Duration: from 20 July 2024 to 31 March 2025
Workplace: home-based
Modality: part-time

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, a fair chance

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Background

Children's malnutrition is a serious concern in Kazakhstan. A second round of WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) was held in 2020. In primary schools, overweight and obesity were found to be prevalent in 23.6 per cent of boys and 17.6 per cent of girls. Underweight boys and girls made up 5 per cent of the population. A group of 8-year-old children included to the samples was used to identify changes in these figures. In comparison to 2015, when the COSI was first undertaken, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased from 18.7 per cent to 21.1 per cent in 2021. The proportion of underweight children increased from 3 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Thus, the proportion of children with a normal body weight declined from 78.3 per cent to 73.3 per cent during the course of five years.
Only 38% of children under the age of six months in Kazakhstan are exclusively breastfed, and only 21% receive breastfeeding until the age of two years (MICS 2015).
The UNICEF country programme for 2021-2025 is supporting the Government in addressing the double burden of malnutrition through development of evidence-based strategies on addressing overweight and obesity in children, including the importance of breastfeeding, and micronutrient supplementation. Building upon the UNICEF and WHO Global Breastfeeding Collective, UNICEF prioritizes protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding and advocates for adoption and enforcement of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in Kazakhstan. Partnership of UNICEF and private sector includes work to incorporate child-friendly business principles in supporting breastfeeding mothers, parental leave, flour fortification, salt iodization and limiting the marketing of unhealthy food to children, including in school meals. UNICEF collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) in reviewing school-feeding and physical education programmes.
In 2022-2023, UNICEF supported various activities to improve Child Nutrition including assessment of school meals in Kazakhstan in order to develop recommendations for improving the school meals system and the quality of children's nutrition, revising the national guide for macro and micronutrient intake for various age-gender groups, elaboration of recipe book for children aged 6-10 and series of video recipes for the recipe book promotion, implementation of pilot school meal projects in Astana and Almaty, development of a web-application that estimates the macro- and micronutrient contents of school meals. UNICEF Business Advisory Council (BAC) recognized Child Nutrition a priority area for cooperation to address children's health and well-being.

Purpose of the assignment
Under the direct supervision of the Health and Nutrition Specialist, the National nutrition consultant will provide technical assistance to UNICEF Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Health, and other key stakeholders in revising school and preschool nutrition standards, assessment of preschool meals system, developing a national school and preschool healthy meal model, and implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in all birthing and children's hospitals.

Scope of Work
The National nutrition consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
1) Review and provide recommendations for updating the nutrition standards and meal requirements for school meal programs. Results of school meal pilot projects will give current information that can be used to develop recommendations for improving child nutrition regulations, such as healthy dietary requirements for children and guidelines for organizing school meals based on national healthy child nutrition standards, international standards, and nutritionally balanced menus. Recommendations for fostering an environment that supports kids' healthy nutrition can also be made.
2) Provide methodological support for assessing nutrition in preschool settings, participate in a concept development process to implement the nutrition assessment in preschool settings, participate in the development of assessment instruments, train fieldworkers to collect data, and participate in the data analysis and recommendation-making process.
3) Provide technical assistance to the design, planning, and implementation of awareness-raising campaigns and social and behavior change activities on healthy nutrition for children, including the development and promotion of the national healthy nutrition website for children, parents, authorities, school personnel, and all interested parties.
4) Participate in developing the concept for a study to analyze the factors influencing a woman's decision to begin breastfeeding soon after birthь development of methodology and tools for exploring the factors that influence women's decisions to breastfeed after childbirth and duration of breastfeeding, training field personnel in data collection, and assist with data analysis and recommendations.
5) Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and relevant organizations in the implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in all birthing and children's hospitals, as well as building the capacity of health care professionals to facilitate the safe implementation of evidence-based breastfeeding-related care practices at the hospital level, through home visitors, and in PHC facilities.

