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For every child, Nutrition.
Health | UNICEF South Africa
UNICEF’s Guidance on Nutrition in Middle Childhood and Adolescence identifies healthy food environments, in schools and beyond as a priority programme for ensuring school-age children and adolescents nutritional well-being. South Africa is one of the few countries in the East and Southern Africa region (ESAR) that actively implements programmes aimed at improving school food environments.
UNICEF South Africa's school food environment programming is grounded in the Blueprint for Improving the South African School Food Environment, a strategic framework for the Department of Basic Education. UNICEF played a key role in conceptualizing and developing the Blueprint, which was officially approved by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2022. The primary goal of the Blueprint is to enhance school food environments across South Africa by providing comprehensive guidance to foster a supportive setting for healthy eating, access to clean, safe drinking water, and promotion of physical activity. This guidance extends to learners, educators, principals, school management teams (SMTs), school governing bodies (SGBs), parents, caregivers, tuck-shop operators, food vendors, voluntary food handlers, and the broader community. Each of these stakeholders, directly or indirectly, contributes to shaping a school environment that promotes healthy diets and positive dietary practices.
Since its approval, UNICEF has been providing ongoing technical support to DBE to facilitate the operationalization of the Blueprint and its key messages aimed at various stakeholders. To advance this effort, UNICEF has been collaborating with implementing partners on the ground in KwaZulu-Natal Province. This involved laying critical contextual foundations through a baseline assessment to evaluate the feasibility of the Blueprint's messages. Based on the findings, priority interventions were developed, grounded in evidence, to ensure their effectiveness and relevance.
Six public schools—comprising a mix of urban and rural settings, including three primary and three secondary schools—were preselected by the DBE in the iLembe district of KwaZulu-Natal Province. These schools were chosen as model institutions where seven priority interventions could be pilot tested, providing a valuable opportunity to refine the approach and assess its impact on diverse school environments.
As part of the pilot implementation, UNICEF, the government, and implementing partners have acknowledged that, despite ongoing challenges, key lessons are emerging. These lessons offer practical examples of how evidence-based interventions can effectively transform school food environments, helping to prevent overweight and obesity and improve dietary diversity among school-age children and adolescents. However, the lengthy process of developing and piloting the Blueprint has involved multiple stakeholders. As a result, documentation of the entire process has been fragmented. Due to limited capacity—both human and financial—within the country office, the process has not yet been fully documented.
As the piloting of seven priority interventions in KwaZulu-Natal Province concludes in 2024, it is crucial to document the journey of how South Africa developed the Blueprint for Improving School Food Environments, and also supported its implementation through these pilot interventions. Capturing best practices and lessons learned from this process will be essential, as they have the potential to inform and guide the Blueprint’s broader scaling across the country.
The insights gained from South Africa’s experience can serve as a valuable reference for other countries in the region facing similar challenges with unhealthy food environments. As countries in ESAR increasingly confront these issues, South Africa’s development of the Blueprint, along with its pilot implementation and plans for scale-up, offers crucial lessons for both national and regional efforts.
To ensure these processes and lessons are documented for future programming in South Africa and to support other countries that may undertake similar initiatives, UNICEF SACO is seeking the services of a knowledge management consultant. This consultant will work closely with the SA Country Office team, the Department of Basic Education, and the Blueprint implementation team to capture and document the entire journey.
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Purpose of the assignment
Under the supervision of the Nutrition Manager in the Health and Nutrition section the consultant will document South Africa’s experience in improving school food environments through the development and operationalization of the Blueprint, and the piloting of seven interventions in one province. The consultancy will produce informative materials that capture the knowledge and lessons learned from the South African journey, with the aim of sharing these insights widely. These materials will serve as a resource for other countries considering similar initiatives and be used for advocacy purposes.
The lessons learned will be shared with government authorities (at national, provincial, and district levels), UNICEF, other UN agencies, development partners, and the general public to foster broader adoption of successful strategies.
