Nutrition Officer-Adolescent Nutrition and Innovation, NO-1, Ciudad México, México

Contract

This is a NO-1 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-1 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, health

In Mexico, children and adolescents are affected by a triple burden of malnutrition: undernutrition, micronutrients deficiencies and overweight and obesity. On one hand, over 40% of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years are overweight or obese, while close to 15% of children under five years suffer from chronic undernutrition, and one third of children aged 1 to 4 years suffer from anemia (ENSANUT, 2018, 2021). The main immediate cause of malnutrition in Mexico is poor diets: only 28.6% of children receive exclusive breastfeeding in their first 6 months of life, and once they start consuming complementary foods, they do not consume enough quality and quantity.

UNICEF is currently supporting the Government of Mexico to transform children’s diets, across three strategic priorities: i) strengthening nutrition services in the health system, ii) transforming food environments, iii) implementing behavior change programmes. In this context, innovation for social and behavioral change is essential to influence lifestyles and improve the nutrition of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, children, and adolescents. Especially, working with adolescents is relevant because they are influenced by very specific barriers and motivators. It is thus necessary to develop creative and innovative, strategies, interventions and materials for this age group, addressing their aspirations and emotions.

This ambitious agenda will require the support of a Nutrition Officer (NOA - TA) focused on adolescent nutrition and innovation, with strong technical, networking and partnership building skills to achieve the expected results under strategic priority (iii) More children, adolescents and their caregivers have improved nutrition behaviours and practices.

The Nutrition Officer – adolescent nutrition and innovation (NO.1 – TA), under direct supervision of the Nutrition Officer – social and behaviour change (NO-1), will provide overall technical assistance to Government and other counterparts from academia, civil society and the private sector, in the design, support, monitoring and reporting of the interventions related with innovation and adolescents such as Mobile Health, SBC campaigns and educational materials, trainings, implementation of the new Food Based Dietary Guidelines for Mexico, digital apps, activities in social network, among others.

Coaching of implementing partners and networking with authorities to monitor and ensure quality of programme will be a key component of the work. Additionally, the Officer is expected to provide technical support in donors’ reporting and proposals development, in collaboration with other areas.

The duration of the post is for 12 months initially (from October 2023 to 30 September 2024), but with possibility of extension based on performance and funds availability.

For information of the work of our organization in Mexico, please visit our website: UNICEF Mexico and the video of our amazing results in 2021: Informe Anual 2021: Acciones de UNICEF - YouTube

How can you make a difference?

1. Support to programme development and planning

• Update the situation analysis related to adolescent nutrition and the use of innovations in nutrition programming, for the development and management of the nutrition programme.
• Provide technical and administrative support in all phases of program planning through preparation of documentation and materials, and compliance with organizational processes and management systems.
• Identify in collaboration with counterparts, including federal and state government counterparts, UN agencies, academia, and civil society the needs for scientific evidence generation and capacity building for adolescent nutrition and innovation policy design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.

• Perform timely monitoring of program implementation under his/her responsibility to ensure that activities are in line with action plans.
• Monitor and report on the use of sector program resources (financial, administrative, and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, objectives, organizational rules, regulations, procedures, donor commitments, accountability standards and integrity.
• Conduct field visits to provide technical assistance, assess progress and take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer them to appropriate officials for resolution.
• Identify and report critical issues, bottlenecks, and potential problems for timely action to achieve program results.
• Assist in the timely preparation of program related reports in accordance with established guidelines and procedures.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation

• Support in the design of communication materials and advocacy strategies for the strengthening of nutrition policies related to adolescent nutrition and innovations in nutrition programming.
• Provide technical assistance to federal and state government counterparts in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition policies related to adolescent nutrition and innovation.
• Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned among stakeholders.

4. Networking and partnership building

• Generate and maintain close contacts with the academic sector for the generation of scientific evidence that contributes to the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies to improve adolescent nutrition.
• Create and maintain close and effective working partnerships with counterparts, including federal and state government counterparts, UN agencies, academia and civil society through information sharing, capacity building and advocacy strategies to improve the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies to improve adolescent nutrition.
• Prepare proposals, materials, and reports for donors for fundraising and partnership development.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
• Exchange information and knowledge with other programs to contribute to the achievement of the overall objectives of the national program.
• Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

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

• University degree in Nutrition, Public Health, or other disciplines like Social Development, Education, Psychology with focus in nutrition
• One year of professional work experience in planning, programming, implementation, monitoring or evaluation of nutrition programmes aimed to adolescents, as well as experience with digital programmes and SBC campaigns.
• Professional work experience in a technical expert capacity in nutrition is a distinct advantage.
• Professional experience is desirable, collaborating with Government authorities.
• Developing country work experience or field work experience is an asset.
• Fluency in Spanish. Intermedia level of English is required, but complete fluency is preferred. .

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct 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.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.