International Nutrition Specialist

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

FAO supports countries to adopt a food-based approach to improve maternal and child diets and to prevent all forms of malnutrition for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. FAO in partnership with other UN agencies and INGOs in Myanmar offers technical support to ensure coherence of dietary guidelines developed for people of different age groups. In 2021, an evidence review report of the Food-based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) for pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and children aged 2-5 year (FAO and UNICEF, 2022, in press) indicated that Myanmar people nowadays focus more on food safety than nutritional quality of diets. Hence, attention to nutritional quality of diets need to be strengthened in the population in order to reduce the high prevalence of malnutrition in Myanmar.
According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview of OCHA 2022, 46% of 54 million Myanmar people are under the national poverty line, of which 14.4 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, 13.2 million are food insecure, and 2 million are in need of nutrition support. The high poverty rate is inevitably associated with increased food insecurity and malnutrition. 54% of households were unable to afford a recommended healthy diet before the political crisis in early 2021. In 2022, more than half of children are expected to live in poverty. Approximately, 290,000 children aged below 5 years are predicted to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, of which 49,000 children (17 %) will suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) which is the most severe form of malnutrition with a high death toll. And that over 0.7 million PLW are at risk of micronutrient deficiency.
In 2022-23, under a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) titled ‘Technical assistance in development of strategic tools for planning agriculture diversification and dietary improvement’, FAOMM is committed to rolling out the FBDGs to guide people on healthy diets, and to inform decision makers and the agri-food system sector on the production and supply of adequate and quality nutrient dense foods to meet the consumer demand for healthy diets under the humanitarian context in Myanmar. The TCP would also monitor and evaluate the uptake and implementation of FBDGs at national and sub-national levels.

Reporting Lines

Under the general supervision of the FAO Representative in Myanmar, the overall supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) in Myanmar and direct technical supervision of the Senior Nutrition & Food systems Officer (the Lead Technical Officer) of FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the FAOMM FIRST Food Security and Nutrition Policy Specialist, Senior Agronomist, in close collaboration with the UN Nutrition Secretariat of the FBDG Technical Task Force, and in consultation with the Nutrition Officer of FAO’s Food and Nutrition Division (ESN, HQ),

Technical Focus

The incumbent will lead the preparation of the FBDGs rollout plan, finalize a roadmap, implementation and communication plans, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), ToT training module development and conducting FBDG awareness raising and training sessions, baseline and end-line data collection, liaison and providing technical support to the FAO field offices (FOs), as well as day-to-day matters in supporting the Interim Technical Task Force (ITTF) and implementing partners to implement the FBDGs.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The incumbent will be responsible for the following tasks to support the rollout of the newly published FBDGs and to finalize three
additional sets of FBDGs:

• Coordinate and manage project implementation, advocacy and adaptation of the FBDGs related IEC materials’ in different states, capacity development and monitoring and evaluation, to ensure timely implementation and delivery of high quality results and activities, including timely distribution of FBDGs-related IEC materials and IEC materials printing to the project partners.

• In collaboration with the Lead Technical Officer to co-supervise the project National Nutrition Consultant.

• Revise and finalize the FBDG implementation plan (i.e. framework, roadmap, strategies, and the FBDG Implementation user manual), and identify and prioritize key partners and ongoing programmes to roll out the FBDGs, working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Revise and finalize the FBDG communication plan (i.e. framework, roadmap, strategies, social behaviour change communication approaches (SBCC), and the SBCC user manual, etc.), and identify and prioritize key partners and ongoing programmes to promote healthy eating behaviours among PLW and children aged 2-5-year old in Myanmar, working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Support needs assessments, advocacy and implementation of the FBDGs for the target population groups, partners and stakeholders (e.g. communities, CSOs, private sector, village health centers, child care centers and schools, etc.) in the country, working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Adapt existing national FBDGs’ Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials for use in various states and/or agro-ecological zones of Myanmar, working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant, by collating information on local food composition data, commonly consumed local foods, local food culture and habits, etc. to fine-tune context specific FBDGs’ IEC materials for different population/ethnic groups.

• Develop an FBDG training tool kit for the Training of Trainers (ToT) and conduct ToT training to develop capacity of partners to become effective educators and promoters of the FBDGs - these are teachers, dietitians, nutritionists, health promotion specialists, extension workers and community workers, etc., working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Coordinate multi-stakeholder workshops to share the action plans for advocacy, implementation and dissemination, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the FBDGs and its IEC materials at national and regional level, working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Coordinate the M&E plan and activities of the project, including baseline and end-line data collection, analysis and report writing on quantitative dietary intake, e.g. repeated 24-hr recalls; Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) and Minimum Adequate Diet (MAD) for PLW and children respectively in selected samples of women and children in the pilot implementation sites, etc., working closely with the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Develop materials for visibility and advocacy for the FBDGs by targeting and prioritizing audiences, e.g. health care professionals, school heads, key media, leaders from CSOs and private sectors, key opinion leaders and community leaders, etc.) in collaboration with the UNN-hired National Nutrition Consultants.

• Provide advice and technical support to the development on three sets of FBDGs (school children, adolescents and adults) concomitantly developed by the ITTF and their International and National Consultants when necessary.

• Participate in FBDG Task Force meetings and conduct national and regional workshops to collect and share information of project progress.

• Coordinate the analysis of the results of the project implementation and M&E, prepare scientific publication(s), technical reports and final report of the project, working closely with the the National Nutrition Consultant.

• Support nutrition-related tasks, including participation in nutrition meetings in Myanmar, as directed by the FAOR (Programme) and the Lead Technical Office when required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• An advanced University Degree in Nutrition, Dietetics, Public Health nutrition, or a closely related field.
• Minimum 5 years relevant experience in nutrition, public health, or related field.
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, or Russian) for COF. For PSA, working knowledge of English.

FAO Core Competencies

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

Technical/Functional Skills

• Conversant with and knowledgeable of food and nutrition security situation in Myanmar
• Training and demonstrated experience in public health and/or community nutrition research, project planning and implementation, and familiarity with the link between agriculture, food and nutrition.
• Experience in writing technical reports for the government, international developmental agency, or international NGO. Experience in engaging in multi-sectoral nutrition platforms such as Scaling up Nutrition Movement
• Experience in using effective Behaviour Change Communication skills to communicate and promote dietary behavior change to different age groups of people
• Demonstrated experience in designing and conducting capacity development programmes to different professional groups, such as agriculturists, health care workers, teachers, community workers, students, CSOs, etc.
• Demonstrated experience in delivering health, food and nutrition programmes to local communities, women of reproductive age and young children in particular.
• Experience in working with a UN agency or international NGO is desirable.
• Minimum of 2 years relevant experience working in low or medium-income country(s) – preferably in Southeast Asia

Selection Criteria

• Extent of knowledge and experience with the development and implementation of Food-based Dietary guidelines elsewhere
• Evidence in publishing scientific papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals relevant to the subject matter of the project is highly desirable.
• A Ph.D. in a relevant field is desirable
• Demonstrated experience working on agriculture-nutrition linkages
• Experience in engaging with diverse nutrition stakeholders.
• Experience in writing and publishing technical reports for the government, international developmental agency, or international NGO.
• Excellent communication in both oral and written English.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency