National Consultant: Senior Technical Consultant

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For every child, Hope.
Women and child malnutrition continue to be a critical public health problem in Bangladesh, with nearly half of pregnant women suffering from anemia, 24% of children under five affected by stunting, and 12% by wasting. Persistent maternal anemia, poor-quality diets, and low coverage of essential nutrition services, including micronutrient deficiencies, are contributing to high maternal mortality, morbidity, and adverse birth outcomes such as the high prevalence of low birth weight (23%).

To address this issue, the Ministry of Health and Family (MoH&FW) committed (N4G Summit, 2024) to gradually scale up quality maternal and child nutrition services- including Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) across the country to accelerate the reduction of anemia and the prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) towards achieving nutrition related SDG targets. This scale-up will be supported through matching financing from the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), the World Bank (WB), and UNICEF's Child Nutrition Fund (CNF).

Under this matching financing, the MoH&FW requested UNICEF to develop a comprehensive implementation plan to accelerate the universal provision of quality maternal and child nutrition services, including MMS, and under the guidance of Planning wing. Additionally, the National Nutrition Plan, Strategy, and policy need to be revised to incorporate the evidence and learning from the Chile Nutrition Fund roll-out and monitoring.

The learnings will be incorporated in the National Nutrition Policy and The Plan of Action. These two strategic documents are dated and have to be rewritten given the new data (MICS), the evidence from MMS and integration of Early Childhood Development into the policy.

To support these two priority activities, UNICEF plans to engage a high-level national consultant to the consultations, map the existing frameworks and initiatives, synthesize the evidence, communicate with the Divisional and District Health officials.

How can you make a difference?
The Purpose Of This Assignment Is Two-fold

• Integrate a national implementation framework on the MMS roll-out into government's plan (divisional and districts), and engage with the relevant stakeholders for a harmonized co-financing mechanism between GoB, the World Bank, and the government's monitoring unit (Linked to the Disbursement Linked Indicator#4 of the WB)
• Support the alignment of the Nation Plan and Policy with the latest evidence, data, trends, and contextualized interventions on Child nutrition and development, maternal nutrition and wasting prevention.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:
TOR_Senior Technical Consultant- Child Nutrition
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum Requirements**

• Education:Master's degree in public health/public health nutrition/social sciences/public policy, or related field.
• Work Experience: Minimum of 20+ years of experience in health and nutrition sector planning, policy development, or related areas.
• Skills:
• Previous experience of developing Health, Nutrition, Population Sector Programme (HNPSP)
• Demonstrated track record in designing and/or managing large-scale donor-funded health sector programs in Bangladesh. preferably in low- or middle-income countries.
• Language Requirements: Ability to speak and write in English language

For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

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UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. To create a more inclusive workplace, UNICEF offers paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. Click here to learn more about flexible work arrangements, well-being, and benefits.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. In its Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy , UNICEF has committed to increase the number of employees with disabilities by 2030. At UNICEF, we provide reasonable accommodation for work-related support requirements of candidates and employees with disabilities. Also, UNICEF has launched a Global Accessibility Helpdesk to strengthen physical and digital accessibility. If you are an applicant with a disability who needs digital accessibility support in completing the online application, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF.

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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

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.