Nutrition Programme Access & Coverage Specialist

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: Nutrition Programme Access and Coverage Specialist

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant Level II

Division: Nutrition Operations, NUT

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

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Maternal and child undernutrition are of great concern in many countries particularly as emergencies around the world have become increasingly complex and protracted. Driven by conflict, climate change, epidemics and disasters, humanitarian crises are often characterized by limited access to nutritious, safe and affordable food, disruptions in essential health, WASH and nutrition services and constraints to optimal feeding, care and hygiene practices. In such contexts, programmes to prevent undernutrition and treat wasting have been associated with improved pregnancy, neonatal and child health and nutrition outcomes.

Meeting the needs of maternal and infants’ nutrition in fragile, humanitarian settings require interventions with both high effectiveness and high coverage. Programmes that seek to deliver a high impact can only do so by achieving high levels of coverage while on the other hand, programmes with low coverage often fail to meet need (i.e. have limited impact). Despite many nutrition programmes reporting good programme coverage, it has been shown that the proportion of individuals in need of a nutrition service compared to those who receive a service remains low. The community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) model, which evolved from community-based therapeutic care (CTC), enables more wasted children and women to receive effective treatment even where health facilities are less accessible. Although programme coverage has steadily increased since 2010, reaching 13.7 million children in 2021, the proportion of wasted children who can access treatment remains unacceptably low, with less than 20 percent globally receiving treatment and care. The reasons explaining low programme coverage and the barriers to access services can vary and be context dependent.

Currently humanitarian actors use a range of methods to estimate coverage of nutrition services and its contributing factors (e.g., qualitative investigations, quantitative surveys, intelligent analysis of programme data). Lack of a uniform methodology in estimating programme coverage could in part account for the poor reporting and misrepresentation of coverage data. With the range and complexity of different contexts and the variation of available resources for assessing coverage it can also be difficult to know which method to use plus estimating coverage can be particularly challenging in settings where capacities and resources are constrained, such as in emergencies.

WFP and its partners are committed to scaling up the coverage of malnutrition prevention and treatment services in fragile and humanitarian contexts and recognise the need to strengthen support to its field operations, national counterparts and implementing partners to better estimate programme coverage, understand reasons for barriers to service access and/ or low coverage, in particular, the field constraints and how to bring about improvements.

In view of increasing humanitarian needs and the challenging funding landscape, WFP is also committed to strengthening targeting and prioritisation. Within WFP, targeting is a cross-functional process through which populations are selected for assistance. It is informed by needs assessments, programme objectives, and with the participation of affected communities. Targeting outcomes are continuously monitored and processes refined as appropriate. The envisioned work will support WFP decision-making on targeting and explore the processes to ensure that the most vulnerable people requiring support are properly identified and assisted. In particular, with investment from key donors, WFP is strengthening its community-based approach to targeting and identifying Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women (PBW) and exploring distribution models that aim to reach more PBWs with nutrition support in emergency contexts.

This assignment is to provide technical support to WFP Nutrition Division at Headquarters (HQ), Regions (RBs) and Country Offices (COs) to better estimate programme coverage and to provide guidance to overcome the challenges. Coverage remains a severe limitation in reducing child wasting globally so this work will provide a deep-dive into constraints that impact nutrition programme access and coverage in countries where malnutrition prevention and treatment programmes for PBW and Children under the age of 5 years (children U5) are implemented- with a special reference to fragile, humanitarian contexts.

This position will be based in Rome, in the Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Team, Nutrition Operations Unit and will work in collaboration with relevant technical units within the Nutrition Division particularly with the maternal nutrition targeting specialist and nutrition in emergency team to strengthen the targeting and prioritisation of PBW and children U5 as well as the SNF supply chain team on the last mile project. The consultant is expected to travel to some selected countries as necessary to provide field operations and partners with technical support on improving access and coverage to maternal and child undernutrition prevention and treatment programmes.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Support WFP Nutrition Division at HQ, RBs and COs establish how best to estimate context specific maternal and child undernutrition programme access and coverage

• Provide technical support to WFP HQ, RBs and COs with the review of available maternal and child undernutrition programme access and coverage information to better understand the practical challenges, bottlenecks and enablers as well as data limitations.
• Support WFP and partners overcome challenges to better understand barriers and enablers to nutrition programme access and estimate programme coverage. This could include providing technical support to field operations with conduct of qualitative investigations, surveys, analysis of programme data, key informant interviews, and/or focus group discussions with stakeholders as relevant.

2. Provide technical support to the Nutrition Division at WFP HQ, RBs and COs to understand field realities and current approaches to estimating nutrition programme access and coverage; and if needed support development of guidance

• Conduct a desk review of WFP-supported community-led PBW and children U5-related nutrition programmes in selected priority countries to understand current access and coverage estimation approaches including key limitations and challenges for each of the approaches used
• Build on the desk mapping review findings to determine the best approach(es) to estimating programme access and coverage for PBW and children U5
• As necessary, produce a simple, easy-to-use and visually smart overview of the approach(es) in the form of a guidance note for use by WFP staff and implementing partners; and support a pre-test to ensure practical applicability and make any required improvements
• When requested, build capacity of WFP staff and partners on how to use and apply the guidance to improve programme access and coverage (e.g. trainings, remote support, field visits as necessary)

3. Support the development of a paper outlining the access and coverage guidance, how it can be used and its limitations

• As required, support the development of an external paper that explains WFP coverage estimation guidance and discusses its uses and its limitations. The expected audience would include governments, cooperating partners and other key stakeholders.

4. Support Nutrition Division HQ, RBs and COs to strengthen targeting and prioritisation

• Collaborate with Nutrition Division teams to strengthen the targeting and prioritisation of those with greatest needs with the most appropriate assistance and delivery strategy for the given context
• Support Nutrition Division with other tasks as relevant in support of WFP Nutrition Operations

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• HQ, Regional and Country Offices received technical support to estimate nutrition programme coverage, understand barriers to access and provide solutions to improve access and coverage of malnutrition prevention and treatment programmes
• Desk mapping review conducted, documented and findings presented
• As necessary, PBW/G and Children U5 access and coverage estimation guidance note developed with contextual applicability of the guidance tested and applied in collaboration with WFP Nutrition technical units and WFP partners; and external paper finalized and submitted

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

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: 31/08/2022

Ref.: VA No. 171351

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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