Consultancy -Maternal, Infant, Young Child and Adolescent Nutrition (MIYCAN) Consultant to finalize the MIYCAN and Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) guidelines, action plan and training manuals for International & National professionals for 3mths

UNICEF Uganda is looking for a consultant to support the Nutrition Division at the MoH to finalize the Maternal, Infant, Young Child and Adolescent Nutrition (MIYCAN) guidelines, action plan and associated facility and community training manuals, and the BFHI implementation guide and its associated training package.

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, a fair chance

Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path. Together with the Government of Uganda and partners we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of the Uganda National Development Plan, and the planned outcomes of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

Visit this link for more information on Uganda Country Office https://www.unicef.org/uganda/

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the UNICEF Nutrition Specialist (nutrition-specific) with overal oversight of the Nutrition Manager, the consultant will support the Nutrition Division at the MoH to finalize the MIYCAN guidelines, action plan and associated facility and community training manuals, and the BFHI implementation guide and its associated training package.

1. MIYCAN guidelines and action plan:

• Review the current draft of the MIYCAN guidelines and action plan; identify gaps in the draft versions in relation to global recommendations and frameworks; and develop a plan of action to address the gaps with systems approach through the health sector.
• Revise/update the draft MIYCAN guidelines and action plan.
• Support the MoH to organize a validation meeting where the content will be validated by all relevant stakeholders
• Consolidate and finalize the guidelines and action plan incorporating comments from all relevant stakeholders
• Prepare presentations to be shared during the Nutrition technical working group meetings, validation meetings and senior management team meetings.

2. MIYCAN training manuals (Facility and Community training manuals)

• Review the current draft MIYCAN training manuals (both participant manual and facilitator’s guides) in line with the MIYCAN guidelines, UNICEF IYCF training package and previous IYCF training curriculum for consistency, clarity and quality; identify gaps and develop plan of action to address the gaps
• Revise/update the draft MIYCAN Facility training package (both participant manual and facilitator’s guides)
• Revise/update the draft MIYCAN Community training package (both participant manual and facilitator’s guides

3. BFHI implementation guide and training package

• Review and finalize the current draft of the BFHI implementation guide and training package (facilitator and participants manuals) in line with the revised 2018 WHO/UNICEF guidance.
• Prepare presentations to be shared during the Nutrition technical working group meetings, validation meetings and senior management team meetings.

Background

While Uganda has made great strides in reducing poverty, the rates of malnutrition in children and women are still high, compromising their health and survival. Stunting (or low height-for-age) among children under-5 years decreased from 33% in 2011 to 29% in 2016. However, more than 2 million children in Uganda remain stunted. Approximately 4% of children are wasted and 1% suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). Regional variations have been noted in malnutrition trends, with Karamoja (35.2%), West Nile (33.9%), Acholi (30.6%) and Lango (22.3%) regions showing the highest prevalence rates for stunting. Rates of anaemia are especially alarming, affecting half of children under 5 (53%) and 1 of 3 women (32%). Child overweight was low (3.7%), but adult obesity is emerging as a public health problem in some areas of the country. Uganda is now experiencing the double burden of under- and over-nutrition.

Increasing trends in early initiation of breastfeeding (66 per cent) could be attributed to increase in health facility-based delivery. Nearly two-thirds of children (66 per cent) are exclusively breastfed. However, not all those children are breastfed until 6 months of age, and fewer children are breastfed until they are two years of age. Complementary feeding practices are less than optimal. Nearly 3 out of 4 children do not receive the minimum number of food groups (UDHS 2016), and in most regions, a majority of children do not receive nutrient-rich, animal-source foods. Only 15 per cent of children received a minimum acceptable diet of adequate diversity and meal frequency, placing infants and young children at risk for undernutrition, including stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies.

Addressing malnutrition requires that nutritional needs are met from conception through the entire life-course. Adequate nutrition during (and before) pregnancy and during the first two years of life is critical for prevention of undernutrition among children and also to prevent future obesity and associated chronic conditions such as diabetes and diet related non-communicable diseases. Addressing nutrition through the life-course requires a more holistic and integrated health and nutrition service delivery at all levels of the health care system.

Uganda is currently developing a Maternal, Infant, Young Child, and Adolescent Nutrition (MIYCAN) strategy, recognizing the critical role played by optimal nutrition in the health and well-being of women, mothers, adolescents and children. As an important pre-requisite for successful implementation, the Ministry of Health has developed the following: (1) draft MIYCAN Guidelines and action plan to provide the framework for standardisation of the prioritized interventions, (2) two draft training manuals for MIYCAN; one of them targeting the health facility-based service providers and another one focusing on the community-based resource persons, and (3) revised BFHI implementation guide for health workers and draft training package. The packages will be particularly important for capacity building and empowerment of the key players who are responsible for the delivery of MIYCAN related services.

While significant inputs have been already provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and relevant stakeholders that provided technical support, there is a need to consolidate all the inputs, ensure standardization of the content throughout the documents, provide quality assurance and finalize the documents.

UNICEF, in collaboration with the MoH, will recruit a consultant to support the consolidation, quality assurance and finalization of the MIYCAN and BFHI guidelines and action plan and the associated training manuals.

Key Tasks: 

• Inception Report with gap analysis of MIYCAN and BFHI related documents (guideline, implementation guide, action plan and training packages); proposed actions for finalization of guidelines and training manuals (facility and community)
• Revised draft of MIYCAN guidelines and action plan
• Revised Draft of MIYCAN training Manuals (Facilitator Guide; Participants Manual) for Health Facility
• Revised Draft MIYCAN training Manuals (Facilitator Guide; Participants Manua) for Community Resource persons
• Revised Draft of BFHI implementation guide and training package (facilitator and participant manual)
• Report from validation workshop
• Finalised MIYCAN guidelines and action plan (following input from N-TWG and validation meeting)
• Finalised training packages (following input from pre-test exercise)

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

• Bachelor’s Degree 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.. An advanced degree in any of the fields above is an added advantage.
• At least eight years or more of professional experience in clinical services, nutrition, public health, related research or planning and management in relevant areas of maternal, infant and child nutrition, at national or international levels;
• Experience in developing guidelines for maternal, infant, young child and adolescent nutrition at country level;
• Documented experience in drafting and/or revising draft MIYCAN guidelines, action plan and MIYCAN training package;
• Experience in conducting training of health professionals in MIYCAN
• Excellent written and spoken English is required;
• Significant national/international experience in developing contexts. Local knowledge and expertise within Uganda is an asset.

• Proven ability to strengthen capacity of national and sub-national counterparts and partners;
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills, communications and interpersonal skills; ability to influence and inter-act with senior-level decision-makers across different organisations/departments; capacity to act with credibility, tact and diplomacy on sensitive issues and topics;
• Proven skills in strong analytical and problem solving skills;

• Excellent written and oral communication skills;
• Teamwork and strong interpersonal and intercultural skills

 Application Procedure/Call for Proposals

Interested candidates are required to submit a technical proposal on how they intend to approach the work. The proposal should include a timeline, and methodology, based on the Terms of Reference. The proposal must also include detailed CV of the consultant, as well as a financial proposal, clearly indicating daily rate for professional fees. The financial proposal must be all-inclusive of all costs (consultancy fees and where applicable air fares, airport transfers, daily living expenses).  This is an international level consultancy and competitive market rates should apply.

Evaluation of Candidate:

The consultant will be competitively selected from a list of applicants based on their past experience of doing similar work (extensive experience in writing donor reports, in compiling and editing annual reports for various UNICEF offices).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The competencies required for this post are….

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

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