Nutrition Officer

Contract

This is a UNV National Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as National UN Volunteer. It is normally only for nationals. More about UNV National Specialist contracts.

Viet Nam is part of the global UN ‘Delivering As One’ reform initiative, whereby Viet Nam has agreed to capitalize on the strengths and comparative advantages of the different members of the UN family and look at ways to increase the UN system’s impact. In Viet Nam, the initiative brings together the expertise, experience and capacities of all UN agencies in the country to provide more coordinated and effective assistance. The six pillars of reform in Viet Nam include One Plan, One Budget, One Leader, One Set of Management Practices, One Voice and the Green One UN House. The UNICEF Viet Nam office is located within the Green One UN House, where UN Agencies are seated according to function rather than Agency.

The Viet Nam Country Programme for 2022-2026 will support the achievement related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, and it will complement the One Strategic Plan between the Government and UN system agencies that will continue with a delivering-as-one (DaO) approach for the period 2022-2026 and is aligned to UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025.

The Child Survival, Development and Environment (CSDE), a key Programme of UNICEF Viet Nam Country Programme, consists of health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and environment components. In the period of 2022-2026, the CSDE will address the unfinished agendas around inequalities in maternal and child mortality and access to health care, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, reduce stunting, address the new or emerging public health threats facing Vietnamese mothers and children, including the COVID-19 pandemic, take care of and protect children and women who are abused and violence victims and develop social work in the health sector.

The nutrition component of CSDE focuses on supporting the Government in reducing the triple burden of malnutrition in the country. UNICEF’s strategic emphasis is across the life course with actions that aim to prevent all forms of malnutrition, with priority for the EMs and people living in the mountainous areas and in the 7 provinces where levels of stunting are above 30%. While the focus on addressing high child stunting prevalence among the EM and mountainous areas, prevention of overweight/obesity is another priority area of UNICEF support. The Nutrition programme will continue focus on upstream support for policies, legislation, systems strengthening, data analysis (including mainstreaming bottleneck analysis within Government systems), public financing and multisectoral nutrition governance, including capacity strengthening. Advocacy for policy change includes sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) tax, marketing restrictions of unhealthy food and front-of-pack labelling, financing for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treatment through health insurance and strengthened implementation of basic nutrition packages at commune level. At subnational level, nutrition programme component will focus on scaling up evidence based high impact nutrition interventions and generating evidence for policy/decision making for nutrition. While the focus on remote, rural ethnic minority populations is important, it also needs to ensure the urban poor are not ignored: they are likely to become a rapidly growing population and the burden of poor nutrition is high.

The UN Volunteer will work in the CSDE Programme team managed by the Chief of Section. Specifically, the UN Volunteer will work within the nutrition team and under the supervision of the Nutrition Policy Specialist, to support the planning and implementation and monitoring of the UNICEF’s support in nutrition focusing on policy advocacy.

As part of the UNICEF nutrition team, the national UN Volunteer will participate, contribute and assist in documenting the implementation of activities in the 2022-23 Work Plan among UNICEF, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant line ministries.

Under the direct supervision of Nutrition Policy Specialist, the National UN Volunteer will be assigned the following tasks:

• Participate and provide support for planning, implementation and monitoring of nutrition activities at national and sub-national levels. • Support the scaling up of nutrition interventions by generating evidence of effective interventions for evidence-based advocacy at both national and sub-national levels. This will include participation in joint field trips and support the documentation efforts required to advocate for national scale up of the successful models. • Participate in the development and enforcement process of policies, regulations and guidelines for maternal and child nutrition. This includes exposure to international recommendations and assist in the desk review of socio-economic, scientific and empiric/operational evidence to develop policy briefs and advocacy and communication materials. This will also provide exposure to the dynamics of the policy dialogue among the UN, National Assembly, Ministries and other stakeholders. • Assist the nutrition team to write and edit human interest stories, photos essays, blogs and other digital materials related to nutrition (including advising on video production) for UNICEF Viet Nam web and social media channels in line with the office’s editorial calendar. • Support in identifying, developing, distributing and evaluating variety of media materials in multiple, appropriate formats (Press release, feature stories etc) • Support with coordination of nutrition stakeholder in the SUN Multi-Stakeholder Platform / Nutrition Cluster and Partnership Group and related working groups in Viet Nam and participate in global conference calls and webinar to learn about global experiences, innovations and best practices. • Participate in the annual work planning and reporting with UNICEF and the UN Joint Programme Group for Health, including communicating results and examples in Delivering as One UN through annual reports, donor reports, human interest stories, concept notes, proposals, speeches and social media messages related to nutrition. This will further include exposure to programme planning, monitoring and evaluation processes for development of the next One UN Plan in Viet Nam

