The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is one of the leading global institutions helping to measure and alleviate malnutrition and has long been involved in efforts to expand the scope and impact of Large-Scale Food Fortification (LSFF). WFP supports national food and health systems across 73 countries as they strive to provide access, safely and systematically, to healthy, nutritious diets and reduce micronutrient deficiencies in women, children and the population at large. A key part of this work is the generation of data on food and nutrition security, dietary diversity and access to nutritious foods and nutritious diets, including food costs and expenditure, and using these data to highlight where there are risks of insufficiencies, by target group, geography or vulnerability, reflected as hunger (insufficient dietary energy and coping strategies), unaffordability of nutrient-adequate diets, inadequate dietary diversity and likelihood of micronutrient deficiencies.

When households, and specific household members, are unable to meet their dietary micronutrient needs due to physical, financial or sociological barriers, it becomes necessary to consider additional pathways that can safeguard against micronutrient malnutrition. Fortification is a powerful, cost-effective intervention for improving micronutrient intake that can be adapted to many food vehicles and contexts and delivered through different platforms, including both conventional commercial markets and food assistance, including school meals and social protection programs.

Ultimately, decisions about LSFF programmes and policy, specifically regarding whether, where, what, how and for whom to implement such initiatives, require evidence of the likelihood that current diets are able to meet the recommended requirements for key vitamins and minerals, of current intake including among specific sub-groups of the population, as well as of consumption of different food vehicles, (fortifiable) staples and condiments. They also require information about the extent to which different LSFF programmes and other interventions could assist in filling nutrient intake gaps for key populations. Such data are imperative to inform decisions across the LSFF ecosystem, including policy formulation, setting standards and determining whether LSFF is having an impact, in general, and with particular emphasis on those who are most vulnerable, with a focus on gender. However, due to cost, time consumption and complexity of primary vitamin and mineral deficiency (VMD) data collection, there are still many gaps in data needed to quantify the problem, e.g., magnitude and distribution of micronutrient malnutrition and nutrient inadequacy, as well as food consumption patterns within a population, required for proper program design and exploration of new cost-effective vehicles and entry points for fortification. Further, existing data or methods of obtaining data are limited in their ability to describe dimensions of VMD related to vulnerability in terms of gender, age, geography, biological status and illness.

The WFP uses innovative data approaches to support governments make informed decisions about the design and effective implementation of nutrition policy and programs, including the integration of nutrition objectives across food systems - to achieve maximum impact. The WFP Nutrition Division’s Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG) analysis, led by the Analytics and Science for Food and Nutrition (AS4FN) team, has been conducted in over 35 countries. The FNG estimates the cost and affordability of nutritious diets for households and nutritionally vulnerable individuals at the sub-national level and models the potential of programmes from across sectors to fill nutrient intake gaps, including through fortification as well as increasing incomes, increasing production and lowering prices of nutritious foods etc. Further, WFP’s Research, Assessment and Monitoring Division’s HungerMapLive is widely-used to inform humanitarian programming and food security situation monitoring. HungerMapLive displays real-time information on food insecurity, nutrition and various relevant drivers using primary data collected using remote monitoring, estimates generated using machine learning-based predictive analytics and publicly available secondary data pulled automatically through Application Programming Interface (API’s). Lastly, the WFP Innovation Accelerator (INKA), sources, supports and scales high-impact innovations to achieve Zero Hunger. Through the Accelerator, WFP is leveraging unprecedented advances in digital innovation—such as mobile technology, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain—and new business models to transform the way WFP and partners serve vulnerable communities across the world, including innovations on fortification at small mills with Sanku.

The expansion of the Hunger MapLive to include a data layer on risk of dietary vitamin and mineral deficiencies and the potential of different programs, including LSFF, to fill nutrient gaps has been identified as an opportunity to support programme and policy decision-makers from national governments and other stakeholders. This activity will bring together the analytical and government technical assistance expertise of the AS4FN team, data collection and visualisation experience from the HungerMapLive Team and INKA’s digital innovation and project accelerator capacities.

About the Project

The WFP Nutrition Division plans to generate and increase access to modeled data on risk of dietary VMD at national and sub-national levels, which will be critical to inform the design and roll-out of large-scale food fortification as well as complementary programs. This project will contribute towards the improvement of core LSFF program performance metrics, and in conjunction with the Micronutrient Forum (MNF) Data Alliance, will achieve consensus on approach, including the proxy indicator(s) for risk of dietary VMDs, the design of and data underlying subnational maps, and use of modeling, that will translate to clear and consistent programmatic guidance.

