Nutrition Advocacy Consultant, Pretoria, South Africa (20 working days)

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, health & nutrition

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF has partnered with AstraZeneca's Young Health Programme (YHP) to ensure that preventing NCD's is a global government priority and to enable young people to live healthily. This partnership is ensuring that the health and futures of adolescents globally are not compromised by unhealthy lifestyles and risky behaviours. This is to be done by building awareness, empowerment and policy action among young people. These efforts aim at ensuring that young people can unlock progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which aspires to reduce premature death linked to NCDs by one third by 2030.

UNICEF has recently launched an updated Youth Advocacy Guide (YAG) and accompanying materials to offer online trainings to future young advocates. In order to contribute to the aim of building awareness and empowerment among youth, the South Africa Country Office has committed to train young people on advocacy for nutrition and physical activity for the prevention of NCDs. This training will be based on the YAG materials but will be delivered in person and will be specific to nutrition and physical activity.

The newly published UNICEF Baseline Study on Diet and Physical Activity amongst Youths and Adolescents for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) Prevention in South Africa found high rates of overweight and obesity among youth. Notably, 31.3% of 15–to-19-year-old females are overweight or obese compared to 9.6% of males. In the 20–to-24-year-old group, the number rose to 60% of females compared with 14.5% of males. This is a concern, as obesity in adolescence and youth significantly increases the risk of developing NCDs in adulthood. Moreover, the study found that family, friends, and the school environment play a significant role in shaping and maintaining habits related to diet and physical activity.

By training young advocates on advocacy for nutrition and physical activity, this intervention seeks to provide knowledge and skills to empower young people to provide and demand nutrition prevention and care among their own age group, as well as for mothers, adolescents, and young children. Young advocates will also be empowered to set an example and motivate their peers to engage in sufficient physical activity and eat a nutritious diet for the prevention of NCDs.

There is thus a need to adapt the YAG materials to an in-person format. Under the direction of the UNICEF nutrition team and with the support of the programme officer in charge of youth advocacy and engagement, the consultant will lead these adaptations.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will support the health and nutrition section of UNICEF South Africa with the technical and contextual adaptation of the Youth Advocacy Guide.

The consultant is expected to:

• Prepare a training adaptation of the YAG materials from online to in-person format. • With technical support from the UNICEF nutrition team, incorporate technical adaptations of the YAG specific to nutrition and physical activity, based on the findings of the Baseline Study on Diet and Physical Activity amongst Youths and Adolescents for Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention in South Africa. • Deliver a detailed implementation plan for a contextualized, gender sensitive and adapted in-person YAG nutrition training to be delivered to young people in South Africa.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Estimate Budget

Present an inception report, which include a detailed work plan to UNICEF health and nutrition and communication teams.

Inception report with a detailed work plan.

3 Days

10%

Present an outline of the proposed adaptations of the of the 2022 UNICEF Youth Advocacy Guide from online to in-person and specific to nutrition and physical activity for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases.

Draft Outline and presentation of adapted materials

4 Days

20%

Prepare a proposed training adaptation of the YAG materials to be shared with UNICEF for final feedback.

Presentation of the adapted materials for an in-person training based on available YAG materials

5 days

40%

Incorporate feedback and prepare final implementation plan

Final adapted training package

8 days

30%

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Experience in planning and implementing trainings for young people as well as on youth advocacy is required. Knowledge of health and nutrition is desirable. Excellent English language skills are required.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 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. The candidate may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).