Job, National Consultancy to Support the Inter-Ministerial Committee to fight Malnutrition in Yaoundé-Cameroon/UNICEF
6 min read
Deadline: 17 October 2021, W. Central Africa Standard Time
Organisation: UNICEF
Job no: 545036
Position type: Consultancy
Location: Cameroon
Division/Equivalent: Dakar (WCAR), Senegal
School/Unit: Republic of Cameroon
Department/Office: Yaounde, Republic of Cameroon
Categories: Nutrition
About the Org; 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, good health
Discover and apply for career opportunities HERE
The main objectives of the consultant will be:
• Provide technical assistance to the Inter- Ministerial Committee to fight malnutrition.
• Review and update of nutrition policy/strategy documents in Cameroon and the multisectoral operational plan;
• Support the development of the common result framework;
• Support costing and expenditure tracking strategies;
• Ensure capacity building and support to the sectors focal points (MINADER, MINDEVEL, MINEE, MINPROFF, MINAS, MINESUP, MINEPAT…)
• Finalize implementation and follow-up of the regional coordination platforms.
• Provide strategic guidance to the committee to monitor and coordinate all nutrition interventions at national and decentralized levels.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have :
- Masters ( Nutrition, Public Health, Health Economy, Health Policies/Strategies)
- Work experience: Minimum 8 years of experience in the design and management of nutrition programs including multisectoral coordination.
- Competencies: Strong organizational skills and attention to detail; Strong analytical skills Sound judgement and initiative; Proven skills in advocacy; Strong communication and writing skills
- Languages: French written and oral fluency, with a good knowledge of English
Supervision :
Head Nutrition section
Condition Of Work :
- Office Based
- 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 (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 will provide the consultant with an office and internet connection. However, the consultant will need to bring his/her own laptop and the necessary software and technical tools to carry out the assignment.
Read details and APPLY HERE
PLEASE TO PROVIDE (ATTACHED) YOUR FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL PROPOSAL SEPARATLY
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.
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 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:
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
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.
Read details and APPLY HERE
Advertised: Oct 04 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time
Application close: Oct 17 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time
Scope of Work:
The determinants of malnutrition are varied, encompassing a range of biological, economic, and sociocultural factors. Achieving global targets for reducing undernutrition calls for a multisectoral approach that includes scaled-up, proven, nutrition-specific interventions as well as nutrition-sensitive interventions and approaches. Coordination of nutrition planning, funding and implementation across sectors, stakeholders, and government levels is critical to the scaling up of nutrition programs and impacts. In identifying a multisectoral approach as a key principle for improving nutrition outcomes. However, multi-sectoral coordination for nutrition is also very challenging as it involves multiple sectors and partners that have different approaches, visions, and understandings of the problem (Garrett, Bassett, and Levinson 2011). It is difficult to influence and sustain nutrition-based mandates across line ministries whose performances are evaluated on non-nutrition-oriented activities (Levinson, Balarajan, and Marini 2013).
In Cameroon, two out of five children under the age of five are not growing well to realize their full developmental potential and effectively contribute to the society when they become adults. These children suffer a triple burden of malnutrition, meaning that they are stunting, wasted, or deficient in key micronutrients. Despite a decline of its prevalence from 32.6 per cent in 2011 to 28.9 percent in 2018, child stunting remains high and still affects a little over one million under-five children at any time. Child wasting is low at national level at 4.3 per cent in 2018 but reaches medium public health proportions with 10 per cent prevalence rates in the regions of Adamawa, and Far North. Overweight has nearly doubled in prevalence among under-five children from 6.5 per cent in 2011 to 11.0 per cent in 2018. Finally, nearly 3 out of five under-five children and 2 out of 5 women of reproductive age suffer from anaemia.
Children are not growing well in part because they are not eating the right food to meet their growing and evolving need and sustain their optimal growth and development and because the systems to support and protect their diets and their communities’ practices and use of service for better growth are deficient. Indeed, only 40 per cent of children are exclusively breastfed for the first six month of their life and barely 20 per cent are fed an adequately varied diet with at least 5 food groups when they reach 6 months of age while breastfeeding is continued. Breastfeeding is initiated within an hour after birth for less than half of children born at a hospital.
Until recently, these different forms of malnutrition were tackled in a fragmented way in Cameroon and, as a result, very little progress was made. Since 2018, a more focused approach that addresses malnutrition in a comprehensive way and improve coverage of key nutrition interventions is ongoing through the action of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (CILM). The Government of Cameroon has established this Committee to fight malnutrition and has a mandate to ensure the coordination of nutrition interventions across many sectors. A multi-sectoral nutrition system at national and decentralized levels as been initiated with however limited coverage at decentralized level. Going forward, there is a need to maintain high level national governance in Nutrition and improve decentralized coordination of stakeholders united around a common results framework.
The major bottlenecks identified in the multisectoral coordination are as following:
• Absence of a costed multisectoral nutrition policy to provide a vision and help coalesce all relevant sector strategies around a common goal.
• Weak multisectoral coordination at all levels for an efficient and effective planning, delivery, and monitoring of nutrition interventions.
• Lack of a multisectoral nutrition information system to inform decision-making at national and subnational levels.
• Rigid social norms and taboos that limit the use of services and the adoption of diets and practices for better nutrition.
• Limited financial resources available for service provision and limited affordable nutrient-dense food on the market.
Read details and APPLY HERE
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