Specifically, the project will work with academic and policy partners to develop a composite proxy-indicator for risk of inadequate dietary micronutrient intake and modelling to assess the extent to which large scale food fortification (LSFF) (of different commodities and fortified according to different specifications) can address this, to inform policy decision-making and advocacy. The composite proxy indicator will be developed using publicly available data on food supply, consumption and expenditure, among others, and allow exploration of nutritional vulnerability by geography, gender and socioeconomic characteristics. These proxies will be calculated and validated against individual-level consumption and micronutrient status data in three countries. Complementing this, modelling will be carried out to estimate the cost and affordability of nutritious diets for specific population groups and model the potential impact of fortification and other programmes on closing nutrient gaps. The proxy data and modelling will be developed into inputs to display on interactive sub-national maps, with the support of WFP’s Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Division, and INKA. Finally, the project will engage with decision-makers in each of the focus geographies to support their application, validation and buy-in of the data and visualisations to inform policy and advocacy and document the process. The project overall will benefit from WFP in-country presence and partnerships with the Micronutrient Forum (MNF) Data Alliance, among other stakeholders, to promote transparency, provide a forum for discussion, maximise stakeholder involvement at the global-level, incorporate the views of potential end users at the country level and build community acceptance.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The Nutrition Data Analyst will support the two-year Mapping, modeling and communicating dietary risk of vitamin and mineral deficiencies project, led by the WFP Nutrition Division’s Analytics and Science for Food and Nutrition team. Under the supervision of the Project Lead, this position will support the implementation of the project’s workplan, including contributing to the development of analytical methods, data analysis and visualisation and presenting data to diverse stakeholders at the global- and country-level. The Analyst will focus on the analysis, modelling and visualisation of food security and nutrition data to estimate food and nutrient intake and inform LSFF and other nutrition programmes and policy.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Support fortification and nutrition stakeholder mapping exercises for the project at the national-level for three project countries.
Participate in project inception and progress meetings with internal project team members, and analytical partners and donors.
Work in a team to conduct a literature review to inform the development of proxy indicators for dietary VMD, including the write up and presentation of findings.
Work in a team to map data and indicators relevant to the construction of a proxy indicator for dietary VMD risks and data collation, cleaning and processing for 3-6 countries.
Contribute to the development of methods and conduct analysis to validate the VMD proxy indicators in 3-6 countries.
Conduct modelling to test the potential impact of LSFF and other nutrition interventions against outcomes including the dietary VMD proxy.
Present project specific analytical methods and findings to and participate in technical-level discussions with Scientific Committee members and analytical partners.
Support the display of data from the project on an interactive, sub-national dashboard, with the RAM HungerMapLive team.
Participate in dissemination and policy implementation activities to in-country stakeholders, based on the data outputs and dashboard, led by WFP Country Offices.
Contribute to academic manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

Analysis, reports and manuscripts presenting methods and results of the development and validation of methods to generate proxy indicators of dietary VMD and intervention modelling, for at least three countries.
Data inputs for visualisation on the HungerMapLive platform for at least three countries.
Relevant analysis synthesis and thematic presentations and publications developed.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Masters degree or higher in Nutrition, Public Health or a related field (with a major in Nutrition)

Experience:

Participating in research projects or analyses with diverse stakeholders and data inputs, including research design, data collection and analysis and write up.
Analysing primary and secondary data, including food and nutrient availability, intake, status, and related health data.
Presenting analysis findings to diverse audiences in a context-relevant format.
4-6 years working experience

Knowledge & Skills:

Knowledge about data for use in nutrition programmes, including micronutrients, dietary assessment and food security.
Proficient in the analysis of quantitative data using statistical software such as R or STATA.
Analytical and problem-solving skills, with a strong solution and action orientation.
Flexibility, sound interpersonal skills and cross-cultural sensitivity.
Experience with diet modelling, including Cost of the Diet and Optifood an advantage.

Languages:

Advanced professional level of written and spoken English
Professional knowledge of a second UN language an asset.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 3 April 2022

Ref.: VA No. 159862

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: wfp.org