Food Value Chains for Fortified Foods Expert

WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Job Title: Food Value Chains for Fortified Foods Expert

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant

Division: Nutrition Division

Duty Station (City, Country): HQ, Rome Italy

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The Nutrition Division leads WFP’s efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal target 2.2: ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030. This is an ambitious goal as malnutrition remains a universal and enormous global challenge, with significant health and economic consequences to individuals, communities and entire countries. WFP is therefore advancing its efforts to prevent and treat malnutrition with a focus on improving access to a healthy diet, including fortified and other nutritious foods.

WFP is among the world’s largest procurers and distributors of fortified foods, distributing roughly 1.5 million metric tonnes per year of fortified staples, with plans to increase further. In December 2021, at the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, WFP committed to increasing the proportion of fortified wheat flour, maize meal, and rice that it distributes from 60% in 2020 to 80% by 2025. In addition to its role as a buyer of fortified foods, WFP also supports the scale up of fortification through advocacy and provision of technical assistance to governments, relying on its strong understanding of global supply chains, regulatory frameworks, driving institutional and consumer demand, and social protection programmes (both social assistance and school meals), amongst other core capabilities.

With a long history in supporting the use and scale up of traditionally fortified staples (wheat flour, maize meal, oil, salt), WFP has also led the way in supporting the global scale up of fortified rice. By focusing on high rice-consuming countries, WFP has been able to offer strategic support in more than 20 countries, helping to launch innovative technologies and methods to fortify both domestic and imported rice, thus improving both the value and supply chains in those countries and globally.

In September 2022, WFP will start a 2.5 year partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation that aims to leverage institutional demand for food systems transformation towards healthier diets, better planetary health and greater equity. The partnership will be led by School Based Programming (SBP), with support from the Nutrition Division, and focus on improving the nutritional value of school meals as well as further developing and strengthening the local supply chains for the same, starting with four new countries and supporting the ongoing RF/WFP engagement in three countries in RBN, aiming to learn lessons and ultimately formulate guidance for the School Meals Coalition that was created post the Food Systems Summit.

The Nutrition Division will focus on assessing the feasibility of developing a Good Food Scoring Framework (GFSF) for LMICs; representing WFP in the Fortified Whole Grain Alliance (FWGA) that is being created by RF, DSM, RBN; providing support to food technologists at RB and CO level where there will be a strong emphasis on increasing capacity to produce fortified whole grain flours; development of metrics for developing, monitoring and evaluating the inclusion of nutrition in school based nutrition; and development of social behavior change (SBC) strategies.

The Nutrition Division is seeking a consultant for the Analytics & Science for Food & Nutrition unit to lead on three of the workstreams of the RF/WFP partnership (GFSF feasibility assessment, FWGA representation, food technological back stopping) and to contribute to further strengthening and growing of WFP’s expertise in food value chains, in particular for fortified foods, including staple foods as well as foods for specific target groups.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of this assignment, it will be necessary to work across WFP divisions (supply chain, programme, etc.) and Regional Bureaux and will require close collaboration with external fortification partners, in particular the Rockefeller Foundation as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Royal DSM, Kemin, GAIN, FFI, NI, Harvest Plus, and other, to ensure WFP’s goals are achieved.

The role includes regular travel (up to 20% of time, including some weekend travel) in varied contexts, including fragile and emergency settings. Remote working with substantial overlap of working hours with Rome is possible. Given good chances of renewal, an intent to work with the team for 2-3 years is requested.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Provide technical support to development and implementation of WFP’s strategy to increase proportion of fortifiable staple foods that are fortified (wheat flour, maize meal and rice) and distributed by WFP from 60% in 2020 to 80% by 2025 (the N4G commitment), including strengthening of collaboration across divisions within WFP, at HQ, RB and CO level, to scale-up demand for fortified foods across programs and ensure supply chain readiness.

1. Lead the feasibility assessment of developing and using a Good Food Scoring Framework (GFSF) for institutional procurement in Low and Middle Income countries to stimulate transformation of local food systems to contribute more to health, development and environmental goals, by
   1. Reviewing Good Food Purchasing Standards (GFPS) developed for and used for school feeding in districts in the US;
   2. Setting up an advisory committee, including WFP (SAMS, Supply Chain, School Based Programming, Nutrition) and non-WFP (Rockefeller Foundation [RF], US-GFPS team) stakeholders;
   3. Identifying domains and values that could be relevant to LMIC stakeholders by reviewing WFP’s Local and Regional Food Procurement Policy, recent FNG analyses, and consultations with COs participating in the WFP/RF partnership;
   4. Proposing exploratory assessments with stakeholders that can be integrated with FNG analyses in Benin and Ghana;
   5. Evaluating likely feasibility of designing and using such a GFSF in LMICs. If feasible, prepare a plan for its development that builds on the feasibility assessment.