Results/Expected Outputs:

• Documentation of the experiences with modelling of new and innovative interventions to address malnutrition in its all forms especially stunting and wasting in ethnic minority communities and hard to reach communities in Viet Nam through field trip reports, programme reports, publications, human interest stories and social media messages.

• Contributions to available desk reviews of international recommendations, evidence and best practices to advocate for nutrition related policies, plans and programmes. Contributions to annual work planning and reporting for UNICEF and the UN Joint Programme Group for Health, including annual reports, donor reports, concept notes, programme presentations and fundraising proposals.

• Active participation in monitoring and evaluation efforts of available policies related to nutrition at national and sub-national level together UNICEF and partners. Participation in the SUN Multi-stakeholder Platform / Nutrition Cluster and Partnership Group and related working groups and related global and regional conference calls and webinars. Participate in relevant planning processes for the development of the next One UN Plan in Viet Nam.

• Professionalism: demonstrated understanding of operations relevant to UNICEF; technical capabilities or knowledge relevant or transferrable to UNICEF procedures and rules; discretion, political sensitivity, diplomacy and tact to deal with clients; ability to apply good judgement; ability to liaise and coordinate with a range of different actors, especially in senior positions; where appropriate, high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take ownership; resourcefulness and willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client-oriented; • Integrity: demonstrate the values and ethical standards of the UN and UNICEF in daily activities and behaviours while acting without consideration of personal gains; resist undue political pressure in decision-making; stand by decisions that are in the organization’s interest even if they are unpopular; take prompt action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behaviour; does not abuse power or authority; • Teamwork and respect for diversity: ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, mixed-gender environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity; sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age; commitment to implementing the goal of gender equality by ensuring the equal participation and full involvement of women and men in all aspects of UN operations; ability to achieve common goals and provide guidance or training to colleagues; • Commitment to continuous learning: initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in work environment. • Planning and organizing: effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities; • Communication: proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different target groups; • Flexibility: adaptability and ability to live and work in potentially hazardous and remote conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort; to operate independently in austere environments for protracted periods; willingness to travel within the area of operations and to transfer to other duty stations within the area of operations as necessary; • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UNICEF mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

Nutrition, public health, Food Security or related field • At least two years of experience working in health/nutrition issues. • Be an independent thinker and be self-motivated • Good interpersonal, networking and communication skills • Willingness to contribute and work as part of a team • Flexible and open to learning and new experiences • Respect for diversity and adaptability to other cultures, environments and living conditions • Fluency in spoken and written English • Excellent reporting skills, presentation skills and oral communication skills • Computer skills (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, social media, and others)

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.

-National UN Volunteer Specialist receives approximately USD 847.92 as Monthly Living Allowance. -Provided with assignment travel cost and entry lumpsum if applicable. -Enrolled in health, life, disability insurance. -Applicable dependents (primary family unit, up to 3) are eligible for health insurance. -Entitled to annual leave, 2.5 days per month. -Provided with exit lumpsum to support transition at the end of assignment.

For more information about UNV Conditions of Service and Entitlements, please refer to the following:

-https://www.unv.org/become-volunteer/volunteer-your-country -https://www.unv.org/sites/default/files/unvpf/UNVcos2021%20Complete%20hi-res-final_compressed_30.08.2021.pdf