Food Fortification & SNF development Advisor
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, color, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.
Job Title: Food Fortification & SNF development Advisor
Type of Contract: Regular Consultant
Division: Nutrition division (NUT)
Duty Station (City, Country): Rome Headquarters (HQ), Italy
Duration: 11 months starting 1 May 2023
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is the frontline humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. On average, WFP reaches more than 130 million people with food assistance in around 80 countries. Around 14,000 people work for the organization, most of them in remote areas, directly serving the hungry poor.
In 2017, WFP approved their Nutrition Policy, which focuses on supporting countries to achieve zero hunger through improved nutrition, with prevention and treatment of all forms of malnutrition a central part of this policy. In support of this shift in programming, WFP will play a bigger role in addressing micronutrient deficiencies around the world through its food assistance programmes. This includes making sure that nutrient rich rations are provided when WFP distributes food, and making sure that, to the fullest extent possible, the food WFP purchases internationally, regionally and locally is appropriately fortified for the environment where it will be delivered and maximises the nutritional impact of interventions. Further, WFP plans to explore other modalities to encourage governments, assistance programmes, and markets to provide or encourage the use of fortified commodities, and ultimately to encourage local fortification of local crops in contexts where it is appropriate, feasible and cost effective.
Food fortification is one strategy to increase vitamin and mineral intake among the general population, and has proven to be effective in prevent and control micronutrient deficiencies.
Food fortification has been central to WFP’s global food systems agenda since 2004. WFP works across the fortification value-chain. This includes providing technical assistance to farmers and millers, using WFP’s vast purchasing power and marketing expertise to increase demand for fortified foods, and working with governments and academic institutions to develop standards and advocating for fortification.
Over the past 10+ years, WFP, together with a number of partners, has worked on research and implementation of fortification programs, including rice, wheat flour and fortification programs. This position will provide technical guidance on all aspects of food fortification, including fortification of staple products, such as rice, wheat flour, maize meal, oil and local production of fortified nutritious foods, management of Specialized Nutritious Foods development projects, capacity building and technical support around quality assurance and quality control, as well as fortification research, etc.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
The consultant will work on the following topics:
• Provide technical guidance for WFP’s food fortification portfolio, with work spanning all six regions, including technical support to other divisions, WFP Regional Bureaux (RBs) and Country Offices (COs) on matters related to food fortification;
• Coordinate and oversee rice fortification programmes from HQ, including but not limited to those within the WFP/DSM partnership;
• Lead on rice fortification research agenda for WFP, consulting different units, defining research priorities and collaborating with research institutions and technical partners/donors;
• Serve as Nutrition Division Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) focal point, manage product development projects and provide technical guidance to the Nutrition Division's Strategic Objective focused on increasing the global supply of Specialized Nutritious Foods (Strategic Objective A) on SNFs’ workstreams and FSQA Unit on behalf of Chief, Analytics and Science for Food and Nutrition;
• Identify needs and opportunities for new products (e.g. instant infant cereal, healthy snacks for school children, innovative nutritious products for pregnant and lactating women), and assess their potential for WFP uptake, in support of the work of Strategic Objective A on SNFs and the New Foods Committee; including provision of technical backstopping to conduct a review for the preparation of an investment case to increase the supply and demand for nutritious processed complementary foods;
• Support the management and coordination of WFP’s food fortification programmes globally;
• Provide technical support to other Divisions, RBs, and COs on matters related to food fortification and SNFs, as required.
DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Specific Tasks
- Provide technical guidance for WFP’s food fortification portfolio, with work spanning all six regions, including technical support to other Divisions, RBs, and COs on matters related to food fortification:
• Provide technical guidance in the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of field-based fortification programmes, as well as to NUT teams as needed;
• Provide technical guidance to WFP COs, RBs, millers, and other stakeholders on post-harvest handling best practices for staple foods, food fortification processes, acceptability tests, etc as well as on the development of national and regional standards for fortified foods and nutritious foods and guidance documents;
• Provide food fortification technical guidance to the Mapping and Modelling Inadequate Dietary Intake (MiMI) project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and facilitate linkages between HQ-level activities and CO-level fortification colleagues, and other activities as required;
- Coordinate and oversee WFP’s rice fortification workstream from HQ, including but not limited to those within the WFP-DSM partnership:
• Provide technical guidance to COs implementing rice fortification programmes through both remote support and in-person missions as needed;
• Provide technical support in the development of new programmes, in partnership with key COs;
- Lead on rice fortification research agenda for WFP, consulting different units, defining research priorities and collaborating with research institutions and technical partners:
• Identify rice fortification research priorities, including collaboration with research institutions and technical partners.
• Lead on the implementation of WFP’s research agenda on the development and optimization of fortified rice formulations to maximize biological efficacy and sensory quality (pending the availability of funds);
- Serve as Nutrition Division FSQA focal point, manage product development projects and provide technical guidance to Strategic Objective A on SNFs workstreams and Food Safety and Quality Assurance Unit on behalf of Chief, Analytics and Science for Food and Nutrition:
• Manage product development projects based on NUT’s needs (e.g., concept note, work plan, coordinate within NUT and beyond);
• Lead nutritional analysis of SNFs, consulting relevant NUT & FSQ colleagues where required, and advice Food Safety and Quality unit on specification revisions based on product development testing and outcomes;
• Review fortified staple foods and Specialized Nutritious Foods specifications, ensuring adherence to program guidance & product development outcomes, and provide technical support for food specifications harmonization and technical memo development;
- Identify needs and opportunities for new products, and assess their potential for WFP uptake, in support of the work of Strategic Objective A on SNFs, SNF working Group, the New Foods Committee; including provision of technical backstopping to conduct a review for the preparation of an investment case to increase the supply and demand for nutritious processed complementary foods:
• Provide technical support for SNF-WG, and serve as its permanent member specifically for: Linkages to the NFC, Uptake of new products, Product sheet development and Inter-Agency Working Group as required, etc;
• Provide guidance on ad-hoc technical questions/inquiries, both internal and external, related to SNFs;
• Provide technical guidance to conduct a review for the preparation of an investment case to increase the supply and demand for nutritious food products, specifically locally produced fortified complementary foods.
- Support the management and coordination of WFP’s food fortification and programmes globally:
• Support coordination of WFP food fortification efforts globally, including the provision of technical guidance to WFP COs, RBs, and HQ units for the development of key documents (e.g., Terms of reference) for food fortification project implementation and support to identify gaps for capacity building of food fortification staff globally;
• Provide support for the development of a road map and action plan for delivering on WFP’s food fortification N4G commitments 2022-2025;
• Act as fortification focal point in the absence of Food Fortification and SNF Development Team Lead.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
The candidate must have an advanced degree related to international nutrition, food security, or food technology/ food sciences.
Experience:
A minimum of 3 years of experience preferably including nutrition, food (rice) fortification, food technology, food science, food-value addition, food value chains for fortified foods, food security, project planning and management, and nutrition programming.
Knowledge and Skills:
• Strong Communication abilities to engage with various stakeholders from different sectors and backgrounds, ability to interact with leaders and external audience with maturity and tact, ability to interact with vulnerable people groups
• Collaborative spirit able to liaise with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility and diplomacy
• Outstanding organizational and time-management skills with an ability to plan ahead, anticipate requirements, problems and obstacles, and an ability to juggle competing priorities successfully, and to work to tight deadlines
• Strong drive, self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme
• Mobility: Willing to work in multi-cultural settings and travel to different field locations, including challenging operating environments.
• Publications: Academic publications in the field of food fortification, health or nutrition a benefit.
Languages:
Fluency (level C) in English language. A second UN language (especially French), in addition to English, would be preferred.
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: 02 April 2022
Ref.: VA No. 645081
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.