1. Represent WFP in the Fortified Whole Grain Alliance (FWGA) and develop and manage implementation of a workplan for WFP’s role which will include:
   1. Enhancing advocacy for fortified whole grain flour and unpolished rice;
   2. Leveraging technological innovations for public benefit by linking to existing public-private partnerships, especially WFP/DSM;
   3. Ensuring that social behaviour change component of the Alliance is shaped in consultation with the expert on the NS team.
   4. Leveraging work with small, medium enterprises as part of the Rockefeller/WFP partnership to increase whole grain fortified flour use in school meals in participating countries to the extent possible and document lessons learned;
   5. Design a strategy for introducing fortified whole grain flour in other WFP operations;
   6. Supporting the development of a research agenda and linking with suitable research institutions.

1. Collaborate closely with the Food Fortification and SNF team of AS4FN, as well as with its other teams (SAN & MIMI), including:
   1. participating in team meetings and supporting team lead as appropriate
   2. technical backstopping on fortification to Fortification and Nutrition specialists at RBs and COs that are involved in the WFP/RF partnership (RBD: Benin and Ghana, RBP: Honduras, RBB: India, RBN: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda).
   3. ad-hoc support and guidance to the Rice Fortification Advisor (part time position), who supports COs and RBs on specific tasks including costing analysis for rice fortification, landscape analyses, etc.

1. Interface on behalf of the AS4FN team with other teams in the Nutrition Division, and together with them with Supply Chain to improve availability, access and demand for fortified nutritious foods (LSFF and ‘local SNFs’), by unpacking ways to scale-up development and production and enhance their integration in social protection / CBT / food assistance interventions, including through engagement with actors along the food value chain such as small-medium food manufacturers and retailers as well as institutional procurement This may be focused on providing guidance and back-up support to the Regional Bureau for West Africa (Dakar) on nutrition value chains work that links markets and supply, through a collaboration between Supply Chain and Nutrition units, in relevant Country Offices as well as on specific tasks identified by the SNF Task Team of the Division.

1. In collaboration with the Nutrition Sensitive team and the Nutrition Outreach and Advocacy team of the Nutrition Division, provide technical support to new opportunities for collaboration and funding related to large scale food fortification and fortified nutritious food value chain development, including those linked to social assistance, school feeding and food assistance. This would include engaging with donors, supporting proposal development, and developing relevant ToRs to leverage and increase WFP’s human and financial resources in this area.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Support development and roll out of joint Action Plan to meet WFP’s N4G commitment with SC, and other programs teams in WFP.
• Feasibility assessment of developing and using a Good Food Scoring Framework (GFSF) for institutional procurement in Low and Middle Income countries is conducted, including a decision for potential implementation.
• Management of FWGA engagement by WFP, including:
  • Development of workplan and any required reporting for WFP’s contributions to the FWGA.
  • Representation of WFP in FWGA-related workstreams and activities.
• Provision of technical backstopping support to food technologists of COs and RBs implementing broader WFP/RF partnership efforts.
• Proposal development for increased supply and demand for fortified nutritious foods supported.
• Provision of technical and analytic support and guidance to RBD on nutrition value chains, as well as LSFF.
• Tasks as identified by the SNF TT as appropriate.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Graduate level (Masters or above) in Food Science / Technology, Agronomy, Sustainable Food Systems or related field with relevant professional courses followed.

Experience:

• At least 12 years of relevant professional experience, preferably both in public and private sector.
• Solid knowledge on nutrition and food security required.
• Experience developing and implementing food fortification programmes required.
• Knowing the main public and private sector actors in fortification.
• Experience working in resource-constrained settings required.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proven ability to structure and manage processes required.
• Capacity to communicate and coordinate with a range of different stakeholders, including national governments, research institutions, private sector, NGO partners, among others.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in multicultural setting.
• Flexibility in thinking, ability to adapt to different situations quickly and with ease.
• Ability to work with and as part of a team and structure work with little input.
• Training and facilitation skills appreciated.

Language:

• Professional level of written and spoken English, and aptitude to writing different types of communications.
• Professional knowledge of a second UN language an asset, preferably French.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 30 August 2021

Ref.: VA No. 171496

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status

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.

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