Scope of work
Key tasks:
- Become familiar with the Blueprint and review existing documentation related to its development and operationalization, based on materials provided by UNICEF South Africa.
- Hold consultations with UNICEF, the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Reference Group Members and the implementation team to determine the scope and content of the documentation.
- Engage with relevant stakeholders involved in the Blueprint’s development and implementation, including learners, school staff, DBE officials (at national, provincial, and district levels), Blueprint reference group members, and UNICEF, to gather diverse perspectives and create a comprehensive narrative.
- Visit schools in KwaZulu-Natal Province with implementing partners, engaging with school staff to gather insights on successes, challenges, and what worked or didn’t in the interventions.
- Submit a draft report documenting the journey for feedback.
- Develop an advocacy brief highlighting key successes and the need for continued efforts to improve school food environments.
- Revise the draft report and advocacy brief based on the feedback received, and secure approval from the country office.
- Create a step-by-step guide for other countries interested in improving school food environments, drawing on South Africa’s experience.
Expected deliverables and reporting requirements:
- A detailed report on the development and implementation of the Blueprint for Improving School Food Environments, including lessons from piloting the seven interventions in KwaZulu-Natal and input from key stakeholders.
- A short advocacy document summarizing key outcomes, emphasizing successful strategies, and supporting the case for scaling efforts to improve school food environments.
- A practical guide for other countries to replicate South Africa’s approach to improving school food environments, with actionable recommendations.
- A PPT presentation summarizing the key findings and recommendations, to be shared with stakeholders at national and regional levels.
WORK ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW
Tasks 1 - Produce a detailed report on the development and implementation of the Blueprint for Improving School Food Environments, including lessons from piloting the seven interventions in KwaZuluNatal and input from key stakeholders.
Deliverable - Report on the development and implementation of the Blueprint for Improving the South African School Food Environment.
Deadline - 30 days (Payment 50% of the total cost)
Tasks 2 - Produce a short advocacy document summarizing key outcomes, emphasizing successful strategies, and supporting the case for scaling efforts to improve school food environments.
Deliverable - Advocacy Brief on scaling efforts to improve the school food environment.
Deadline - 10 days (Payment 20% of the total cost)
Tasks 3 - Develop a practical guide for other countries to replicate South Africa’s approach to improving school food environments, with actionable recommendations.
Deliverable - A practical Step-by-Step Guide on improving the school food environment
Deadline - 15 days (Payment 20% of the total cost)
Tasks 4 - Develop a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key findings and recommendations, to be shared with stakeholders at national and regional levels.
Deliverable - A PowerPoint Presentation on key findings and recommendations on school food environment initiative
Deadline - 5 days (Payment 10% of the total cost)
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in sociology, anthropology, communication, research, nutrition, public health, or a similar field
- A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in producing stories
- Knowledge and proven experience in appreciative inquiry
- Documentary/human interest skills related to conveying programming efforts
- High sense of journalistic ethics and in-depth understanding of human rights issues
- Good knowledge of UNICEF programmes required
- Knowledge of South Africa is an asset
- Capacity to familiarize herself/himself with UNICEF’s work and follow UNICEF branding guidelines and style book
- Ability to convey technical language in simple English
- Excellent writing and editing skills in English
- Inter-personal skills
- Experience working in a multicultural team and environment
- Ability to meet strict deadlines
- Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset
- Knowledge of another local language is an asset
Administrative details:
- The consultancy will be home based, but travel to schools in the KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa to document best practices, and lessons learnt is required (exact dates will be discussed)
- The consultant will have his/her own equipment (e.g. computer)
- The Consultant is responsible for their travel arrangements
- Until the work quality meets UNICEF requirements, the consultant’s work will not be considered as finalised
- Please indicate your ability, availability, technical and detailed financial proposals (in ZAR for national consultants/ in USD for international consultants). Applications submitted without financial proposal aligned to the TOR will not be considered.
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UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).
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