Consultant - Nutrition , Regional Bureau for Western Africa

🚩 Vacancy Announcement n°: 171570

📢 Job Title: Consultant – Nutrition

📌Type of Contract: Consultant Short Term / International Consultancy

➡️ Unit / Division: Nutrition, Regional Bureau for Western Africa

📍   Duty Station: Dakar, Senegal (Regional Bureau for Western Africa)

⏰ Application Deadline: Wednesday 31 August 2022, midnight (Dakar Time)

 ➡️ Duration: 08 months – October 2022 to May 2023

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

In 2015, the world committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the elimination of malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. To do so, the SDGs incorporated the World Health Assembly targets to reduce the proportion of children suffering from wasting1 to <5% by 2025 and <3% by 20302. Yet, since these targets were adopted, the proportion of wasted children has remained largely unchanged. Today, an estimated 45 million children under five suffer from wasting, with one-quarter living in Africa.

In West and Central Africa, several factors threaten the food security and nutritional status of the population, especially of women and children under five. These include household food insecurity, conflicts and armed violence, population displacement, impact of climate change, high levels of childhood illnesses and water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea, fragile health systems, poor access to clean water and sanitation, and chronic poverty.

In this region, a combination of humanitarian, development and peacebuilding interventions are being implemented and complement each other. This nexus of short-term (emergency response) and medium-to-long-term programming (development approach) is essential to ensure the appropriate balance between emergency response to acute shocks and strengthening of systems so the resilience of nations, systems, communities and populations to new future shocks is improved.

The nutrition unit within the Regional Bureau in Dakar (RBD) is engaged in the provision of strategic and technical assistance for the implementation of large nutrition interventions in response to national and regional nutrition crises and the development of national nutrition capacities in 17 countries in the region. The unit is divided into three pillars: Nutrition operations, Nutrition Value chain, and Nutrition data analysis.

The Consultant will lead the Nutrition operations pillar, whose main objective is to increase coverage and efficiency of nutrition and HIV programmes, especially prevention and treatment of wasting through nutrition-specific and sensitive programming, and support nutrition and HIV integration.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the supervision of the Senior Regional Nutrition Advisor and in close coordination with other nutrition pillar leads, the Consultant’s main responsibilities will include:

1.         Ensure the coordination and management of the Nutrition operations pillar, providing guidance and coaching as required to ensure appropriate career development and enable high performance.

2.         Translate WFP policies into nutrition strategies, programme guidance, implementation modalities and operations.

3.         Ensure that WFP nutrition programmes in the region are consistent with WFP policies, EB decisions and other relevant guidance

4.         Provide technical and strategic advice to COs on WFP nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes and policy issues including assessment and analysis, the choice of objectives, activities, transfer modalities and commodity choice for nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming in line with WFP standards and processes.

5.         Work with senior management, procurement, logistics, finance, other programme units and other divisions at the regional and HQ level to ensure effective advocacy, design and delivery of WFP nutrition programming.

6.         Reinforce collaboration with RBD Resilience, School-based programme, Social protection, CBT, Emergency Preparedness and response teams and HQ Nutrition Integration and Nutrition Operations teams to ensure adequate nutrition integration and response in the region, including through the implementation of joint roadmaps and the development of joint regional guidance documents

7.         Coordinate regional efforts to improve the supply chain of specialized nutritious foods (SNF) in collaboration with COs and RBD supply chain and Budget & Programming units

8.         Reinforce and advise on strategic and operational partnerships throughout the region, including inter-agency collaboration, to ensure an integrated approach to addressing under-nutrition and HIV in line with WFP strategies and policies, scientific evidence, and global initiatives in both emergency and non-emergency settings.

9.         In collaboration with UNICEF regional nutrition team, provide technical support to country offices in the region to implement and monitor the enhanced partnership between UNICEF and WFP, with a focus on Mali, Chad and Niger.

10.       Actively participate in external nutrition and HIV coordination meetings and ensure co-lead of regional Nutrition in emergencies sub-group and regional maternal nutrition sub-group

11.       Represent WFP at regional and international meetings to contribute to technical discussions, exchange experiences, advocate for nutrition interventions and identify areas of potential collaboration.

12.       Build the capacity of WFP staff, partners and national governments to prepare for and respond to nutrition problems.

13.       Support the monitoring and evaluation of WFP nutrition and HIV activities, and provide technical analysis and interpretation.

14.       Document nutrition programmes implementation and performance and identify areas of improvement to ensure effective design and delivery of WFP nutrition and HIV programming

15.       Take responsibility for an equitable and inclusive workplace which incorporates all dimensions of the WFP diversity and inclusion framework.

16.       Contribute to emergency preparedness actions, providing technical recommendations on contingency planning, risk analysis and early warning related to nutrition risks.

17.       Other as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:       

-           Advanced University degree in Public Health Nutrition, Nutrition, Food Technology, Medicine or other relevant fields

Experience:     

-           Minimum of 8 years of work experience in international nutrition with a minimum of 5 years working in humanitarian contexts.

-           Must have operational experience supporting/managing/integrating nutrition-specific and sensitive approaches/programmes, strategic planning, and nutrition emergency responses in different contexts, including familiarity with integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) and prevention programming.

-           Must have experience building strategic partnerships with multiple governments to raise awareness on nutrition-related issues and presenting nutrition findings/global evidence to governments to build country-specific nutrition plans/programmes

-           Must have experience working in the UN preferably with WFP and in Africa (Sahel...)

Knowledge & Skills:   

-           Demonstrated ability to strategically engage with Government and partners. 

-           Ability to work independently and meet deadlines with minimal supervision

-           Strong understanding of WFP operations and Country Strategic Planning (CSP) is desirable.

-           Good communication, writing and facilitation skills

-           Flexibility and adaptability

-           Analytical and problem-solving skills

-           Interpersonal and cross-cultural sensitivity

-           Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines

-           Able to work in a sometimes fluid and insecure environment

-           Good computer skills

Languages:  Fluency in English and French is required (Level C - reading, writing, speaking)

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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.