 Work Assignment Overview Nutrition Consultant 2024.docx

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
• Education: Nutrition, Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Systems or related field.
• Experience:
- At least five years of relevant experience on nutrition program management including experience at national and subnational levels .
- Familiarity with multidimensional nutrition programming through all life cycles, especially childhood and tools in health/nutrition programs.
- Knowledge of nutrition programme context in Kazakhstan
- Proven experience in planning, supervising health, and nutrition programmes, and training
- Fluency in written and spoken English and Russian languages and ability to write quality reports on nutrition or other related public health fields; knowledge of Kazakh is an advantage.
- Highly developed communication skills.
- Ability to work in an international and multi-cultural environment.
- Ability to work independently and respond to feedback in a timely and professional manner.
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to contribute to a team.
- Ability to summarise evidence, in writing and in workshops and meetings
- Experience with the UN is an asset
• Competencies:
- Expertise in health and nutrition program area;
- Experience in creating policy documents, strategies, and plans;
- Experience in planning and supervising health and nutrition programmes;
- Experience in developing training modules and materials

For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability (https://www.unicef.org/about/unicef-culture)

Evaluation Criteria
Technical evaluation weighs 70%, while Financial evaluation – 30%
A) Technical Evaluation (maximum 100 scores)
• Expertise in health and nutrition program area: The candidate should have experience and demonstrate a thorough understanding of multidimensional nutrition programming through all life cycles, especially childhood and tools in health/nutrition programs. He/she should be aware of the regulations, guidelines, and best practices in health and nutrition programming – 40 scores.
• Experience in creating policy documents, strategies, and plans: The candidate should have knowledge and skills in developing and implementing plans, standards and recommendations for health and nutrition programs based on the findings of studies and other data sources. He or she should be able to prioritize tasks, establish objectives, and take part in formulating standards and plans in line with the highest quality standards – 20 scores.
• Experience in planning and supervising health and nutrition programmes. The candidate should have understanding of public health principles and practices related to nutrition and health promotion, knowledge of program planning methodologies, including needs assessments, stakeholder engagement, goal setting, and monitoring and evaluation – 20 scores.
• Experience in developing training modules and materials. The candidate should have knowledge and skills in adapting training materials to meet the needs of the target audience, ability to conceptualize and organize training content into logical modules or units – 20 scores.

B) Financial Proposal (e.g. maximum of 30 scores)
Candidates must submit a financial proposal for the whole assignment based on these Terms of Reference. The financial proposal should clearly state the cost of the services for each Deliverables/Outputs.
Financial proposal is maximum 30 points. The lowest financial proposal, will receive the highest score during financial assessment. This is the main principle because saved funds will be directed towards other activities to aid children in Kazakhstan. Only financial proposals that fully cover all deliverables outlined in the terms of reference will be considered.
The financial proposal should include all possible costs related to the implementation of the tasks under the present TOR including in-country travel expenses. UNICEF does not provide or arrange health insurance coverage.
The financial proposal must be submitted in a separate file of non-editable format (e.g. PDF). Consultancy fees should be broken down to show the details for the mentioned above deliverables.
The Office selects the individual with the lowest best and final offer, based on best value for money.

Application requirements
The consultancy is open to individual international applicants.
Applicants are required to provide:
- Detailed CV
- at least 2 products of work (i.e. laws, policies, articles, concept notes, website materials, reports or any other materials), proving the following competencies:
a) expertise in digital law and policy development, child rights;
b) experience in developing legislation, standards, strategies and plans.
- Cover letter, highlighting relevant experience (maximum 500 words)
- Financial proposal either as i) daily fee as well as the total fee for the whole assignment OR budget by deliverables. The financial proposal should also explicitly indicate travel costs if this is a part of the assignment. Travel costs will be pre-approved by UNICEF as per the UNICEF rules and regulations for travel for consultants i.e., irrespective of the distance and duration of the flight, most direct and economy flight ticket shall apply.

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:  

• Completion of the UN/UNICEF mandatory trainings is obligatory upon commencement of the contract.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and that UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.
• Costs indicated are estimated. Final rate shall follow the “best value for money” principle, i.e., achieving the desired outcome at the lowest possible fee. Consultants will be asked to stipulate all-inclusive fees, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed 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. Also note that UNICEF does not make advance payment and UNICEF is exempted from paying VAT and any other form of taxes. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory or if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered, or for failure to meet deadlines (fees reduced due to late submission: 20 days – 10%; 1 month-20%; 2 months-50%; more 2 months – payment withhold).
• The Consultant will perform his/her duties in line with UNICEF standards and procedures.
• Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.