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Vacancy Announcement: Consultant

Consultancy Title: Knowledge Management and Communication for School-age Children and Adolescent Nutrition, Consultant

Section/Division/Duty Station: Child Nutrition and Development

Duration: October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026

Home/ Office Based: REMOTE 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/Assignment: 

Middle childhood (5-9 years) and adolescence (10-19 years) represent a critical window of opportunity for growth and development. UNICEF recognizes the importance of investing in the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents and the criticality of ensuring that they can exercise their right to adequate food and nutrition. Thus, UNICEF has developed an agenda aimed at protecting and promoting diets, services and practices that support optimal nutrition, growth and development. The programming priorities are outlined in UNICEF´s Programming Guidance for Nutrition in Middle Childhood and Adolescence. Currently, UNICEF is supporting nearly 80 countries to implement these programmes and policies to prevent all forms of malnutrition among school-age children and adolescents.

The primary purpose of this consultancy is to support the operationalization of the priorities set out in the Nutrition Strategy and the Programming Guidance for Nutrition in Middle Childhood and Adolescence.

The role will support effective and efficient knowledge management and communication, including supporting the documentation of best practices in countries working on the nutrition of this age group and organizing learning webinars. It will also manage UNICEF’s internal school-age children and adolescent nutrition site. Finally, the role will support resource mobilization and coordination with donors.

Scope of Work:

The Consultant will support the Nutrition Specialist and Senior Adviser to accelerate efforts to improve diets, services, and practices among school-age children and adolescents. The work will focus on the following tasks:

Knowledge generation, communication, management and dissemination

• Assist the headquarters team in their efforts to support country and regional offices, working in the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents, to strengthen and scale-up their programmes.

• Organize webinars and seminars to exchange best practices and problem-solve across countries.

• Support the launch of the UNICEF-FAO School-based Food and Nutrition Education Toolkit – by producing communication assets and organizing regional webinars to present the Toolkit.

• Manage UNICEF’s school-age children and adolescent nutrition internal SharePoint site.

• Contribute to the generation and documentation of best practices and processes in countries resulting from work on the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents using a multisystem approach (such as food environment policies, and school-based micronutrient supplementation and nutrition education effectiveness.

• Support the finalization, launch, endorsement, and piloting of the Global Nutrition Monitoring Framework for children 5-19 years.

• Participate in internal and external School Health and Nutrition working groups

• Support the development of UNICEF humanitarian guidance on nutrition for school-age children and adolescents

• Facilitate multi-country meetings and document outcomes.

•  Support annual reporting of programming for school-age children and adolescents.

Resource mobilization and partnerships support

•  Contribute towards global advocacy and fundraising efforts to garner more attention and investments in nutrition programs targeting school-age children and adolescents; support the preparation and submission of proposals and concept notes to donors. 

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Provide technical support to countries to strengthen and scale up school-age and adolescent nutrition programmes

• Technical review and inputs provided to at least 15 country-level documents

30-Sep-26

Organize webinars and seminars to exchange best practices across countries

• At least two webinars organized on school-age and adolescent nutrition

31-Dec-25

Support the launch of the UNICEF-FAO School-based Food and Nutrition Education (SFNE) Toolkit

• Two regional webinars organized to launch the UNICEF-FAO SFNE Toolkit

31-May-26

• At least four communication assets developed and published

31-May-26

Manage the school-age children and adolescent nutrition SharePoint site

SharePoint updated with new evidence, guidance, and tools on a bi-monthly basis

30-Sep-26

Support countries in documenting experiences in delivery of adolescent nutrition programming

• Support provided to five countries (including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger) to document adolescent nutrition programming through human interest stories or other formats

31-Aug-26

Support the finalization, launch, endorsement, and piloting of the Global Nutrition Monitoring Framework for children 5-19 years

• Feedback from two youth consultations incorporated into the monitoring framework

30-Nov-25

• Launch materials developed (1 PowerPoint, 2 email templates, and social media inputs)

30-Apr-26

• Pilot report developed based on implementation in at least two countries

30-Sep-26

Participate in internal and external School Health and Nutrition working groups

• Meeting participation report summarizing discussions and action points for UNICEF

30-Nov-25

• Technical review and inputs provided for at least two inter-agency documents

30-Jun-26

Support the development of UNICEF humanitarian guidance on nutrition for school-age children and adolescents

• Meetings organized (at least five) and background materials (emails, ppt presentations) prepared for meetings with the technical advisory group

30-Sep-26

• Case studies (min. 2) and technical annexes (min 2)

30-Sep-26

Facilitate multi-country meetings and document outcomes.

• Meeting report detailing proceedings, outcomes, and recommendations

30-Nov-25

Support annual reporting of programming for school-age children and adolescents

• Country data (via CSIs and NutriDash) reviewed and feedback provided

31-Mar-26

• Inputs provided to UNICEF annual results reports

31-May-26

• Summary data sheets with country-level data compiled

30-Jun-26

Support resource mobilization and coordination with donors

• Investment brief (2-4 pages) on adolescent girls’ nutrition

31-Dec-25

• Materials for donor meetings developed: 4 PowerPoint presentations and 2 data sheets

30-Jun-26

Qualifications

(1) Education

Advanced University degree (Masters) in Nutritional Science, Public Health

(2) Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• A minimum seven (7) years of progressively responsible professional experience at the national/and or international levels in the management (including planning, monitoring, and grant management) of nutrition programmes/projects to improve diets, practices, and services for school-age children and adolescents is required.
• Experience in programming for the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents across multiple systems (education, health, food, social protection, WASH).
• Familiarity with designing and implementing advocacy and consultation strategies, to improve diets, and food and nutrition practices and services for school-age children and adolescents.
• Experience with the preparation of proposals and concept notes for donors.
• Demonstrated analytical and persuasive writing skills experience, including the ability to convey complex information in a clear manner to diverse audiences.
• Fluency in English is required.

Requirements: 

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

• Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :
  • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

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UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

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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 is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic background, and persons with disabilities, are encourage to apply 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. 

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The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (if applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.

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