Programme Specialist, Maternal Nutrition

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children's lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

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For every child,
... good Nutrition,

To date, progress has been slow on improving access to nutritious diets, essential nutrition services and positive nutrition and care practices adolescent girls and women need to live full, healthy and equal lives.

This is reflected in the high rates of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anemia, which have barely decreased in the last two decades.

Despite these challenges, evidence is mounting and momentum for women's nutrition is growing at global, regional and national level. Anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies can be prevented, even among girls and women living in the most challenging circumstances.

To harness this momentum, UNICEF launched an ['Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan'],by%20the%20end%20of% in March 2024, to prevent malnutrition and anaemia during pregnancy.

It aims to fast-track the delivery of a package of essential services, reaching 16 million women across 16 priority countries by the end of 2025: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka and the United Republic of Tanzania.

The essential package of services will largely be delivered via antenatal care (ANC), a critical platform for delivery of services, health promotion, and disease prevention during pregnancy.

It represents a unique opportunity for early detection and management of diseases, micronutrient deficiencies, malaria, and other health conditions which otherwise could jeopardize the health of mothers and their babies.

Part of the essential package of services will be the delivery of multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), which contains 15 essential vitamins and minerals and has been proven to have significant benefits for mother and baby when taken during pregnancy.

The introduction of MMS can be used as a catalyst to strengthen overall ANC service delivery, to update national guidelines, and to improve training of community-based health and nutrition workers for quality service provision.

How can you make a difference?

To help meet UNICEFs ambitious agenda set out in the Acceleration Plan, this role will support current HQ staff for implementation of the Plan, across the 16 countries.

The role will support effective and efficient knowledge management and communication, including:

supporting countries to develop robust monitoring and learning; working with country and regional offices to strengthen the policy environment and developing localized advocacy plans; documenting qualitative aspects of maternal nutrition service delivery and how the scale up of MMS is being used as a catalyst for scaling up and improving the quality of service provision, including at community level; supporting donor reporting; supporting the development of social and behavior change materials and training; working with Supply Division in supporting countries in forecasting their supply needs ensuring that countries have timely delivery of the required commodities; and participating in end-line documentation of key lessons learned for scale-up.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have to...

Knowledge generation, management and dissemination

• Assist the HQ team in their efforts to support the 16 countries, and relevant regional offices, to implement and deliver on the 5 strategic results outlined in the Acceleration Plan.
• Support the HQ team to work closely with PG health and contribute to the generation and documentation of key lessons learned for best practices and processes for the scaleup of maternal nutrition, through delivery of the essential package of nutrition services within antenatal care; thereby facilitating organizational learning and increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
• Support the HQ team to coordinate and provide guidance to countries on relevant evidence generation activities including the delivery of activities outlined in the inception reports, monitoring and learning plans, integration of indicators into national information systems, and key documentation, to help guide the regional and country offices throughout the Acceleration Plan period
• Assist the HQ team in working closely with Supply Division to support countries in their forecasting, procurement and management of required supplies, Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS), weighing scales, MUAC tapes, etc. and provide regular input into the recently developed dashboard for MMS.
• Support the organization of webinars and seminars to exchange lessons learned for best practice for scaleup, and problemsolve across countries, as required.
• Participate in the preparation of, and making professional contribution to, programme reports required for management, donors, programme analysis, annual reports, etc.

Communications and networking support

• Assist with the production of communication products (In collaboration with DGCA colleagues) for advocacy and resource mobilization efforts, assist in drafting and editing articles, briefing notes, human interest stories and other information materials for both internal and external use, as appropriate.
• Support the HQ team in ensuring that all advocacy and communications materials avoid a productfocussed approach (the delivery of MMS), instead emphasising the importance of implementing the package of essential services outlined in the Acceleration plan, for holistic and sustainable improvements in maternal nutrition.
• Establish and/or maintain an uptodate documentation repository for communication materials including publications, press releases and clippings, photographs, audiovisual materials, web resources, etc.
• Assist the HQ team in working with key external organizations to align advocacy events and common messaging, including joint events, statements and products.
• Help to expand UNICEF Nutrition Section's work on increasing and maintaining attention on maternal nutrition issues.

Grant management and partnerships support

• Support the preparation and submission of proposals and concept notes to donors.
• Develop and maintain a tracking system to track concept note submission, agreement receipts and grant information for partnerships for fundraising efforts for the Acceleration Plan.
• Help coordinate the development of partnership reports, including collating inputs from implementing offices.

The following minimum requirements:

• A university degree is required in nutritional science, public health, public policy, international development or social sciences, and/or related field is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience at the national/and or international levels related to programme management, planning, grant management and/or project management is required.
• Experience in planning and monitoring projects
• Demonstrated analytical and persuasive writing skills experience as well as editing skills, including the ability to convey complex information in a clear manner to diverse audiences.
• Familiarity with designing and implementing advocacy strategies, including those related to women's nutrition.
• Administrative skills and selfmotivated with the ability to set priorities and manage multiple tasks under minimal supervision in effective and efficient manner.
• Ability to work under pressure and respond to deadlines without sacrificing quality.
• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it.

Get acquainted with Our Values Charter:
[UNICEF Values] "")

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates selfawareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with [our competency framework]) and its different levels.

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 does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18).

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 promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children.

All selected candidates will 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.

Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF.

Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).

Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN.

Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions 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.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training).

UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found [here]).

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