Maternal nutrition specialist – tool development

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: Maternal nutrition specialist – tool development

Type of Contract: International Consultant, Level 2

Division: Nutrition: Nutrition Division

Duty Station (City, Country): Rome HQ

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Maternal and child undernutrition remain a major Public Health concern in many countries where the World Food Programme (WFP) operates. The current unprecedented global food crisis exacerbates the Nutritional needs of most vulnerable people in the fragile contexts. Women are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition from a physiological perspective due to their increased nutrient requirements for menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation. Pregnant women health and nutritional wellbeing requires food intake that meets the specific needs in terms of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Poor Nutrition during pregnancy predisposes the mother and the unborn child to adverse short- and long-term effects. Undernutrition has the potential to be transmitted from one generation to another, representing an enormous cost for the individuals, communities, and societies.

WFP is a key stakeholder in support of maternal nutrition and is calling for a transformation in the international community’s approach to ending undernutrition and PBW and their children PBW to break this intergenerational vicious cycle. To operationalise WFP’s commitment towards meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of those most vulnerable an efficient and accurate targeting is necessary, alternative distribution models are needed that can reach PLW out of reach of the health system and user-friendly tools are required to guide programming.

The main purpose of this consultancy is to support WFP Headquarters (HQ) Nutrition Division efforts to strengthening its community-based approach to targeting, identification, screening, and distribution models for reaching PBWs with nutrition support across emergency contexts. This will be done through the development and piloting of a simple, user-friendly maternal nutrition decision-support tool that effectively guides WFP and partners to appropriate targeting and distribution methods and models for PBW. This position will sit within the malnutrition prevention and treatment team in nutrition operations and will closely collaborate with relevant technical Units within and outside the Nutrition Division. This piece of work will be linked to various projects undertaken by WFP on Maternal Nutrition as well as the BEP supplementation mapping planned by the GNC Technical Alliance prevention sub-working group.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Conduct a desk mapping review (3 months)

• Establish a work schedule and feasible timeline for the full work
• Review WFP, NGO and other partners community-led PBW-related Maternal Nutrition programming focused but not limited to ten high need countries and document their targeting and delivery models (potentially Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia, Chad and Syria).
• Conduct surveys, key informant interviews, and/or focus groups to collect information on targeting approaches, admission criteria, delivery models and type of Nutrition support provided as well as on facilitators and barriers
• Triangulate collated information for relevance and pertinence and use collected inputs to identify bottlenecks, and design pathways to overcome them
• Document methodology and findings, and validate with relevant stakeholders

1. Develop and test/pilot a PBW targeting decision tree tool (6 months)

• Build on the desk mapping review findings to developing a simple, user-friendly PBW targeting decision tree tool, incorporating feedback from relevant stakeholders at all stages
• Produce an easy-to-use self-explanatory and visually smart overview of the tool; and guidance note to accompany the tool
• Organise and support pre-testing and field testing of the tool in minimum three country and make the required improvements
• Finalize a validated decision tree tool; with guidance and develop a roll out strategy in all ten identified countries, including webinars and presentations
• Document methods, processes and findings at each step of the development; testing and piloting.

1. Produce a paper that explains the decision-support tool, how it can be used, and its limitations (2 months)

• Lead the writing of an external paper that explains the decision-support tool and discusses its uses and its limitations. The intended audience would be governments, cooperating partners and other key stakeholders.
• Support development of knowledge management; communication, advocacy and learning and development materials as required.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Desk mapping review conducted, documented and findings presented
• PBW targeting decision tree tool developed, presented, and finalized
• Applicability of the tool tested in collaboration with WFP Nutrition technical units and WFP partners
• External paper finalized

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University degree in Nutrition, Public Health, epidemiology, or related field.

Experience:

• More than 10 years of combined experience on direct implementation and/or providing oversight to emergency Nutrition programming and Nutrition-related operational research
• Specific experience on Maternal Nutrition prevention and treatment programming Designing and conducting primary and secondary research
• Developing guidance, decision tree tools or programmatic flowcharts
• Translating and applying findings to programmes
• Community participative approaches.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Showcasing extensive technical expertise in treatment and prevention of PBWs, including latest global developments in programming; standards, norms and guidance.
• Network of people within emergency-focused implementing NGOs
• Confident with quantitative and qualitative research methods
• Analytical and decision-making mindset
• Work independently

Languages:

Required fluency in English; French (speaking and writing) desired.

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: 31 August 2022

Ref.: VA No. 171411

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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