Nutrition Consultant (Wasting Transition Plan Project Manager)

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

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ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the worlds largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse committed skilled and high performing teams selected on merit operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment living WFPs values (Integrity Collaboration Commitment Humanity and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

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WHY JOIN WFP

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

• WFP offers a highly inclusive diverse and multicultural working environment.

• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training accreditation coaching mentorship and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country regional and global offices around the world and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
In 2022 the world faced a historic food and nutrition crisis with the impacts have continued into 2024 and beyond. Continuing in 2024 an estimated 29 million children suffered from wasting in 15 of the worst-affected the same countries 156 million people were estimated to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity representing an 83 percent increase from 2019 (before the global pandemic). The number of people living in emergency and catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity also saw a significant increase reflecting the compounding effects of conflict climate shocks and economic pressures.
In these humanitarian contexts continued efforts for the early detection of children with wasting and their management remain critical; likewise essential are actions to reduce the incidence of children whose nutrition situation may deteriorate into wasting including through earlier sustained and bettercoordinated support for women and young children.
As a United Nations (UN) agency reaching an estimated 150 million nutritionally vulnerable and food-insecure people each year WFP plays a critical role in multi-stakeholder efforts to address malnutrition especially in the worlds most severe and complex humanitarian 2023 over 27 million children under the age of five and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls were reached through WFP supported nutrition-specific programmes aimed at preventing undernutrition and managing moderate wasting across 52 countries.
The 2023 WHO Guideline on the Prevention and Management of Wasting and Nutritional Oedema together with the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting (GAP) provide an opportunity to foster updated programmatic approaches to ensure that as many children as possible benefit from coordinated efforts to prevent and address response WFP with its partner UNICEF developed a joint strategic approach - referred to as the Joint Action to Stop Wasting (JASW) - to accelerate programmatic shifts in humanitarian and fragile contexts in line with the updated WHO Guideline. Under this approach WFP and UNICEF work together to provide a combined package of interventions to address child wasting. The joint approach emphasizes the importance of addressing maternal nutrition elevates attention to preventive actions as part of every program response and promotes increased convergence and coverage to reach those populations most vulnerable and hardest to reach.
This approach was originally planned to be implemented through a phased three-year transition plan (2024-2026) in 15 priority countries (Haiti Burkina Faso Chad Mali Niger Nigeria Ethiopia Kenya Somalia South Sudan Democratic Republic of Congo Madagascar Afghanistan Yemen) supporting governments and partners to incorporate evidence-based programmatic shifts in alignment with the WHO Guideline. Since the start of JASW in 2024 implementation has progressed at different paces across countries with a group of frontrunner countries advancing implementation with dedicated donor support while others have continued preparatory and contextualization work with some leveraging existing donor funds and others seeking resources to launch the approach.
Over the course of implementation the operating environment for JASW has continued to evolve. Changes in the funding landscape organizational restructures and broader UN reform initiatives have influenced the scope phasing and ways of working under JASW. As these changes continue to be implemented and consolidated UNICEF and WFP are reviewing experiences to date in order to inform next steps and support continued alignment across levels.
The overall purpose of this assignment is to steer the WFP contribution to the Joint Action to Stop Wasting towards its intended outcomes by proactively engaging stakeholders and supporting constructive collaboration during an evolving phase of implementation and consolidation. The consultant will work in the Nutrition Unit of WFPs Programme Division at headquarters in Rome and will report directly to the Maternal and Child Nutrition/Nutrition in Crisis Team Lead.
The consultant will work in close collaboration with a range of stakeholders including colleagues across the Nutrition Unit within PRGS WFP Programme Service Hubs select country offices and UNICEF counterparts at global level with a focus on strengthening alignment and ways of working across levels.
He/she will be required to travel periodically to support Programme Service Hubs or high priority countries engaged in the Joint Action to Stop Wasting as needed to support coordination implementation and learning.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
The consultant will coordinate and manage JASW to ensure that respective country offices are effectively supported and that progress is made across agreed areas of collaboration in line with evolving priorities and ways of working. This includes:

1. Stakeholder engagement and coordination
A) Internal Coordination: Establish clear coordination structure and streamline internal communication between the Global Headquarter and Country Office nutrition teams including:
Regularly bringing stakeholders together from the Global Headquarters (Rome and Programme Service Hubs) and Country Offices to exchange experiences share information and address implementation challenges.
Development adaptation and maintenance of clear terms of reference meeting agendas meeting minutes and follow up actions across coordination platforms.
Facilitating linkages with relevant technical units across WFP such as with food security cluster supply chain VAM WAS as required to ensure ownership buy-in for strategic advancement.
B) External coordination: Support coordination structure and external engagement between WFP UNICEF and other stakeholders as required including:
Lead and support co-facilitation of regular coordination meetings thematic discussions workshops and bilateral engagement with key stakeholders.
Support joint development of agendas presentations content creation documentation and follow-up actions to maximize diverse contributions across teams and levels for JASW.
Adaptation articulation and clarification of roles responsibilities and ways of working including development of TORs and SOPs where required.
2. Change management and coordinated project delivery

