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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.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, love

Lebanon is experiencing a growing triple burden of malnutrition (stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity) among children and adolescents and high rates of undernutrition among women. Despite this unprecedented progress, the burden of poor child nutrition and development is increasing in Lebanon due to the protracted refugee and economic crisis. Children under five years of age in the most deprived areas are not growing and developing well because of poor care, malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight – and three in four children are living in food poverty, without the minimum diet they need to grow healthy. This’s while 30 to 40 per cent of school age children and adolescents (specially girls), are affected by obesity and or anemia. One of the main drivers of this is extremely poor dietary patterns of children and adolescents; 70% of children are deprived of the best start in life (Exclusive breast-feeding) and 3 in 4 children under age 5 experienced child food poverty, which means their diets included only four food groups at most. Even more alarmingly, over 1 in 4 children under age 5 live in severe food poverty, meaning, the diets of 85,000 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees’ children, include at most two food groups, a few spoonsful of porridge and a small cup of milk may be their only meal of the day, every day, leaving them highly vulnerable to severe stunting and wasting – the most life-threatening forms of undernutrition in early childhood.

Following the Beirut Blast in 2020, Nutrition was initially coordinated as a task force under the Food Security Sector. Recognizing the need for a dedicated platform to address the worsening nutritional status driven by poverty, inflation, and multiple emergencies, the HCT established Nutrition as a standalone sector in October 2020, in alignment with Global Nutrition Cluster recommendations.

The Nutrition Sector Coordinator will provide leadership on behalf of UNICEF, the Lead Agency of the Nutrition Sector, ensuring clear roles, accountability, and strengthened partnerships among NGOs, UN agencies, and governmental institutions. Supporting national and sub-national coordination teams, the coordinator will enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian responses, aligning with global standards and the IASC Cluster Coordination framework.

Furthermore, UNICEF is committed to support humanitarian coordination through the sector approach. Introduced as part of the humanitarian reform, the sector approach, aims at ensuring clear leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labor among organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the different sectors involved in the response.

A well-run Sector/ Working Group coordination team is a formal deliverable of the Sector Lead Agency and forms a part of the agency’s work.

How can you make a difference? 

Under the overall direction and guidance of the Chief Field Operations, the Nutrition Specialist Sector Coordinator will provide leadership and representation of the Sector/Working Group at national level and Beirut Mount Lebanon Subnational coordination.  They will facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by participants in the national Sector/ Working Group that is accountable to those who are affected by the emergency. In their effort to provide an efficient and effective response to the humanitarian crisis, the Nutrition Specialist Sector Coordinator is responsible for building relationships with stakeholders, for securing the overall coordination of sectoral responses and for ensuring inter-sectoral collaboration at the national level and for ensuring adequate coordination with the national level.

The post holder's main tasks and responsibilities will include but not be limited to: 

• Coordination, representation and leadership
• Needs assessment and analysis
• Strategic response planning
• Resource mobilization and advocacy
• Implementation and monitoring
• Operational peer review and evaluation
• Accountability to affected populations
• Strengthen national and local capacity

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  GNC Cluster Coordinator L3 GJP.docx

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, global/international health and nutrition, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, health sciences, humanitarian assistance and development or another health-related social science field.
• Work Experience: A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care is required. Relevant experience in nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.
• Direct, practical experience in the design, implementation and/ or coordination of nutrition interventions through community-based platforms, and effective intersectoral collaboration is strongly desired.
• Experience of working in the humanitarian coordination system is required.
• Prior experience in partnership development and management, including bilateral donors, foundations and civil society is an asset.
• Experience in effective management of human resources/teams in high stress/risk environments is an advantage.
• Experience in humanitarian contexts is required with experience in development contexts an added advantage.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Arabic or French Languages is 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…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

(8) Nurtures, Leads and Manages People

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 measures to include a more diverse workforce, such as paid parental leave, time off for breastfeeding purposes, 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.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates from programme countries are encouraged to apply.

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.

In this role, you will collaborate with colleagues across multiple locations. For effective collaboration, we encourage flexible working hours that accommodate different time zones while prioritizing staff wellbeing.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

Eligible staff members on fixed-term, continuing or permanent contracts applying to IP TA positions in a duty station designated as L2/L3, may be able to retain a lien and their fixed-term entitlements, subject to approval by their Head of Office. The conditions of the temporary assignment will vary depending on the status of their post and relocation entitlements may be limited as per the relevant policies.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

UNICEF does not charge any fee during any stage of the recruitment process.