Nutrition Consultant for Strategy and Policies Development (home based), Beijing, China

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UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

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CN Home-based; Beijing (China)

Application deadline 9 months ago: Sunday 4 Jun 2023 at 15:55 UTC

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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, the right to survive and thrive.

Childhood overweight and obesity has become an increasing public health concern in China. According to the Report of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Population, in 2017, about 19 percent of children aged 6 to 17 were overweight or obese. Failure to act in a timely manner will result in costly medical investments and financial losses in the future.

The causes of the alarming rise in childhood overweight and obesity are complex, and the global consensus has shifted from an emphasis on the importance of individual-level factors to an increasing recognition of the impact of obesogenic environments. In China, as the central government has showed its strong commitment to ensuring that children have access to nutritious food by planning and implementing the National Nutrition Plan every 5 years. Cities and local governments are playing an increasingly important role in developing innovative policies and programmes to ensure the high-level commitment to be put into practices.

UNICEF is also supporting the Chinese government in trying some new initiatives during the new project cycle (2021-2025), including interventions at the school and city level, as well as preparations for promoting obesity policies, such as evidence collection and the development of Nutrient Profiling (NP) models. After two years of effort, we hope to review existing projects, absorb global experience, and identify key areas and roadmaps where UNICEF can help the Chinese government intervene in child obesity. Given that interventions and policies related to childhood obesity, particularly in the food environment, have already been practiced globally, a wealth of experience and lessons can inform a joint strategy between UNICEF and line ministries in China. Therefore, UNICEF is seeking to hire a seasoned international consultant with proven high-level expertise to facilitate the process.

How can you make a difference?

The main purpose of this consultancy will be to assist the nutrition team in China office to develop a comprehensive plan/portfolio of actions on address the obesogenic environment in China in line with the existing country policies, and UNICEF’s Programme Strategy Note (PSN) in this programme cycle. 4 prioritized intervention and policy areas have been identified by UNICEF China Office, which are,

1) promotion and utilization the NP model;

2) city level interventions and policies;

3) school nutrition and behavior change;

4) food environment scorecard and dashboard.

The Nutrition Consultant will provide technical support to develop a comprehensive country strategy on the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity with a focus on the prioritized 4 key programme areas mentioned above. The strategy should be based on the global trend and evidence, cover wholistic relevant interventions that may be applicable to the local context, and provide recommendations for programming by the end of 2025. The consultant's responsibilities will include:

  1. Development of a comprehensive country strategy on addressing obesogenic food environment. This may link to activities, including:
    1. Facilitate a consultative process with key stakeholders to develop a comprehensive country strategy on the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity. The strategy should be evidence-based, cost-effective, and sustainable, and take into account the local context, including cultural and social factors.
    2. Develop an implementation plan with clear milestones, indicators, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure effective implementation of the strategy.
    3. Provide technical support and guidance to key government partners and other stakeholders to build their capacity in the implementation of the strategy.
  2. Supporting UNICEF’s institutional partner in preparing the development of a city-level food environment scorecard, ensuring the right direction and the alignment with the comprehensive strategy.
  3. Supporting the upcoming city food forum in Asian Congress of Nutrition in September, including providing technical support in shaping the agenda, recommending and inviting key stakeholders, facilitating the event on site and summarizing key output of the event.
  4. Developing a school-based monitoring framework with a set of proposed indicators and data-collecting methods, that may be able to track progress in the improvement of school nutrition food environment and behavior changes of school children.

Deliverables and timeline:

Estimated duration of the contract is 85 working days within one calendar year, starting from mid-June 2023, with possibility of extension.

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

  • Advanced degree in nutrition, public health, or a related field.
  • A minimum of 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating nutrition programs, with a focus on the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity.
  • Strong technical knowledge of evidence-based interventions for the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity, and their cost-effectiveness and sustainability.
  • Proven experience in facilitating consultative processes with key stakeholders in the development of national nutrition strategies.
  • Strong analytical and writing skills, with experience in developing high-quality reports and policy documents.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders, including government officials, donors, and civil society organizations.
  • Fluency in English is required; knowledge of the local language(s) is an asset.
  • Understanding of Chinese context or working experiences in China would be an asset.
  • Experiences of working with UN agencies or other international organizations would be an asset.

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.

Added 10 months ago - Updated 9 months ago - Source: unicef.org