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, Solutions for Micronutrients Deficiency in China.
Micronutrient deficiencies are key contributors to the global burden of disease. They represent a significant proportion of the morbidity and mortality suffered by women of reproductive age and children. They also constrain child growth and development and undermine national development. Most micronutrient malnutrition is caused by poor diets and impaired nutrient absorption or utilization due to infection or parasitic infestation, which also increase metabolic needs for many micronutrients.
Micronutrients deficiency is still a public health problem in China especially populations among children and women with reproductive age. China has strategies to prevent micronutrients deficiency among the population through dietary improvement, fortified food and micronutrients supplement and significant progress achieved in combating micronutrients deficiencies in China during the past twenty years. However, there are large disparities in anemia mainly due to micronutrients deficiency and in other vitamin and mineral deficiencies with the rural social-economic groups having rates higher than that of the urban areas and among different age groups.
How can you make a difference?
To further improve micronutrients status of Chinese population and to develop national action plan for next step, a consultant is needed to:
- Determine the micronutrient gap by obtaining up-to-date micronutrient deficiency data and assessing the target population’s dietary intake and the contribution of existing micronutrient interventions to establish the need to improve population nutrient intake for specific vitamins and minerals.
- Map the sufficiency of existing micronutrient strategies and policies to address the identified micro-nutrients need.
- Demonstrate the advantage and disadvantage of each intervention (improve food diversity, food fortification and supplement) in Chinese context.
- Propose strategies on prevention of micronutrients deficiency among children and women of reproductive age with clear road map, especially on development of food standards.
For more details, please refer to the work assignment details -
Work Assignments Overview.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum Qualifications required: Masters majoring in Nutrition, food safety, public nutrition, epidemiology of nutrition.
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:
- Minimum 15 years of experiencing in nutrition, especially on micronutrients deficiency prevention and control for governments and/or international organizations;
- China specific experience and understanding of the country context, especially in terms of China’s food and nutrition policies and standard is highly desirable;
- Strong desk research, writing, communication, teamwork, and coordination skills;
- Fluency in written and spoken English and Chinese is a must.
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.
