Nutrition Specialist (Nutrition in the Middle and High-Income Countries), P4, Fixed Term Appointment, #123273, Amman – Jordan, MENARO

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Health.

The demands on UNICEF to respond to large scale crisis in all regions has never been greater. There is a trend towards increasingly complex crises, where conflict and climate threats exacerbate underlying vulnerabilities in health, water, food and other systems. The result is a greater number of countries experiencing protracted food and nutrition insecurity, and high levels of malnutrition in children and women.

These demands are even greater in the MENA region – with multiple ongoing humanitarian crises, including an L3-level response in Syria. The capacity of UNICEF MENA country offices to support the Nutrition Cluster and nutrition in emergency programme response is limited. With MENA regional office being the first port of providing technical and surge support to the Nutrition in Emergencies response of the UNICEF country office, a need for dedicated full-time staff is critical.

To deliver the minimum actions and standards defined in UNICEF’s Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, structural support for NiE at MENARO, and expansion of timely nutrition support to COs responding to a crisis is urgently required.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Nutrition Advisor (Level 5), you will be responsible for technical support and strategic direction on maternal and child nutrition to UNICEF country teams in the Middle and High-Income Countries (M-HICs) of the MENA region.

The nutrition programming context in the M-HICs requires UNICEF country teams to work on addressing the triple burden of malnutrition with specific actions in the areas of food systems transformation for children, overweight prevention and school-age and adolescent nutrition (abbreviated as “FS/OW/SACA-N”). The food systems aspect links closely to various other areas of work in the Nutrition Section, including maternal and early childhood nutrition and development. The position provides substantive support to the Regional Adviser for leadership on the entire Nutrition agenda in the region.

You will provide substantive support to the Adviser for the work of the Nutrition Section, in terms of authoritative technical assistance and advocacy, oversight on the development and implementation of multi-country proposals and grants, and quality assurance to the FS/OW/SACA-N aspects of nutrition programs in M-HICs. You will lead the significantly contribute to the MENARO Nutrition Section’s work on FS/OW/SACA-N, including the development of tools and guidance, innovation, evidence generation, analysis, and knowledge development, exchange and thought leadership.

You will lead the building and strengthening of partnerships and coordination with relevant stakeholders including UN agencies, NGOs, donors, academia, technical institutions, and others on FS/OW/SACA-N. You will provide authoritative technical guidance and management support throughout the region and country programming processes to facilitate the achievement of concrete and sustainable results in FS/OW/SACA-N programs/projects according to plans, allocation, results based-management (RBM) approaches and methodology, and UNICEF’s Strategic Plans, standards of performance and accountability framework.

Under the framework of the Core Commitments for Children, evolving refugee crisis across the MICs, typology of the region and Humanitarian Development Nexus, you could be requested to shift focus on humanitarian response as needed.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Management and advisory support to the Regional Adviser.
2. Programme development and planning.
3. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.
4. Advisory services and technical support.
5. Advocacy, networking, and partnership building.
6. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

Advanced university degree in Public Health or Nutrition (preferably with specialized training in one or more of the following: public health and nutrition planning, health and nutrition education, health care system management, or epidemiology, food systems, food policy, food technology, overweight and NCD prevention), Social Policy, Social Development, Community Development, Food Policy, or other relevant technical Nutrition disciplines.

Work Experience:

• At least eight years of professional work experience at the national and international levels in planning, programming, implementation, research, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition programmes. Professional work experience in a managerial/leadership position, or a technical expert/advisory position in nutrition.
• Experience working in country level is required, experience working in middle and/or high-income countries is an asset.
• Relevant experience in nutrition programme/project development and management in any UN system agency or organization is an asset.
• Background/familiarity and specific work experience on food systems, overweight prevention and school age and adolescent nutrition is essential
• Knowledge of UNICEF programs in the field of child survival and development, UNICEF Nutrition Strategic Plan 2020-2030, and the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs).
• Proven skills in communication, influencing and negotiation. c) Experience in planning and financial management is an asset.
• Excellent writing and communication skills in English is required.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

This VA is open to internal UNICEF staff only i.e., UNICEF staff holding permanent, continuing, and fixed term appointments, including JPOs”

“UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

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