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UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.
Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.
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How can you make a difference?
UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for an International Consultant to Strengthen the nutrition sensitivity of social protection in Zimbabwe and develop referral to nutrition interventions
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Develop clear nutrition sensitive social protection guidelines and a referral system between nutrition and social protection interventions in Government led policies, strategies and programmes in Zimbabwe
BACKGROUND
The Government of Zimbabwe has initiated in 2025 a major programme to reform and strengthen its national social protection system, this includes:
i) Revising the National Social Protection Policy Framework, elaborating a clear strategy and action plan, developing harmonized guidelines and standards and proposing amendments to the Social Protection Act;
ii) Operationalizing the social registry and establishing other harmonized tools for social protection programming including a unique grievance system and a comprehensive Management Information System (MIS);
iii) Revisiting social protection instruments and programs to reduce fragmentation, increase efficiency and effectiveness;
iv) Strengthening the shock responsiveness of the social protection programmes to improve preparedness and adaptive capacity in times of crisis;
v) Strengthening the capacity of existing and new Social Development Officers especially given the high turnover of staff.
vi) Gradually increasing budget allocations for social protection from 2025 onwards to ensure sustainability and scale-up of interventions.
Nutrition-sensitive social protection is a cross-cutting issue of this major reform programme and clear nutrition-sensitive guidelines should be reflected in the various documents and tools that the Government is developing, including the National Social Protection Policy, the Strategy and Action Plan, specific programme documents and shock responsive manual, as well as in the national budget. In addition, interoperability between nutrition data information system and the social registry is important to ensure effective referral is in place to link beneficiaries of social protection programmes to nutrition services and vice versa. An effective referral system will enable social protection beneficiaries to access nutrition interventions (such as multi-sectoral counseling and support, growth monitoring or treatment for malnutrition) and will allow nutrition programmes to refer vulnerable households to social protection programmes, where eligible. Initial recommendations on how to build synergies between nutrition and social protection were developed in 2024 during a national workshop gathering the Ministry of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare (MoPSLSW), The Food and Nutrition Council (FNC) and Ministry of Health (MoH) and other relevant stakeholders. Those recommendations need to be further developed and embedded into key national guiding documents.
The Government is currently working with a team of consultants and an institutional firm (financially supported by World Bank and UNICEF) to develop the above-mentioned documents. To complement this effort, UNICEF intends to engage a consultant specialized in nutrition-sensitive social protection to ensure nutrition sensitivity is properly embedded in all documents.
Tasks for the Consultant:
In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC) the consultant will develop nutrition-sensitive social protection guidelines and a referral system between the two sectors. Those will be incorporated by the consultant in the various documents and tools the Government is developing. More specifically the consultant will:
- Identify key nutrition-responsive design features that can be embedded in selected Government social protection programmes and develop costed programmatic options
- Identify clear nutrition indicators that can be used to improve the shock responsiveness and anticipatory capacity of social protection interventions in order to reinforce the preventive role of social protection on nutrition ouctomes during a crisis
- Establish clear Standard Operating Procedures for two-way referrals between Social Cash Transfer (SCT) and Nutrition (SCT → Nutrition, Nutrition → SCT);
- Develop standardized referral tools, forms, and protocols linking the referral system with the social registry and the social protection MIS the Government is currently developing
- Develop a joint monitoring and evaluation framework to follow the effective referral of beneficiary to social protection and nutrition interventions and outcomes
The consultant will then incorporate those results in the key social protection documents by ensuring specific nutrition responsive sections are included in the: National Social Protection Policy; national Social Protection Strategy and budgeted Action Plan; Operational manual for key selected social protection programmes, specifically the ZSCT (Zimbabwe Social Cash Transfer Programme) and the SRSP (Shock Responsive Social Protection) manual(s). This will include also detailed reference on how the Social registry and the social protection MIS system will be leveraged to facilitate the referral process.
This work is part of a broad reform programme the Government is conducting and all recommendations should feed into the wider policy dialogue around reforming social protection and prioritizing most effective policy options.
The consultant is expected to work a total of 45 days over a period of 4 months, including a 10 day mission to Zimbabwe. The consultancy is expected to start on December 1st 2025 and end by 30 March 2026.
Major tasks and deliverables:
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Tasks/Milestone:
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Deliverables/Outputs:
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Timeline
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Payment
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A methodological note with clear objectives and expected results is prepared and validated by the Government. The note will provide lessons learned from other countries
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Methodological note
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15 days after contract signature
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10%
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Nutrition-sensitive, social protection guidelines and specific referral guidelines are developped and embedded in the key national documents listed above. More specifically the consultant will develop specific sections/ inputs for each document. The inputs will be specifically tailored to the type of document (policy, strategic, operational).
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Guidelines developed and embedded in the key Government documents
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2.5 months after contract signature
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50%
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Develop standardized referral tools and procedures linked with the Government social protection MIS
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Referral tools and procedures developed
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3 months after contract signature
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20%
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Develop a joint Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
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M&E framework developed
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4 months after contract signature
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20%
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To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Education:
Experience
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Social protection expert with minumim of 15 years of professional experience in the sector
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Technical expertise in nutrition and in nutrition sensitive social protection
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Previous experience in developing nutrition-sensitive social protection guidelines and referral system, preferably in africa countries
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Previous working experience in Zimbabwe is an asset
Language requirements:
The detailed consultancy terms of reference is downloadable via this link 
ToR Referral SP Nutrition.pdf
If interested and available to undertake the individual consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical proposal and an all-inclusive financial proposal incorporating an approximate number of travel days for field (local) travel.
Technical proposal: The Technical Proposal should articulate an understanding of the TOR and include the proposed Tasks/Milestones, Deliverables/Outputs, Timeline and level of effort by deliverable. The similar table provided in the TOR is indicative. Applicants may use the indicative table as a guide or deviate as per the proposed approach. The proposal should also cost-effectively propose the local travel proposed by the applicant to undertake the assignment.
Financial proposal: The Financial Proposal should include the costs (providing a daily rate as justification) for each task, including consultant fee, proposed travel costs and perdiem, communications costs and any other proposed cost.
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.