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 fair chance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=E1xkXZs0cAQ

Background

Children's malnutrition is a serious concern in Kazakhstan. A second round of WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) was held in 2020. In primary schools, overweight and obesity were found to be prevalent in 23.6 per cent of boys and 17.6 per cent of girls. Underweight boys and girls made up 5 per cent of the population. A group of 8-year-old children included to the samples was used to identify changes in these figures. In comparison to 2015, when the COSI was first undertaken, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 18.7 per cent to 21.1 per cent in 2021. The proportion of underweight children increased from 3 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Thus, the proportion of children with a normal body weight declined from 78.3 per cent to 73.3 per cent during the course of five years.

The UNICEF country programme for 2021-2025 is supporting the Government in addressing the double burden of malnutrition through development of evidence-based strategies on addressing overweight and obesity in children, including the importance of breastfeeding, and micronutrient supplementation. UNICEF advocates for adoption and enforcement of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in Kazakhstan, and plans working with the private sector to incorporate child-friendly business principles in supporting breastfeeding mothers, parental leave, flour fortification, salt iodization and limiting the marketing of unhealthy food to children, including school meals. UNICEF collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) in reviewing school-feeding and physical education programmes.

In 2022-2023, UNICEF supported various activities to improve Child Nutrition including implementation of the National strategy on prevention of overweight and obesity among children, assessment of school meals in Kazakhstan in order to develop recommendations for improving the school meals system and the quality of children's nutrition, elaboration of recipe book for children aged 6-10 and series of video recipes for the recipe book promotion. UNICEF Business Advisory Council (BAC) recognized Child Nutrition a priority area for cooperation to address children's health and well-being.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Under the direct supervision of the Health and Nutrition Specialist, the National nutrition consultant will provide technical assistance to UNICEF Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Health, and other key stakeholders in revising school and preschool nutrition standards, developing and piloting a school healthy meal model, and preparing and delivering nutrition trainings to PHC and school medicine specialists on nutrition, in particular the prevention of anemia among adolescent girls, engaging and working with business partners to promote healthy nutrition for children.

Scope of Work:

The National nutrition consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

1) Revising, adjusting and finalising of national nutritional guidelines and standards for various groups of the population, including school-age children. An assessment of the current state of school meals system has provided up-to-date information that makes it possible to develop recommendations for the improvement of regulations in the field of children's nutrition and school meals including healthy dietary requirements for children based on international standards, national healthy child nutrition standards as well as recommendations for creating a favorable environment for ensuring healthy nutrition for schoolchildren.

2) Designing and supporting the planning, budgeting and piloting of the school meal program incl. tools for planning and monitoring school meals. The pilot project will allow to test the proposed food-based standards and provide schools with a framework to build nutritionally-balanced menus and tools for planning and monitoring school meals and creating a favorable environment for ensuring healthy nutrition for schoolchildren, e.g. improving the organization of school meals, raising awareness of children and their parents about healthy nutrition, creating opportunities for parents to control the quality and composition of their children's school meals.

3) Providing technical support for strengthening capacity of the Primary Health Care (PHC) system and school medical workers to deliver care and counselling services to parents/caregivers and adolescents on healthy nutrition and prevention of anaemia, overweight and obesity. This includes the development of training modules, support the planning, organization and facilitation of the trainings ofPHC system and school medical workers to gain additional skills and competencies for working with adolescents and parents/caregivers and providing them with the health services they need, including professional counselling in nutrition, prevention of anaemia, overweight and obesity according to age.

4) Providing technical support, including in close collaboration with business partners, to in the design, planning, and implementation of awareness raising campaign and social and behaviour change activities on healthy nutrition for children, including the promotion of the healthy recipe book for children, by defining objectives, developing and reviewing key messages, selecting appropriate channels etc.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal should include all possible costs related to the implementation of the tasks under the present TOR including in-country travel expenses (2 trips to Astana: September 2023 for 1 week, October 2023, for 1 week).

The financial proposal must be submitted in a separate file of non-editable format (e.g. PDF). Consultancy fees should be broken down to show the details for the below-mentioned deliverables.

Payment schedule

UNICEF will only make milestone payment based on achievement of specific deliverables. Also note that UNICEF does not make advance payment and UNICEF is exempted from paying VAT and any other form of taxes.

Five payments will be made based on the deliverables outlined in the below table.

Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables.

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment or terminate the contract 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.

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory or if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered, or for failure to meet deadlines (fees reduced due to late submission: 20 days – 10%; 1 month- 20%; 2 months-50%; more 2 months – payment withhold).

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. This ToR is an integral part of the contract (SSA) to be signed with the consultant/institution.

Work Assignment Overview Nutrition Consultant.docx

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

An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Systems or related field
At least five years of relevant experience on nutrition program management including experience at national and subnational levels .
Familiarity with multidimensional nutrition programming through all life cycles, especially childhood and tools in health/nutrition programs.
Knowledge of nutrition programme context in Kazakhstan
Proven experience in planning, supervising health, and nutrition programmes, and training
Fluency in English language and ability to write quality reports on nutrition or other related public health fields; knowledge of Kazakh and Russian languages is an advantage.
Highly developed communication skills.
Ability to work in an international and multi-cultural environment.
Ability to work independently and respond to feedback in a timely and professional manner.
Excellent analytical and organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to contribute to a team.
Ability to summarise evidence, in writing and in workshops and meetings
Experience with the UN is an asset
Technical competencies:
Health promotion and non-communicable disease prevention
Advocacy and communication to ensure healthy nutrition

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (https://www.unicef.org/about/unicef-culture)

Evaluation Criteria

The quality of technical proposal will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria and the associated weighting as detailed below.

Technical evaluation

1. Consultant’s profile – qualifications, relevance of experience and unique skillset.

2. Completeness of proposal – availability of detailed technical and financial proposal in line with TOR specifications

3. Proposed approach and work plan – the quality of the approach and methods proposed to carry out the assignment as per the objectives, tasks and deliverables specified in the TOR; adequacy of management plan to guide implementation of activities within the specific timeframe.

4. Past experience

Financial evaluation

Candidates must submit a financial proposal for the whole assignment based on these Terms of Reference. The financial proposal should clearly state the cost of the services for each Deliverables/Outputs.

This is the main principle because saved funds will be directed towards other activities to aid children in Kazakhstan. Only financial proposals that fully cover all deliverables outlined in the terms of reference will be considered. The Office selects the individual with the lowest best and final offer, based on best value for money.

Remarks:

UNICEF will only make milestone payment based on achievement of specific deliverables. Also note that UNICEF does not make advance payment and UNICEF is exempted from paying VAT and any other form of taxes.
All submissions should be in English languages in electronic version (Word, Excel, Power Point, SPSS, tabulations etc.).
Completion of the UN/UNICEF mandatory trainings is obligatory upon commencement of the contract.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.
The Individual contractor or Consultant will perform his/her duties in line with UNICEF standards and procedures.
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.
Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed 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
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 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.