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, a chance

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action so all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias, or favoritism. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, nutrition, education, and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations. UNICEF has been in Sudan since 1952 and continues with a presence in 12 of Sudan’s 18 states.

Sudan is among the top four countries in the world with the highest prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM), with an estimated 13.6 percent. The nutrition outlook is expected to deteriorate in 2024 due to ongoing conflict since mid of April, food security decline, compromised health and WASH services, and prolonged displacement. The estimated people in need for nutrition services is projected to rise further with the deteriorating nutrition determinants. Currently, the nutrition cluster estimate that 3.67 million children under five will suffer from acute malnutrition during 2024, out of which, 729,000 children will have severe acute malnutrition which put them at immediate risk of death if not treated on timely manner. The micronutrient malnutrition is prevalent, with 48 per cent of under-five children experiencing anaemia due to iron deficiency. Minimum dietary diversity among under-fives is low at 25 per cent, further exacerbated by massive displacement disrupting feeding and caregiving practices. Around two-third of the country localities are classified as hard to reach areas.

How can you make a difference? 

The post holder is responsible for supporting the information management function to enable the effective functioning of the nutrition section.

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

IM function support

• Implement an IM strategy and data collection and analysis plan at sub-national level that take into account the information needs of stakeholders and that are compliant with standards and protocols for ethical data and information management and that is aligned with the national level NIS strategy and plan,
• Implement regular secondary data reviews and primary data collection including designing questionnaires using appropriate tools,
• Conduct data processing including organizing, cleaning, triangulating, evaluating, and validating the data,
• Analyze data to meet identified information needs of nutrition programmes.
• Create accurate, quality, and timely information products that are in line with agreed style guides,
• Disseminate information and information products through appropriate channels,
• Maintain and ensure the accessibility of a common and shared secure storage system,

Needs assessment and analysis.

• Working collaboratively with the relevant nutrition stakeholders at national and sub-national level, contribute to the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including joint assessments and analysis, as requested,
• Collect information on related nutrition information from the other clusters/sectors that includes food security, agriculture, health, WASH, etc to support the nutrition situation analysis and triangulation of the information.
• Work closely with Nutrition Cluster information management team to identify information gaps, agree and implement ways to bridge those gaps by providing technical support to partners. This includes engagement in the process of HNO and HRP, and provision of UNICEF inputs to the cluster where needed.

Strategic response planning

• Support partner presence mapping and ensure effective tracking of the achievements to inform UNICEF decisions on current and future partnerships with NGOs and governmental counterparts.
• Contribute to strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of the AWP, HAC, HRP or other response plans as relevant, including the formulation of objectives
  • indicators and targets, prioritizing response modalities and activities, identifying and quantifying inputs and the curation of data.

   

  Implementation and monitoring

  • Implement and maintain a national nutrition monitoring plan and associated databases, including a response monitoring database that is in line with and contributes to national level databases,
  • Support field offices and implementing partners to contribute timely and quality regular monitoring reports.
  • Support monitoring in the areas of information flows, dissemination, processing, analysis and dissemination,
  • Contribute to quantitative and qualitative gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the various information systems.
  • Support the ministry of health and other stakeholders in strengthening the nutrition information system in line with the overall health information system,
  • Ensure that nutrition indicators are integrated and mainstreamed in the national information system in both existing and planned platforms such as DHIS-2, LMIS, RapidPro, etc.
  • Support the planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting on the various nutrition assessments that include but not limited to SMART surveys, MUAC assessments, IYCF-E, etc. 

  Review and evaluation

  • Actively engage in the various review exercise that includes mid-year and end-year review of AWP, regular reviews with NGOs and FMOH/SMOH.
  • Contribute to sectoral and broader humanitarian evaluations.

  Accountability to affected people

  • Ensure the inclusion of cross cutting issues (age, child protection, disability, gender, gender-based violence (GBV) mitigation and response and HIV & AIDS) in nutrition section programming.

  Strengthen national and local capacity.

  • Conduct capacity mapping for nutrition partners and prepare annual capacity development plans in full collaboration with the relevant nutrition staff at the national and subnational levels.

  Coordination and representation

  • Actively engage with other IMs within UNICEF and within nutrition cluster partners including WHO, WFP, and others, including participating in the relevant clusters and working groups.
  • Promote harmonized and coordinated approaches for nutrition programme reporting across partners.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:   JD - Nutrition Officer NOB - (Nutrition Information).docx

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: A 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, nutritional epidemiology, or another health-related science field.

• Work Experience:

  A minimum of two years of professional experience in a developing country in one or more of the following areas is required: nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care.

• Language Requirements:

  Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Desirables:

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency. 

• Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development in a UN system agency or organization 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 (1)

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (1)

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact (1)

(4) Innovates and embraces change (1)

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

(6) Thinks and acts strategically (1)

(7) Works collaboratively with others (1)

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 females 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.

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.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.