2 x Nutrition Support Officers, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea 11.5 months

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, Nutrition 

With over 850 indigenous languages and one of the most ethnically diverse populations, widespread poverty, and gender inequality make it hard for many children to realize their rights. In Papua New Guinea, UNICEF’s works effectively both ‘upstream’ (with governments) and ‘downstream’ (at the grassroots level) to carry out its mission through a programme of cooperation jointly developed with the government guides our work in the country.

 

How can you make a difference? 

In PNG, almost half of the under-five children are stunted according to the Health Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2009/2010. PNG has the highest rates of all dimensions of child malnutrition in the region and is off-track on all the global nutrition targets. The stunting rate rises quickly from 6 months onwards to 2 years and remains stable until 59 months. Stunting in early years can prevent children from achieving their full development potential through its impacts on physical and mental development of children, which can result in poor achievement at school, decreased productivity, and loss of earnings in adult life. Stunting can be prevented with nutrition specific interventions and multisectoral actions in nutrition sensitive interventions during the first 1,000 days of life when infant and child growth, physical and brain development, are at their peak. It is with this background that UNICEF, is seeking to hire two qualified NSOs to support field level implementation of nutrition interventions and convergence of multisectoral nutrition relevant interventions that address the determinants of stunting during the first 1,000 days of life. The NSOs will be based at the provincial level and will work closely with the provincial health authority nutrition focal point to support capacity building of health care workers and VHA, provide supportive supervision to health care workers and VHA, conduct quality assurance checks on utilization of health and nutrition services, and provide mentorship and coaching to health care workers and VHA on an ongoing basis.

 

Working under the direct supervision of the Nutrition Specialist and in collaboration with PHA management, the consultant will.

i) Facilitate the implementation of component one of the CNSP in the assigned province.

ii) Provide technical support for programmatic data collection and reporting for component one of the CNSP.

iii) Support emergency preparedness and response activities as and whenever required and ensure that the project meets Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) requirements.

 

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

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, health sciences, nutritional epidemiology, or another health-related science field

    – NB. For NSO supporting program monitoring: Information technology, statistics or other related field.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

a. Necessary experience.

  – Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience in nutrition, analysis, and data management.

  – Experience with information systems, statistical analysis including the use of relevant software.

b. Language skills. Fluency required in English and TokPisin.

c. Other necessary/desirable skills/qualifications. – Strong verbal and written communication skills

  – Willingness to travel and work in field environments.

d. Other requirements.

  – Candidate must be a national of PNG.

  – Interested applicants must submit a cover letter together with their CV

  – Candidate must include in the cover letter expected monthly consultancy fee (state amount in PGK please)

 

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

For every Child, you demonstrate… our core values of Commitment, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability and Sustainability. 

This position is a short-term assignment and doesn’t give rise to a long-term permanent post with the organization.

Applicants are required to include in their applications a financial proposal which includes a lumpsum amount for consultancy fees, local transportation and other miscellaneous costs. Breakdown or details of the fee will be much appreciated.

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.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply.

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.

UNICEF does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing, or orientation). 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.