Nutrition Specialist

BACKGROUND and PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

As a United Nations (UN) agency reaching more than 115 million nutritionally vulnerable and food- insecure people each year WFP plays a critical role in multi-stakeholder efforts to address malnutrition. In 2021 WFP reached 14.9 million children under the age of 5 and 7.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women through programmes to prevent malnutrition and manage moderate wasting.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030 including wasting stunting overweight and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Childhood malnutrition is a major global development challenge contributing to increased mortality morbidity impaired intellectual development increased risk of disease in adulthood and suboptimal adult work and earning capacity. Globally 45.4 million children under 5 (6.7% globally) were acutely malnourished in 2021 an estimated 60 million children were acutely malnourished by the end of 2022 with the worsening situation not expected to abate particularly in fragile settings due to upward trends in the drivers of humanitarian crises such as the rising cost of food and escalating conflict with increasing numbers of people forced to flee. Acute malnutrition puts children at an elevated risk of mortality increasing their risk of death up to 12 times compared to healthy children. A substantial increase in effort is required to tackle the issue.

In July 2019 the Heads of UN agencies issued a joint statement calling for a greater action on prevention and management of child wasting. UN agencies including WFP subsequently supported 23 frontrunner countries develop Global Action Plan on child wasting operational roadmaps. WHO is currently leading the process to update global guidelines to prevent and manage child wasting with aim that these be released in May and August 2023 respectively. There is need to support WFP Global HQ and Country Offices understand the WHO wasting guideline recommendations that are relevant to WFP and any shifts required in programming. WFP is an active member of the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance (GNC TA) Wasting Global Thematic Working Group (GTWG) and sub-groups as well as maternal nutrition taskforce. WFP is well positioned to leverage the increased global momentum to address maternal and child undernutrition and is working to strengthen community-based programmes that put prevention first to reduce the number of those affected as well as support innovative approaches to manage moderate wasting that aim to ensure continuum of care in hard- to-reach fragile settings.

This assignment will support WFP Nutrition and Food Quality Service by providing technical support to WFPs nutrition specific programming that aims to address wasting. The consultant will work in WFP Child Wasting and Maternal Nutrition team Programme and Policy Support Unit under supervision of the Team Lead to:

provide technical support to WFP Global HQ and Country Offices with nutrition specific programming implemented as part of WFP operations.

support updates to programming guidance/ briefs on the prevention and management of acute malnutrition in alignment with the new WHO wasting guidelines and work with Regional Nutrition Advisors and Country Office Nutrition Officers to ensure communication/ dissemination and roll-out

support WFP representation in global forums related to malnutrition prevention and treatment.

The consultant will be Rome-based and will be required to travel to high priority WFP countries and regional bureaus as necessary (estimated 20% travel time) to support strengthening of WFP nutrition operations to address maternal and child undernutrition. The consultant will leverage lessons learned as well as experience and expertise to improve nutrition programming.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1 - Provide technical support to WFP Global Headquarters (HQ) and Country Offices (CO) on nutrition specific programming implemented as part of WFP operations

provide timely technical input in response to Global HQ and CO requests on the review or development of guidance protocols training materials reports Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and other documents or tools related to addressing acute malnutrition

build the capacity of Global HQ and CO staff to enhance quality standards for malnutrition prevention and treatment programming

support the Pathway 1 cross-divisional working groups (CDWG) and support linkages with other Pathway CDWG

contribute to WFP nutrition research agenda and participate in any inter-unit research coordination meetings

support WFP PPGN Digital Innovations Team in the development and roll out of digital tools on technical aspects related to acute malnutrition prevention and treatment

conduct field visits to improve quality of WFP nutrition programmes and to offer support for troubleshooting to assure programme enhancements as required

2 Support updates to programming briefs/ guidance on addressing acute malnutrition in alignment with the new WHO wasting guidelines and work with Regional Nutrition Advisors and Country Office Nutrition Officers on its communication/ dissemination and roll-out

support updates to WFP nutrition-specific programming briefs/ guidance and tools with focus on preventing and managing acute malnutrition

Support the development materials to facilitate communication and roll-out to Global HQ and CO (including webinars)

3- Support WFP representation in global forums related to malnutrition prevention and treatment including the GNC TA Wasting GTWG sub-groups community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) surge Womens nutrition in humanitarian contexts Task force SQ LNS operational guidance working group and the simplified approaches working group

4- Support the Programme and Policy Support Unit workplan as well as the Pathway 1 implementation plan and other activities as requested by the Child Wasting and Maternal Nutrition Team Lead

5-AOB Support any other work as required and in line with the team priorities

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

1. Timely inputs provided to Global HQ/ CO requests for support on nutrition-specific programming

2. Provided support to the Pathway 1 cross-divisional working group to ensure priority activities advance in alignment with PPGN Strategic objectives

3. Relevant briefs/ guidance and tools for supporting nutrition-specific programming revised / adapted/ developed and disseminated

4. Technical workshops trainings or similar on acute malnutrition prevention and management for WFP staff and partners conducted

5. WFPs strategic and technical inputs are included in guidance documents developed by the external working groups actively participated in (GNC TA Wasting GTWG sub-groups community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) surge Womens nutrition in humanitarian contexts Task force SQ LNS operational guidance working group and the simplified approaches working group)

All the activities will be carried out in coordination and close collaboration with other internal Teams and Units and with consideration of the needs and priorities of the Nutrition and Food Quality Service Global HQ and country offices. The above responsibilities will be captured into an individual workplan and will be used for the Performance and Capability Enhancement (PACE) of the consultant.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Masters in public health nutrition or related field

Experience:

Five (5) - seven (7) years of work experience in international nutrition programming with at least three (3) years in humanitarian contexts with focus on prevention of undernutrition and treatment of wasting particularly the community-based management of acute malnutrition and any simplified approaches

Experience of developing nutrition programming guidance and tools

Experience and understanding of latest developments in malnutrition prevention and wasting treatment research

Experience of working with other UN agencies or key international NGO in humanitarian settings

Experience of training and other learning approaches would be an asset

Knowledge & Skills:

Knowledge on project cycle management and nutrition Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)

Knowledge of challenges in implementing nutrition programmes

Good interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work in multicultural settings

Excellent written and oral communication skills required

Languages:

Fluency in English. Working knowledge of another UN language (Ideally French or Portuguese desirable.

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