Nutrition Specialist

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Friday 11 Feb 2022 at 23:59 UTC

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Job Title: Nutrition Specialist

Type of Contract: International Consultant

Division: NUT - Nutrition Division

Duty Station (City, Country): HQ, Rome Italy

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

As a United Nations (UN) agency reaching more than 115 million nutritionally vulnerable and food-insecure people each year, WFP plays a critical role in multi-stakeholder efforts to address malnutrition. In 2020 alone, 17.3 million children under the age of 5 (CU5) and pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLW/G) were assisted through WFP-supported nutrition-specific programmes that aim to prevent undernutrition and treat moderate wasting across 51 countries.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030, including wasting, stunting, overweight and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Childhood malnutrition is a major global development challenge, contributing to increased mortality, morbidity, impaired intellectual development, increased risk of disease in adulthood and suboptimal adult work and earning capacity. Of the word’s CU5, it is estimated that at any given time 45 million are wasted and 149 million are stunted, with some children concurrently affected by multiple types of undernutrition (wasting, stunting and micronutrient deficiencies). A substantial increase in effort is required to tackle the issue.

Coordinated partnerships are a cornerstone of WFP’s engagement in nutrition. WFP, alongside FAO, UNHCR, UNICEF and WHO have supported the development of the Global Action Plan (GAP) on child wasting, which aims to assist frontrunner countries, through a systems-wide approach, improve the prevention, early detection and treatment of child wasting to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. WFP and UNICEF have recently renewed their partnership framework on child wasting with aim to strengthen collaboration to scale up coverage of prevention and treatment services in fragile and humanitarian settings. WFP is an active member of the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance (GNC TA) Wasting Global Thematic Working Group (GTWG) and is strengthening bilateral nutrition partnerships with NGOs.

WFP is well positioned to leverage the increased global momentum to address childhood malnutrition and is working to strengthen community-based programmes that put prevention first to reduce the number of those affected as well as support innovative approaches to treatment that aim to ensure continuum of care and increased coverage in hard-to-reach fragile settings. Emerging evidence and lessons learned will be used to inform and update WFP nutrition strategy and programme guidance in alignment with the WHO-led guidelines development process.

This assignment will support WFP Nutrition Division by providing technical support to nutrition specific programming. The consultant will work in WFP Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment (MPT) team, Nutrition Operations under supervision of the MPT Team Lead to:

  • provide technical support to WFP HQ, Regional and Country Offices with nutrition specific programming implemented as part of WFP operations.
  • support evidence-based updates to WFP nutrition policy and programming guidance and work with Regional Nutrition Advisors and Country Office Nutrition Officers with roll-out and implementation.
  • support WFP representation in global forums related to malnutrition prevention and treatment.

The consultant will be Rome-based and will be required to travel to high priority WFP countries and regional bureaus as necessary (estimated 20% travel time) to support strengthening of WFP nutrition operations to address maternal and child undernutrition. The consultant will leverage lessons learned, as well as experience and expertise to improve nutrition programming.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES****:

1 - Provide technical support to WFP Headquarters (HQ) Regional (RB) and Country Offices (CO) on nutrition specific programming implemented as part of WFP operations

  • provide timely technical inputs to various HQ Units, RBs and COs on guidance, protocols, training materials, reports, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and other tools
  • build the capacity of HQ, RB and CO staff to enhance quality standards for malnutrition prevention and treatment programming
  • participate in internal malnutrition prevention and treatment-related task teams
  • contribute to WFP nutrition research agenda and participate in inter-unit research coordination meetings
  • support WFP NUT Digital Innovations Team in the development and roll out of digital tools on technical aspects related to malnutrition prevention and treatment
  • conduct field visits to improve quality of WFP nutrition programmes and to offer support for troubleshooting to assure programme enhancements

2 – Support evidence-based updates to WFP nutrition policy and programming guidance and work with Regional Nutrition Advisors and Country Office Nutrition Officers on its roll-out and implementation

  • review of emerging evidence on malnutrition prevention and wasting treatment
  • support updates to WFP nutrition-specific programming guidance and tools as well as development of training materials to facilitate roll-out to RB and CO

3- Support WFP representation in global forums related to malnutrition prevention and treatment.

  • represent WFP in GNC TA Wasting GTWG sub-groups, community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) surge and simplified approaches working group
  • represent WFP in the WHO-led wasting guidelines development process

4- Support the Nutrition Operations Unit workplan with other activities as requested by the Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Team Lead

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

  1. Timely inputs provided to HQ/ RB/ CO requests for support on nutrition-specific programming
  2. Relevant guidance and tools for supporting nutrition-specific programming revised/adapted/developed
  3. Technical workshops, webinars, brown bags and/or trainings on malnutrition prevention and wasting treatment for WFP staff and partners conducted
  4. Actively participated in GNC TA Wasting GTWG, CMAM surge, simplified approach working group meetings (and similar) and contributed to guidance/ briefs produced by the working groups

All the activities will be carried out in coordination and close collaboration with other internal Teams and Units and with consideration of the needs and priorities of the Nutrition Division, regional bureaus and country offices. The above responsibilities will be captured into an individual workplan and will be used for the Performance and Capability Enhancement (PACE) of the consultant.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Master’s in Public Health Nutrition or related field.

Experience:

Five (5) - seven (7) years of work experience in international nutrition programming with at least three (3) years in humanitarian contexts, with focus on prevention of undernutrition and treatment of wasting, particularly the community-based management of acute malnutrition and any simplified approaches

Experience of developing nutrition programming guidance and tools

Experience and understanding of latest developments in malnutrition prevention and wasting treatment research

Experience of working with other UN agencies, or key international NGO in humanitarian settings

Experience of training and other learning approaches would be an asset

Knowledge and Skills:

  • Knowledge on project cycle management, and nutrition Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)
  • Knowledge of challenges in implementing nutrition programmes
  • Good interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work in multicultural settings
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills required

Language:

  • Fluency in English is required
  • Working knowledge of another UN language (ideally French) or Portuguese desirable

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: 11 February 2022

Ref.: VA No. 156076

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.

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