Health and Nutrition Officer

UNICEF works to promote and protect the rights of every Filipino child, with a particular focus on those who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

We work with the Philippine government to improve national policies, programmes and services for children and adolescents. Together with partners, we address common barriers to the realization of their rights.

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. Equity accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations. (Visit: https://www.unicef.org/philippines/).

Moreover, the assignment is intended to support the health and nutrition program in the Mindanao Field Office to help realize UNICEF’s 9th Country Programme for Children (CPC 9) Strategy 1. This strategy aims to uphold the right of every child to survive and thrive—ensuring that children are alive, healthy, well-nourished, and enjoying mental health and overall well-being. Specifically, the assignment contributes to the achievement of CPC 9 output 1.5, that by 2028, the BARMM Government has enhanced capacity to plan, implement, monitor, and coordinate the integrated delivery of health, nutrition-specific, and nutrition-sensitive services as outlined in the UNICEF-Ministry of Health Rolling Work Plan (RWP) 2024-2028.

Under the delegated authority and the supervision of the Health and Nutrition Specialist or his designated representative(s), the Health and Nutrition Officer will allocate approximately 50% of his/her time to health-related programs and 50% to nutrition initiatives. This excludes the PMNP, which is managed by a dedicated project team. The UNV will collaborate closely with and support the Health Officer (NoB-FT), the Nutrition Officer (NoB-FT), and the Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health (MNCAH)/Immunization Consultant for guidance to ensure coordinated and effective implementation of activities.

Specifically, the Health and Nutrition Officer will perform the following:

• Provide sound professional technical assistance and advice on health and nutrition programming to the BARMM- Nutrition Council, BARMM Ministry of Health – Family Health Unit and its associated 5 provincial health offices to achieve results and targets as described in the UNICEF-MOH joint Rolling Workplan (RWP).
• Apply core strategies to ensure results, including advocacy, capacity development, behaviour change communications (in cooperation with the SBC Officer), strategic partnerships, services delivery, disability inclusion, use of data and innovation/technology as well as networking and team participation/collaboration.
• Monitor planning and implementation of the health and nutrition component results and targets (RAM and non-RAM indicators), work closely with the Cotabato-based Monitoring Officer for field-level data collection from specific municipal assessments, and other surveys, as well as from routine reporting systems.
• Periodically update the analysis of bottlenecks and barriers to achieving planned results as well as progress in implementation of the Regional and Provincial Nutrition Action Plans and the soon-to-be-developed BARMM Health Master Plan and propose solutions to UNICEF and the BARMM government.
• Organize quarterly reviews of progress in implementation of UNICEF-Government workplans (i.e., Rolling Workplans or RWP) and adjustment of activities or implementation modalities with government and CSO partners, updating the health and nutrition components of the RWP at the end of the year in cooperation with BARMM Ministry of Health.
• Provide sound analysis and data for reporting to UNICEF and donors, including age and gender disaggregated data, drafting donor reports and proposals and programme documents as required.
• Facilitate effective partnerships and collaboration for advocacy, technical cooperation, programme coordination, information sharing and knowledge networking.
• Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
• Any other related tasks may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Furthermore, the UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers’ programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and taking an active part in UNV activities (for instance, in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end-of-assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results, and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.