Nutrition Specialist, P-3, Vientiane, Lao PDR

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 101,224 USD and 132,545 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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, nutrition

Despite progress in recent years including a reduction in prevalence of stunted children under five years of age from 44 to 33 per cent, malnutrition remains a significant challenge in Lao PD. This is resulting in an enormous human and economic costs including impairment of normal brain development, increased risk of disease and death, reduced learning outcomes, overall reduction in lifetime earnings. This is stifling of economic growth including significant reduction in GDP of 481.66 million USD or 2.66%, every year.

The challenge of malnutrition is acknowledged and addressed by the Government through comprehensive policy and strategy frameworks including the National Nutrition Policy of 2008, the National Nutrition Strategy (2016-2025) and the National Plan of Action 2021-2025. The framework applies a multisectoral approach, taking in nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive actions in health, education and agriculture.

With effect from January 2022, the new Country Programme Document (CPD) 2022-2026, which was signed by the executive board in September 2021, has responded to the needs in country by elevating nutrition to a standalone section in the UNICEF Lao Country Office (LCO). The 2022-2026 CDP is aligned with the 2021-2025 NPAN as well as the Global UNICEF Nutrition strategy 2020-2030.

The new CPD reflects the new UNICEF conceptual framework with its focus on 3 main drivers of good nutrition across the life cycle: good diets, good services and good practices. It also strongly reflects the strong systems approach to address nutrition problems through engagement not only through the health system but also through the food system, the education system, the water and sanitation system and the social protection system.

How can you make a difference?

You will join the newly expanded Nutrition team to lead the development of new programme areas to strengthen the delivery of services to ensure better nutrition for infants, children adolescents and women through the non-health systems, such as the food and education systems. You will also be the output manager for the 3rd output of the UNICEF Nutrition Programme namely to improve the demand for key nutrition services and behaviours including leading on the capacity building for Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) for nutrition in Lao PDR with also technical support from SBCC experts in UNICEF country and regional office. You will become responsible for the management of a large EU funded including grant management, planning, implementation, donor engagement and reporting. A summary of key functions and accountabilities include:

• Support to programme development and planning. This will include leading on the formulation, design and preparation of new areas of engagement including the establishment of specific goals, objectives, strategies, and implementation plans as well as preparation of funding proposals, and the provision of technical support throughout all stages of programming processes
• Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results. This will include efforts to identify gaps, strengths and/or weaknesses in programme management, identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals as well as the preparation of regular and mandated programme/project reports for the management, donors and partners including the EU.
• Technical and operational support to programme implementation. This will include the provision of technical guidance to government and others on the best practices and approaches to improve nutrition outcomes across the non-health systems such as the food, education, water and sanitation and social protection systems including for the development, planning, and implementation of new or exciting initiatives.
• Networking and partnership building. This will include the building and strengthening of close working partnerships with Government and key stakeholders across the mentioned systems and well as the ability to build the capacity of those stakeholders to deliver better results for nutrition, as well as the active representation of the UNICEF in key discussions. It will also include relationship management as part of project management for a new investment with the EU delegation to Lao PDR.
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building. This will include the introduction of innovative approaches and good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for Nutrition, both with respect to SBCC for nutrition and the delivery of interventions across the non-health systems including keeping informed of the best/ cutting edge practices.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, global/international health and nutrition, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, health sciences, nutritional epidemiology, or another health-related science field. A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care is required. This new area of engagement for the UNICEF nutrition team requires the candidate to also have experience of programming for nutrition across non-health systems, particularly the education and/or food (agriculture) as well as with the design and implementation of SBCC interventions, ideally through innovative channels and/or partnerships for delivery. The candidate should have a profile with strong expertise and credibility to engage with key actors in food and education systems to support meaningful engagement with a range of new stakeholders including from private sector.
• Experience of how the Governance structures work in Laos across different sectors and how they can be influenced is an added advantage. Experiences managing complex projects including donor engagement and reporting required with experience in managing DEVCO funded investments an added advantage.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or Lao (local language) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

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 (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

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.

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.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.