Food composition consultant

FAO assists Member Countries to improve diets and raise levels of nutrition, as well as support with appropriate policies, strategies and methodologies for improving the efficiency and inclusiveness of their food and agricultural systems. As a knowledge leader, areas addressed include dietary assessment, support on nutrition-sensitive food and agriculture policies and programs, effective nutrition promotion programmes, food value chains, market linkages, post-harvest handling and agro-processing. FAO is committed to support Member States in their efforts to improve nutritional outcomes as stated in the Rome Declaration on Nutrition (November 2014) and to mainstream nutrition into FAO’s strategic objectives.

FAO is the UN agency with comparative advantage on food composition through its long-lasting experience in developing food composition tables and databases (FCT/FCDB) and guidelines as well as providing technical support to member countries. FAO is
Now delivering its food composition programme through the International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS). It is a worldwide network of food composition experts aiming to improve the quality, availability, reliability and use of food composition data. INFOODS also stands as a forum through which international harmonization and support for food composition activities can be achieved and advocated. INFOODS is organized into several regional data centers with a global coordinator. In this context, INFOODS and FAO provide guidelines, standards, compilation tools, databases, capacity development tools, policy advice, advocacy tools, technical assistance at country level; and they represent a fora to link agriculture, biodiversity, food systems, health and nutrition to achieve better nutrition worldwide.

Whilst many countries have a national or regional food composition tables or databases, most of them contain incomplete, outdated and unreliable data. In order to provide reliable and relevant data for nutrition and agriculture, FAO is assisting countries to update or develop new FCT/FCDB. These data are necessary to develop food-based dietary guidelines, school nutrition meals, as well as policies and programmes on nutrition, food security and agriculture.

Reporting Lines

The food composition consultant will report to a Nutrition Officer and work under the overall guidance of the RI1/SP1 coordinator, RLC.

Technical Focus

The technical focus of the work is on the management and development of FAO/INFOODS food composition databases, provide technical advice to coutries and to develop or update existing standards and guidelines on food composition. These tasks are undertaken in order to strengthen the scientific bases for policies and programme design, implementation and monitoring. These activities will be performed through collaboration with INFOODS and other relevant institutions at regional and country level, including through missions.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Consultant/ PSA will provide support to FAO’s work in food composition.

The tasks and responsibilities will be specified in the Terms of Reference for each appointee. Assigned tasks and responsibilities will normally include more than one of the following areas\:

• Provide technical assistance to FAO member countries in data collection and evaluation of food composition data and their compilation into databases, including technical support for field project implementation;

• Assist in knowledge sharing among FAO colleagues, country counterparts and other stakeholders to develop capacities in generating, collecting, evaluating, compiling and using food composition data for informing policy and programme, through meetings, seminars, workshops, and/or project implementation;

• Assist in developing relevant guidelines, audio-visual materials, on-line tools and/or information kits for knowledge sharing and standard setting;

• Assist FAO member countries and FAO colleagues in incorporating information and standards related to food composition into evidence-based policies, programmes and projects, with an aim to improve dietary intakes and agricultural diversity for better nutrition;

• Perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced university degree (for Consultants) / University degree (only for PSA) in nutrition, agriculture, food security, health, food science, public health, epidemiology or a closely related field preferably with post-graduate certificate/training in food composition.
• For a junior consultant, 1-5 years of relevant experience in food composition. For a mid-level consultant, 5-10 years of relevant experience is required. For senior consultant more than 10 years are required.
• Working knowledge of English, French or Spanish and limited knowledge of one of the other two or Arabic, Chinese, Russian. For PSA only one working language will be required.

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is desirable
• Extent and relevance of experience in work related to food composition
• Extent and relevance of experience in development and management of large databases, especially with Excel
• Extent and relevance of experience in formulating project proposals (including project design techniques and funding proposals) or guidelines, writing clear and concise progress reports and end of project reports, editing technical papers and reports for publication and making effective oral presentations
• Extent and relevance of experience in capacity development (as trainer or lecturer)
• Strong scientific background and peer-reviewed publications in dietary assessment are desirable
• Previous working experience in international organizations is an asset

• Extent and relevance of knowledge and experience in the development or management of FCT/FCDB, data tools, standards and/or guidelines for food composition.
• Extent and relevance of experience in capacity development for food composition, including planning and delivering capacity development training as well as development of relevant training materials.
• Extent and relevance of work experience with international organizations specialized in nutrition or closely related fields as mentioned above (desirable).
• Able to collaborate effectively with donors, international actors and research institutions on the planning and implementation of nutrition related projects and initiatives (desirable).
• Excellent in communication in both oral and written English.