS at national and provincial level. The support will contribute to enhance the institutional capacity and assistance to ministry to hold regular meetings with DRAP, line ministries and other sections of ministry for the said task within agreed timeline in collaboration with UNICEF.

Tasks:

• Inception meeting with UNICEF and MoNHR&C
• Development of Work plan
• Literature review of intended products for registration
• Review of listing instruments/forms by DRAP with relevance to the products
• Meeting with Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan
• Meeting with Ismail Industries and other potential industries recommended by UNICEF or MoNHSR&C
• Stakeholders’ consultation workshop at Islamabad.
• Development of dossiers and applications for registration of Therapeutic Spread, Sachet, Tab. Micronutrient, Multiple Micronutrient Powder Sachet (3 products)
• Review of Applications by UNICEF, MoNHSR&C and Industry partner
• Submission of dossiers and applications of 3 products for registration
• One to one advocacy/briefing meetings with key influencers and decision makers at DRAP
• Address queries by DARP if any and conduct follow ups
• Development of dossiers and applications for registration of ReSoMal (ORS), Tab. Zinc (Dispersible), RUSF 50gm/Sachets and 100 gm/Sachets (4 products)
• Review of Applications by UNICEF, MoNHSR&C and Industry partner
• Submission of dossiers and applications for 4 product registrations
• Continue one to one advocacy/briefing meetings with key influencers and decision makers at DRAP for registration and inclusion in the essential drug list
• Address queries by DARP if any and conduct follow ups
• Development of dossiers and applications for registration of F-75 Therapeutic Milk, F-100 Therapeutic Milk (2 Products)
• Review of Applications by UNICEF, MoNHSR&C and Industry partner

• Submission of dossiers and applications for 2 product registrations Continue one to one advocacy/briefing meetings with key influencers and decision makers at DRAP for registration and inclusion in the essential drug list

  Address queries by DARP if any and conduct follow ups

• Development of dossiers and applications for registration of Cap. Retinol, 100,000 IU (Soft Gel), Cap. Retinol 200,000 IU (Soft Gel), Weekly Iron Folic Acid tab (3 products)
• Review of Applications by UNICEF, MoNHSR&C and Industry partner
• Submission of dossiers and applications for 3 product registrations
• Continue one to one advocacy/briefing meetings with key influencers and decision makers at DRAP for registration and inclusion in the essential drug list
• Address queries by DRAP if any and conduct follow ups
• Drafting and development of the final report

Deliverables

• Inception report
• Work plan
• Brief meeting report
• Submission report receipt # 1
• Brief progress update # 1
• Submission report receipt # 2
• Brief progress update # 2
• Submission report receipt # 3
• Brief progress update # 3
• Submission report receipt # 4
• Brief progress update # 4
• Project Report

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

• Advanced university degree/master’s in public health, International/Global Health, Nutrition disciplines or other relevant disciplines.

  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree

• A minimum of 6-8 years specialized experience in nutrition policy document development, specifically on nutrition supply and logistics,
• Experience of working with government and line ministries
• Good understanding knowledge and experience of Drug Regulatory mechanisms.
• Experience in writing the dossiers for DRAP/Advocacy with ministry and line departments / Understanding of the government process etc.
• Experience in the development of statutory documents designated
• Experience in facilitating workshop, planning and delivery of technical assistance.
• Proven track record in interfacing with provincial and national ministries of health/nutrition a distinct advantage.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a local language is required.

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.

Candidates are requested to submit their daily/lumpsum fee for this assignment with the application for the consultancy.

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.