National Consultancy: National Consultant to Support the National Core Working Committee of the National Council for Nutrition, Abuja, Nigeria, Home-based (4 months)

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, Commitment!

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, leaving no one behind. In partnership with the government and other stakeholders, UNICEF aims to deliver good quality nutrition services at scale to build resilience and protect the most vulnerable, particularly during the First 1000 Days of Life from pregnancy to when a child is two years of age. Currently, Nigeria is off track to achieving the nutrition targets of the World Health Assembly 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Nigeria currently has the highest number of malnutrition in Africa and the second highest globally. 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. The newly released National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey (2024) shows that stunting is currently at 33% while 11.6% of children 6-59 months are wasted.

To improve food and nutrition security in the country, including prevention and treatment of 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 Multisectoral Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition (2021-2025) amongst others.

The National Council of Nutrition, a high-level decision-making body for nutrition is headed by the Vice President of the country. The NCN, has a technical unit called the National Core Working Committee, which is charged with supporting and advising the Vice President and the NCN on nutrition. The successfully selected consultant will work closely with the Office of the Vice President and the NCWC to provide technical support on the full implementation of the National Policy of Food and Nutrition. 

How can you make a difference? 

Scope of work and deliverables:

The consultant will undertake key activities as outlined below (but not be limited by them) to ensure the submission of the deliverables detailed below:

a. Technical support to the Office of the Vice President on Nutrition:

• Provide strategic advisory support and guidance to the Special Assistant to the Vice President on Public Health and the Nutrition Technical Team (NTT) on emerging issues, policy implications and strategic directions related to nutrition programming.
• Provide expert recommendations for policy advocacy and decision-making to advance nutrition goals at the national and sub-national levels.
• Support the development of a concept note, framework, planning and execution/delivery, accountability framework for the Conveying high-level meetings with global and regional participation.
• Support implementation of initiatives and Nutrition programming as required.

b. Support Government Financing for Nutrition at National and Sub-National Levels:

• Work with the Nigeria Governor’s Forum to increase utilization of the scorecard to drive state release of resources.
• Consult with key Government agencies to ensure the release of the resources under the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF).
• Support the development of high-quality communication materials including briefs, presentations and talking points that will be used in the nutrition advocacy.

c. Technical support to the National Core Working Committee on Nutrition:

• Provide strategic technical support and guidance to the NCWC on emerging issues including Nutrition and Food security crisis and strategic directions related to nutrition programming.
• Undertake capacity needs assessment to identify gaps, challenges and opportunities for institutional capacity strengthening for nutrition across key MDAs.
• Provide expert recommendations on decision-making to advance nutrition goals at the national and sub-national levels.

d. And any other tasks assigned tasks.

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

Education: Master’s degree in public health or a field relevant to global health.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in Nutrition and/or Public Health.
• Experience in public administration.
• Experience in engaging multi-sectoral Food and Nutrition Systems stakeholders.
• Extensive knowledge of micronutrient programming in Nigeria, 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.
• Proficiency in MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Experience related to global public health is an asset.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. 

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