Join a multicultural team at the foothills of the Himalayas, to lead our efforts to eradicate malnutrition in the some of the worst-affected countries in the world, and working tirelessly to improve the living conditions of over 600 million children across South Asia.

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, strength.

How can you make a difference?

The Regional Adviser, Nutrition serves as the authoritative thought leader to the ROSA leadership, the Regional Management Team, Country Offices, and government institutions and officials on strategies, policies, approaches, best practices, and knowledge on nutrition-related issues. The Regional Adviser leads regional office support to Country Office’s on nutrition-related programme development planning, implementation, management, resource mobilization, and capacity building. In doing so, s/he contributes to achieving concrete and sustainable results on adolescent, maternal, infant and child nutrition, to improve the well being and health of mothers, newborns and children in the country.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Regional advisory services and technical support on strategic planning

• Advise key national government officials, NGO partners, UN system partners and other country office partners on policies, strategies, approaches and best practices on maternal, infant and child nutrition, including emergency preparedness and resilience programming, to support programme development planning, management, implementation and delivery of results.
• Participate in regional/country programme planning, preparation and reviews to provide advice on formulation, design, management, enhancement and communication of UNICEF country office nutrition programmes including setting priorities and results-based management goals.
• Participate in key regional events and strategic discussions to influence policy discussions and agenda setting on maternal, infant and child nutrition programmes and national development efforts to improve the well being and health of mothers, newborn and children in the country.
• Develop and/or recommend regional programme policy/papers, strategies and approaches. Lead and/or organize regional strategic discussions and planning on maternal, infant and child nutrition programmes and projects. Collaborate with other Regional Advisers/Country Offices on cross cutting issues to harmonize, link and/or leverage competencies.

Oversight and support to country offices on programme development and planning

• Collaborate with the Regional Management/Country Office teams throughout all stages of nutrition programming to provide technical support to programme preparation, implementation and monitoring for results.
• Provide policy guidance and technical support to national external partners and internal colleagues to develop national policies and strategies for UNICEF assisted programmes including scaling up of nutrition programmes.
• Contribute to the planning and updating of the situation analysis to ensure that current and comprehensive data on maternal, infant and child nutrition related issues is available to guide UNICEF’s strategic policy advocacy, interventions, and development efforts on nutrition programmes and projects, and to set programme priorities, strategies, design and implementation plans.
• Keep abreast of national, regional, and international development priorities on maternal and child nutrition-related issues to leverage UNICEF’s position and competencies with donors, national governments, communities, and constituents and to advocate and promote nutrition-related interventions and policies and social change to improve maternal, infant and child well being and survival.
• Provide technical advice to facilitate the preparation of the Country Office nutrition programme recommendation and related documentation, and to ensure alignment of programmes goals with UNICEF’s overall Strategic (Nutrition) Plans and regional strategies.
• Consult and collaborate with national and global colleagues, partners and allies to develop a partnerships framework to address specific needs and to leverage resources for enhancing and scaling up nutrition programmes/projects.
• Evaluate and facilitate synergy, integration, coherence, and harmonization of programmes/projects with UNICEF Strategic Plans and priorities; donors’ development strategies and policies; national priorities and competencies, and UN System development interventions/initiatives.

Regional quality assurance, programme monitoring and assessment

• Collaborate with HQ Advisers, as well as Regional/Country Monitoring and Evaluation Advisers/Officers to establish benchmarks, performance indicators and other UNICEF/UN system indicators and measurements to assess and strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results on nutrition programmes and projects.
• Participate in major monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual sector reviews with the government and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine and to provide advice on required action/interventions to achieve results.
• Assess COs monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and/or weaknesses in programme management; identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.
• Submit and share assessments on nutrition programmes in country offices, highlighting critical issues and suggestions for enhancing performance and delivery of sustainable results.

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with regional and national government counterparts, UN system agency partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes, and private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on nutrition programmes and projects.
• Collaborate with and advise country offices in the region to develop strategies and implementation plans and activities for maximum communication impact and outreach to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support resource mobilization for UNICEF and Country Office nutrition programmes and projects.
• Participate and/or represent UNICEF (as delegated/designated) in key events, meetings and in inter-agency (UNCT) discussions and planning on nutrition-related issues to ensure organizational position, interests and priorities are clearly articulated and fully considered and integrated in the UNDAF process in development planning and agenda setting.
• Collaborate with regional inter-agency partners and colleagues in UNDAF planning and preparation of nutrition related programmes and projects.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Promote critical thinking and introduce technological and programme innovations, approaches and good practices in the region for sustainable nutrition programme/project initiatives through advocacy and technical advisory services.
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce, and implement best and cutting edge practices in the region’s nutrition programme management and information systems. Institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned.
• Identify, assess, vet, and disseminate a roster of qualified experts and highly recognized institutions for easy access and use by stakeholders.
• Lead and/or develop policies and procedures, and introduce innovation and best practices to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
• Lead, plan and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders to promote sustainable results on nutrition programmes/projects.

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

• An advanced 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.
• A minimum of ten years of relevant professional experience in nutrition, public health, related research or planning and management in relevant areas of maternal, infant and child nutrition at the international level, some of which preferably in a developing country is required.
• Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization is an asset
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in:

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (3)
• Works Collaboratively with others (3)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (3)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (3)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (3)
• Drives to achieve impactful results (3)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (3)

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 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.

The successful candidate MUST be able to travel unhindered to all the countries in South Asia.

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