Maternal Nutrition and Child Wasting policy and program expert
Maternal Nutrition and Child Wasting policy and program expert
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Job Description
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
28 August 2025-23:59-GMT01:00 Central European Time (Rome)WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race colour national origin ethnic or social background genetic information gender gender identity and/or expression sexual orientation religion or belief HIV status or disability.
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).
JOB TITLE:
Maternal Nutrition and Child Wasting policy and program expert
TYPE OF CONTRACT:
Regular Consultant
UNIT/DIVISION:
Nutrition & Food Quality Service/ Programme Policy & Guidance Division
DUTY STATION (City Country):
HQ Rome Italy (working remotely)
DURATION:
2 months (16 October to 31 December 2025)
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 2021 alone 22.3 million children under the age of 5 (CU5) and pregnant and lactating women and girls (PLW/G) were assisted through WFP-supported nutrition-specific programmes that aim to prevent undernutrition and treat moderate wasting across 51 countries.
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. The world is currently off-track to meet the global target of having less than 5% of CU5 suffering from wasting by 2025 and less than 3% by 2030. At least 149 million CU5 are estimated to suffer from stunting170 million women are underweight and many more children and women have some form of micronutrient deficiency.
Women are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition due to their increased nutrient requirements for pregnancy childbirth and breastfeeding yet are often not prioritized in policy and programming. Pregnant women require a diet with appropriate energy protein vitamins and minerals to meet their own needs for health and wellbeing as well as for the growth and development of the foetus. Requirements are even higher during the first six months of breastfeeding. Poor nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding is known to have adverse short and long-term effects on the mother and the child including increased risk of mortality poor growth and development of the infant and longer-term health consequences. Maternal nutrition is an investment in both the mother and the child and will support ending the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition its negative effects.
Although wasting treatment coverage has steadily increased since 2010 reaching nearly 14 million children in 2021 the proportion of wasted children with access remains low at <25% globally. Challenges remain with nutrition programme delivery and continuum of care including fragmented approaches to service provision capacity constraints unpredictable financing commodity shortfalls and supply chain many fragile and conflict-affected settings where WFP operates the health food and social protection systems that are vital to prevent wasting are often dysfunctional have collapsed or are non-existent leaving many nutritionally vulnerable children and women beyond the reach of basic health services adequate age appropriate nutritious diets and social care. Women and girls nutrition is sometimes forgotten when discussions place focus on child wasting services.
Effective prevention early detection and treatment for wasting are much needed investments to save lives and support healthy growth and the current challenging context of increasing needs and fundings constraints the global nutrition community including WFP are working to scale-up wasting services and strengthen national systems and capacities. The WHO guideline for the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema (2023) offers an opportunity to advance efforts to achieve SDG2 and have an impact on child and maternal nutrition through diversified approaches to prevention and supplement acute malnutrition.
The aim of this consultancy is to develop normative agency specific and global guidance and gather learning from ongoing programmes guide and support the development piloting and roll-out of different tools to improve programme design and implementation including the application of the new tools in WFP countries to undertake refinements as appropriate.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Develop normative global and agency guidance on maternal nutrition and diets and on child wasting accompanying dissemination plan and tools and technical assistance to regional and country offices.
Lead technical input to the WHO operational guidance on complementary feeding). This will entail engagement with global stakeholder group of experts and consultation with country and regional offices.
Lead development of WFP normative guidance on wasting and maternal nutrition including complementary feeding as part of prevention approach.
Conduct policy and programme review and analysis of maternal nutrition programming in select regions/countries to inform global approach.
Conduct support missions to country office/regional bureau on adoption and implementation of maternal nutrition guidance and the complementary feeding guidance.
Support the dissemination of normative guidance and tools.
Develop and implement dissemination plan for the WFP normative guidance on wasting and maternal nutrition to WFP regional and Country Offices ensuring its use and applicability is understood and documented and that necessary capacity strengthening of WFP staff on wasting and maternal nutrition programming is provided in compliment.
Develop an implementation plan for BEP tool that includes key activities milestones timeframes and roles/responsibilities across CO/RB/HQ and across teams
testing the new tool kit in two countries and
the maternal nutrition targeting and delivery tool in selected countries.
Collaborate across the Service on broader efforts to improve approaches on maternal nutrition including targeting evaluation research and assessment of programme coverage and SBC. Act as technical focal point for support teams within the Nutrition and Food Quality Service including strategic partnerships advocacy communications and resource mobilization. Any other support that is required to the Service
DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:
Normative guidance on wasting and maternal nutrition drafted and finalized Policy and programme analysis of maternal nutrition conducted in 5 countries Implementation plan for testing the new tools in selected countries including timeframe milestones and roles/responsibilities
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Advanced University degree in Nutrition Public Health International Development Social Science or other field relevant to international development assistance
Experience:
7 or more years of relevant international experience. The candidate should be able to demonstrate strong competence in the following areas:
- Good understanding of the global nutrition agenda especially on wasting
- Has experience in maternal and child nutrition programming and project management in a range of contexts/countries and working across actors and sectors
- Excellent analytical skills and ability to link data analysis to programme
- design in the context of WFP programmes.
- Has experience working in an international environment across a diverse range of geographical and functional areas
Knowledge & Skills:
- Demonstrated knowledge of maternal and child nutrition in the context of humanitarian and development operations
- Demonstrate the ability to engage key stakeholders (e.g. WFP units and external partners) in policy dialogue to strengthen maternal and child nutrition programming.
- Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavour through demonstrated technical leadership.
- Strong communication and conceptual skills.
Languages:
English (second UN language desirable)
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Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation please contact:
NO FEE DISCLAIMER
The United Nations does not charge any application processing training interviewing testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee please disregard it. Furthermore please note that emblems logos names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.
REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate complete and includes your employment records academic qualifications language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
Once your profile is completed please apply and submit your application.
Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
Additional documents such as passport recommendation letters academic certificates etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
Please contact us at in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
Only shortlisted candidates will be notified
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.
Employment Type
Full-Time
