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Purpose of Activity/Assignment :
Nigeria is among a set of countries with disproportionate levels of people living in hunger and suffering from food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. Although stunting (height for age) has reduced from 42 per cent (NDHS, 2003) to 37 percent (NDHS, 2018) in children under 5, still about 14 million childrenin Nigeira are stunted today. Similarly, despite reductions in wasting (weight for height) from 11 (NDHS, 2003) to 7 percent in children under 5 (NDHS, 2018) almost 3 million Nigerian children are wasted today. Although hunger and malnutrition are widespread across the country the Northern region faces a higher burden due to conflict and insecurity, climate change, reduced agricultural productivity, and low literacy levels.
To reverse hunger and malnutrition, Nigeria has endorsed a range of policies and plans including but not limited to the National Policy on Food and Nutrition (2016), the Agricultural Promotion Policy (2016), the National Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action on Nutrition (2020-2025), the Agricultural Sector Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (ASFSNS) (2016-2025), the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (2017), the National Food Safety Policy (2014).
In addition, Nigeria has favorable partnerships and coalitions most notably the National Committee for Food and Nutrition; State Committees for Food and Nutrition; the National Council for Nutrition (under the Office of the Vice President); Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Agriculture and Nutrition (IAWNG); Food Security Sector; SUN Coalitions (Business Network, Donor Partner’s Working Group, Civil Society Group); Nutrition Working Group; Zero Hunger Committee, and many more. The Nutrition Development Partner Group (NDPG) is currently a multi-stakeholder platform to bring development actors together to discuss various nutrtion related issues. The NDPG is currently co-chaired by FCDO and UNICEF and is an active platform to build consensus and harmonize efforts towards supporting the Government of Nigeria (GoN) on the above mentioned policy initiatives. The Consultant will work closely with the Nigeria Governors Forum to provide technical support to implement the Nutrition score card.
Besides these policies and partnerships, Nigeria has also committed to a number of global initiatives and agreements to meet global development objectives and target including the Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030); the Global Action Plan on Reducing Child Wasting (2020-2025) and the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). More recently, the GoN has embarked on additional initiatives. For instance, participation in the Food Systems Summit (FSS) in September 2021 and the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G) in December 2021. Both platforms offer an unprecedented opportunity to set Nigeria on a pathway towards achieving the SDG targets – in particular, to end malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Both the initiatives come at a critical time, midway through the United Nations (UN) Decade of Action on Nutrition and at halfway of the implementation of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition in Nigeria.
Scope of Work :
The main purpose of the assignment is to provide technical support to the NCN, the NCFN, the FSS, N4G and the NGF. In addition, the consultant will work closely with the Nutrition DPG. In particular, the consultant will focus on :
- Enabling coordination and harmonization across these platforms and stakeholder groups to ensure a national narrative and movement on eliminating malnutrition in all its forms.
- Supporting stakeholders, particularly, the government to bring evidence and rigor to ongoing consultations and dialogues and ensure alignment between global objectives and national priorities and commitments ;
- Identifying and unlocking financing to enable both ‘more money for nutrition’ as well as ‘more nutrition for the money’ to support high quality implementation and translation of policies into action ;
- Improving capacities in strategic planning and analysis, including to improve Public Financing for children ;
- Providing thought leadership and supporting stakeholders, particularly government counterparts, to prepare for upcoming events, particularly FSS and N4G ;
- Preparing materials/documents and convening/participating in meetings, consultations and other events ;
- Reviewing and finalizing documents, reports, presentation and other knowledge products ;
- Working closely with the Nutrition DPG to provide regular updates and two-way information flow.
Profil :
Minimum Qualifications required : Minimum advanced degree in either Public Health, Health Planning, Policy and Management, Health Economics and Financing, Public Policy, Nutrition, Agriculture, Food Science and Technology, Epidemiology, Sociology and related disciplines.
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required :
- Minimum of 7 years’ experience in Food and Nutrition Systems ;
- Experience in policy dialogue and engagment ;
- Experience in engaging multi-sectoral Food and Nutrition Systems stakeholders ;
- Extensive knowledge of the Nigerian health systems and nutrition sectoral policy landscape ;
- Experience in managing multi-stakeholder working groups ;
- Experience in institutional capacity building at the national level ;
- Experience in monitoring and evaluation mechanisms ;
- Experience in conducting budget tracking and analysis with the ability to conduct both quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
Core competencies :
- Communication ;
- Working with people ;
- Drive for results.
Language : Fluency in written and spoken English language.
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
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 also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 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 :
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.