This position will strongly support change management across different levels of the organization in relation to evolving ways of working with UNICEF on the prevention and management of wasting and maternal undernutrition. It will require the development and implementation of a strategy to effect the agreed change and support adaptation. Further the consultant will be responsible for direct project coordination across the organization and with other stakeholders.
Develop/refine an annual global project management workplan that encompasses support across the countries involved in the global nutrition grant related to JASW initiation planning implementation monitoring and evaluation and resource mobilization and adaptation as required. The workplan will differentiate between phase of implementation and the outcomes outputs and activities across Global headquarters and Country levels. This workplan will be developed collaboratively with engagement across the Nutrition Unit as well as with other units within Global Headquarters and Country Offices.
Oversee implementation of the global project management workplan in a systematic and organized manner across regions and countries to facilitate consistency and coherence across the entire project.
Monitor and ensure timely course correction in collaboration with stakeholders related to challenges in progress against the workplan. Support periodic reviews with participation to allow reflections revision to workplans and exchange of best practices.
Identify appropriate project management tools that facilitate smooth and coherent implementation and coordination of the different work streams (technical support communication and advocacy Monitoring and evaluation research analytics etc.)
Follow document and visualize progress on JASW with strong focus on programmatic shifts and diversity of approaches on child wasting and maternal undernutrition at country level liaising with Programme Service Hubs and Country Offices as needed
Support the establishment of systems and processes to facilitate coherence and inputs to donor reports across Country Offices in collaboration with the Global Headquarters. Coordinate and lead the donor reporting at global level.
3. Strategic and technical support to Programme Service Hubs and Country Offices
In collaboration with Global Headquarter teams support countries programmatic shifts ensuring alignment with WFPs strategic direction for wasting and WHO Guidelines and specific to the phase each country is in i.e. frontrunner countries require more support on programme implementation support onboarding and contextualized programme preparation and design for other countries.
Provide strategic technical and coordination support to Programme Service Hubs and Country Offices to advance agreed programmatic shifts for wasting and maternal undernutrition with support tailored to country phase capacity and context.
Identify support needs additional guidance and tools that can facilitate implementation of the strategic and programmatic shifts for wasting and maternal undernutrition at country level and liaise with the Global HQ teams to develop or provide these.
Contribute to conceptualizing and drafting guidance and tools as required.
4. Supporting the evolution of JASW and rollout of next phase priorities
Support the evolution of WFPs engagement in the Joint Action to Stop Wasting (JASW) in light of organizational changes emerging priorities and the UN80 process for Nutrition.
Follow and support reflection on implementation experience to date including identification of priority focus areas and adjustments to inform the next iteration of the JASW approach (e.g. JASW 2.0).
Provide input to the definition and articulation of updated strategic directions roles and ways of working for WFPs engagement on child wasting and maternal nutrition in collaboration with UNICEF and relevant internal stakeholders.
Support the translation of updated priorities into practical approaches guidance and key messages and facilitate their development sharing rollout and contextualization with Programme Service Hubs and implicated country offices.
Deliver briefings and contribute inputs to internal and external summaries presentations or discussions with management partners and donors as required to support alignment and shared understanding of evolving directions.
Support coordination related to new and emerging grants linked to JASW including onboarding and integration of new global or complementary funding as it becomes available.
Cochair and support the Community of Practice on Local Food Solutions for the management of Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) as a countryfacing peerlearning platform focused on experience sharing and practical problem solving around alternative and local foodbased approaches ensuring strong linkages with the MAM SubWorking Group hosted under the Global Nutrition Cluster and coherence between global technical discussions and fieldlevel practice.
5. AOB

Support any other activities related to WFPs strategic objectives in nutrition and related workplans as required.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT
1. Coordination and communication mechanisms strengthened and maintained including updated terms of reference and standard operating procedures for internal and external coordination structures related to JASW validated with key stakeholders to clarify roles responsibilities and ways of working across levels
2. Global project management and coordination frameworks supported and maintained reflecting evolving priorities and phases of implementation with clear delineation of roles and actions across global regional and country levels and appropriate tools or platforms in place to support coherent delivery.
3. Inputs to the evolution of JASW and definition of next-phase priorities consolidated including synthesis of implementation experience to date key considerations emerging feeding into the UN80 process for Nutrition and support to articulation and rollout of updated strategic directions with Programme Service Hubs and relevant country offices.
4. Learning documentation and knowledge-sharing outputs supported including mechanisms and products to capture synthesize and share experiences lessons and emerging practices related to child wasting and maternal nutrition linking global discussions with country-level implementation.
5. Country offices supported with guidance and tools to advance agreed programmatic shifts including through coordinated engagement with programme support hubs targeted technical exchanges and select country or regional support missions as required.
6. Donor-related deliverables ensured including coordination of inputs to donor reports briefs and funding proposals related to JASW and associated initiatives and support to onboarding and integration of new or complementary grants as applicable.

Deliverables will be achieved in close collaboration with relevant internal and external stakeholders.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Education:
Masters degree in nutrition Public Health Food Security Food systems or other related fields or first university degree with additional years of relevant professional work experience
Experience:
-A minimum of 8 to 10 years work experience in international nutrition programming with at least five (5) years related to fragile and humanitarian contexts.
-Solid experience with programs to prevent and manage wasting across multiple-sectors and with multiple stakeholders.
-Experience managing BHA funded projects is an advantage.
-Experience of working with UN agencies or key international NGO in humanitarian settings; work experience with WFP is highly desirable -Experience with change management processes is desirable
Knowledge & Skills:
-Solid knowledge of the global nutrition and food security (humanitarian) architecture
-Strong project management skills including critical and strategic thinking and change management
-Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work in multicultural settings
-Excellent team leadership and teamwork skills
-Excellent written and oral communication skills
Languages:
Fluency in English. Working knowledge of French desirable.

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