Home-based Consultancy: Strengthening technical capacities on disability inclusive nutrition in emergencies (50 working days between Feb and July 2024) – Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS)

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, dedication.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

This assignment will aim to improve nutrition outcomes for infants and children with disabilities to prevent wasting and other forms of malnutrition, by ensuring that nutrition services support all children, including the most vulnerable.

Scope of work

This assignment will participate to the effort of the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) and the Technical Alliance, together with UNICEF, to support partners from the nutrition clusters in-country to strengthen their technical capacity on disability inclusive early childhood nutrition in emergencies (NiE) and child development, both in programming and in humanitarian coordination. This will be achieved through improving access by frontline health workers to existing technical resources on disability inclusive early childhood nutrition in emergencies programs and strengthening disability inclusion in tools used during assessment, screening and NiE interventions.

The need for this assignment has arisen out of the necessity to improve access to and use of relevant operational guidance and tools for nutrition and child development practitioners delivering interventions in emergency settings and targeting infants and young children with feeding difficulties and disabilities. While several guidance and tools exist either at country level or globally, there is a need to design a road map/decision tool pointing out the right document at the right time to the practitioners along the childcare pathway (including health workers in nutrition programs, staff from Early Childhood Development interventions, caregivers and others). There is also a need for a mapping of gaps and subsequent recommendations.

The priority needs that have been identified by field practitioners, and that will guide the structure of the decision tool that will be developed as part of this work, should include:

• Assessment of the nutritional status of infants and young children with disabilities (including anthropometric measurements and thresholds)
• Management of wasting in infants and young children with disabilities
• Prevention of malnutrition and early identification of feeding difficulties with guidance on continuity of social services/ support, including engagement with caregivers
• Accessibility of nutrition programs to infants and young children with disabilities (and mothers, fathers, pregnant and lactating women and other caregivers with disabilities if identified as a need)

In order to improve the inclusiveness of disability in nutrition in emergencies programs, a resource bank on feeding difficulties and disability inclusion has been developed by USAID Advancing Nutrition and is transitioning to UNICEF. Preliminary discussion has also been held to identify gaps and challenges. This consultancy will further build on this work, with a specific focus on emergencies to extract practical tools.

The recruited consultant will:

• Identify concretely challenges faced by practitioners in the field to identifying and addressing the nutritional needs of infants and young children with disabilities and caregivers who have disabilities in emergency settings (if later identified as a need)
• Review existing emergency rapid assessment and screening forms and processes “most commonly used” by emergency practitioners and nutrition cluster/sector partners, and develop recommendations on key procedural changes needed to better include disabilities in these forms
• Develop a road map/decision tool for emergency practitioners to rapidly have access to relevant existing tools and resources on prevention and management of feeding difficulties and nutritional care for children &
  infants with disabilities in emergencies and/or low resource settings. The decision tool will also be useful for cluster/sector teams coordinating and planning nutrition in emergencies programs.

The above work will be carried out in consultation with relevant sectors, including health and social services.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone	Deliverables / Outputs	Timeline / Deadline
Draft inception report clarifying scope and methodology of work	Inception report	5 working days; By February 2024
Consultation with key stakeholders in the nutrition and child development in emergencies field to clarify key challenges in identifying and addressing the nutritional needs of infants and young children with disabilities and caregivers who have disabilities in emergency settings, including challenges in using existing guidance and further needs	Key challenges documented in project report	10 working days; By 31 March 2024
Review of existing technical resources (including audiovisual material) and identify key resources for frontline workers in emergencies. This task will also include capturing gaps and providing actionable recommendations to address them if applicable.	List of key resources categorized by type of NiE interventions	5 working days; By 30 April 2024
Develop a decision tool to sign post frontline workers to existing tools and resources on prevention and management of feeding difficulties and nutritional care for infants and children with disabilities, with consideration for transversal issues such as stigma, referral and continuity of care	Decision tool presenting key scenarios relating to feeding difficulties and disability, with protocol and tools available	10 working days; By 01 June 2024
Develop an GNC E-learning module on the decision tool, with the support of the GNC CT Capacity Development Specialist (module of max 30min, in English, 3 days for development + 2 days for consultations)	E-learning module on Nutrition and Disabilities decision tool available	10 working days; By 30 June 2024
Review of existing emergency needs assessment (population level), screening, program tools and processes “most commonly used” by emergency practitioners and nutrition cluster/sector partners and draft recommendations on key procedural changes needed to better include disabilities	Recommendations for adaptations of “most commonly used” tools included in project report; Draft key tool(s) to be “disability” inclusive, and revision of these based on one round of feedback from field practitioners	10 working days; By 01 July 2024

Estimated Duration of the Contract

50 working days between February and July 2024.

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be home-based with no travels foreseen.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned 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.

Please propose a lumpsum professional fee (in USD) based on 50 working days to undertake this assignment. 

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

• Master’s degree in Nutrition, maternal child health, public health or other relevant related fields
• Minimum seven (7) years experience and a strong track record of expertise at the international level in public health nutrition, infant and young child feeding and/or early childhood development.
• Demonstrated experience in report and guidance writing in the field of nutrition and child development.
• Strong technical knowledge on disability inclusive nutrition, maternal child health and/or public health is essential
• Experience supporting delivery of nutrition interventions, maternal child health and/or public health in emergencies is highly desirable
• Excellent communication skills, good teamwork, facilitation skills, driven for results, time keeping, research and analysis.
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills.
• Fluency in English with excellent drafting skills.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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 to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Please include a full CV and a Financial Proposal in your application by indicating your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a proposed professional fee will not be considered. 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.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants 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.