Purpose of the Consultancy
To strengthen the development of evidence-informed guidelines on wasting, and tools for country support in undernutrition. This position supports the Food and Nutrition Action in Health Services Unit in its activities related to its normative and country support work in the management of undernutrition in the context of the double burden of malnutrition. The scope entails development of guidance and tools for policy support and support on integration of prevention and treatment of undernutrition into health systems for the achievement of universal coverage and sustainability in both development and humanitarian settings.
Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) works with Member States and partners to ensure universal access to effective health and nutrition actions and to healthy and sustainable diets. To do this, the WHO uses its convening power to help set, align, and advocate for priority actions to improve health and nutrition; develop evidence-informed guidance based on robust scientific and ethical frameworks; support the adoption of guidance and implementation of effective actions; and monitor and evaluate policy and programme implementation and health and nutrition outcomes.
In 2015, Member States committed to eliminating all forms of malnutrition by 2030 as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve this objective, the SDGs incorporated the Global Nutrition Targets approved by the World Health Assembly that aim to reduce the proportion of children suffering from wasting to < 5% by 2025 and to < 3% by 2030. Yet since these targets were adopted, the proportion of children with wasting has remained largely unchanged. In 2019, an estimated 7.3% of all children younger than 5 years (or 50 million children) had wasting. To achieve the SDG targets on wasting and undernutrition, a major policy shift is needed, with increased efforts to prevent all forms of malnutrition.
In December 2019, the WHO, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Food Programme (WFP) convened a 3-day technical consultation on the prevention and treatment of wasting in children in Geneva, Switzerland. This consultation brought together international experts in the fields of undernutrition and child health, with the purpose of reviewing the technical framing of wasting, discussing how to identify infants and children at highest risk of morbidity and mortality, identifying key gaps in the guidance on preventing and treating wasting in infants and children, and agreeing on action points towards the Global Nutrition targets. This was followed by the release of the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting (GAP) which provided the WHO with the mandate to lead the development of normative guidance and tools to support governments on the prevention and treatment of child wasting in infants and children in all contexts.
Work to be performed
Support the development of a comprehensive guideline on the prevention and treatment of wasting which includes:
- scoping of the guideline,
- development of the PICO questions, and
- contributing to the protocols for relevant systematic reviews of the literature.
Specific requirements
Qualifications required:
Advanced university degree in epidemiology, and nutrition or maternal and child health with a focus on undernutrition.
Experience required:
- At least 7 years' experience in public health nutrition, with focus on nutrition for maternal and child health, of which at least 5 years at international level.
- Experience working on the management of undernutrition in the field.
- Proven record in preparing technical documents and scientific publications.
Experience desirable:
- Experience in authoring systematic reviews of the interventions or development of evidence-informed guidelines in nutrition.
- Previous experience at country level in policy, strategy development and programme implementation.
- Working experience in a UN agency or global NGO.
Skills / technical skills and knowledge:
Computer literacy: word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. Statistical analysis software, Review Manager and GRADE Profiler desirable.
Language requirements:
Expert knowledge of English is required. Intermediate knowledge of French would be desirable. Additional WHO official languages would be an asset.
Dates and duty station
The consultant is intended to start on 1 October 2020 and will run through 31 December 2020. The consultant is expected to be based in Geneva, Switzerland (TBC). There may be a possibility to work remotely for part of this assignment given the COVID-19 pandemic and related travel restrictions.
How to apply
Interested parties should prepare their CV in WHO format here: https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobsearch.ftl then download the CV in PDF format and submit it to nutrition@who.int with a short cover letter by 20 September 2020.