Nutrition Specialist

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and malnutrition. The main aim of the FAO country offices, which are headed by an FAO Representative, is to assist governments to develop policies, programmes and projects to achieve food security and to reduce hunger and malnutrition, to help develop the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors, and to use their environmental and natural resources in a sustainable manner.

FAO is working with the Government of Zambia on a Technical Assistance to the Scaling Up Nutrition Programme in Zambia project under the SUN Phase II program. The program is jointly funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Irish Aid and the European Union (EU) in 17 districts of Zambia through UNICEF. Leveraging complementary technical assistance from other UN agencies, UNICEF has a UN-to-UN cooperation agreement with FAO.

The SUN phase II FAO programme component contributes to the reduction of malnutrition in pregnant and breast-feeding women and children under two (2) years of age through improvements in dietary diversity and quality. FAO’s project outcome is a sustained demand, utilization and consumption of agriculture and forest foods.

More specifically, the project is structured around the delivery of four interconnected outputs:

Output 1: Access to diversified, nutritious food improved.
Output 2: Sustainable production, processing, value addition and marketing of non-wood forest products for dietary diversity and income generation
Output 3: Food safety and diet quality enhanced
Output 4: Generation of nutrition information to monitor, prioritize and adapt interventions.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAOR, direct supervision of the National Coordinator – Food Security and Nutrition and the technical guidance of the Nutrition Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and relevant technical units in FAO the Nutrition specialist will perform the following tasks:

Technical Focus

Nutrition, food safety, nutrition sensitive agriculture, food systems, behaviour change communications and food security.

Tasks and responsibilities

The incumbent, through his/her work, will contribute to implementation of the project activities among which include:

Nutrition Advisory Responsibilities

• Provide nutrition technical advice in the implementation of the SUN II project
• Ensure the delivery of Output 3 of the SUN II project: “Food safety and diet quality enhanced”
• Support the Nutrition Lead Technical Officer in developing the Consumer Manual of the Food Based Dietary Guidelines
• Develop messages on addressing of gender issues in nutrition and agriculture to address socio-economic and cultural dimension affecting nutrition for children, men and women
• Develop communication tools to deliver key messages on nutrition and non-wood forest foods tailor made for each type of target audience.
• Support measures and training on Good Agricultural Practices that mitigate against aflatoxin contamination.
• Capacity building on specific food safety control measures along the targeted value chains.
• Monitor and supervise the implementation of Nutrition Manual for Extension Workers in all the SUN II districts
• Promote sustainable practices in capture, collection, processing and consumption of nutritious forest foods (insects, honey, mopani worms-caterpillars, grasshoppers, termites (inswa), mushrooms, nuts etc)
• Support moringa tree planting, multiplication propagation, care, processing and utilization of moringa as a nutrient dense food.
• Promote appropriate processing techniques to improving nutrition status for Agriculture and Forestry products during harvesting, preservation, and processing for consumption
• Document and share project outputs, outcomes, human life stories of changed lives for project beneficiaries and impacts covering various aspects of output 2 & 3 to promote the visibility of FAO’s work on quarterly basis.
• Promote synergies and strengthen linkages with other interventions within this project and with other FAO programs.
• Liaise with WFP with Aflatoxin management.
• Any other tasks required to optimize the impact of the SUN II Programme;
• Represent FAO in all nutrition cluster meetings
• Any other nutrition related duties assigned by the FAOR

Field Responsibilities

• In collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Forestry Department and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, provide technical support to the sector activities under the SUN II program in Southern and Lusaka Provinces particularly Choma, Monze, Lusaka and Chongwe Districts
• Liaise with the local NGOs and the DNCC to ensure prioritization of agricultural sector activities in the four districts.
• In consultation with the SUN II Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, carry out monitoring and evaluation of SUN II activities in your assigned provinces
• In consultation with the Communications Specialist, collaborate with the district and provincial media organizations to communicate information relating to FAO technical support to SUN II
• Contribute to the organization of and/or participate in meetings, conferences, workshops, consultations and field visits as needed; contribute to building collaborations and partnerships;
• Represent FAO in district and provincial level SUNII partners meeting in your respective provinces
• Submit monthly progress reports to the National Coordinator- Nutrition and Food Security
• Provide weekly updates on the project implementation during the SUN II team weekly meetings
• Support the SIFAZ activities in Choma and Monze

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• An undergraduate degree or Master’s degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Agriculture, Agricultural agribusiness, Livestock production or related field
• Five (5) relevant progressive experience working in nutrition programs. Demonstrated Knowledge and experience in working under the Government’s First 1000 most critical days program.
• Working knowledge of English
• National of Zambia

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional skills

• Work experience in more than one location or area of work
• Attention to detail and problem-solving skills; and Result-oriented approach;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with Excellent analytical and synthesis capacities.
• Strong organizational and planning skills and commitment to discretion and confidentiality
• Familiarity with UN human resource administrative procedures and systems
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines; and able to work under minimum supervision and to cope with conflicting agendas;
• Knowledge of food safety, food systems transformation and scaling up nutrition interventions is added advantage
• Experience in capacity building and training, an asset

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION