Purpose of the Consultancy
The Monitoring Nutrition Status and Food Safety Events Unit (MNF), within the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, is looking to hire a consultant to enter, review and correct data on the micronutrient status of populations in the Micronutrients database. The consultant will be working with a WHO staff member responsible for the Micronutrients database. The overall objective of the project is to ensure that the WHO Micronutrients Database is up-to-date with regards of micronutrient status of populations in order to provide Member States and partners with up-to-date national, regional, and global assessments of the magnitude of micronutrient malnutrition.
Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a solid ambition in nutrition for the coming years, with the vision of a world free from all forms of malnutrition where all people achieve health and well-being. Part of WHO's mandate is to assess the nutritional status of populations, monitor and evaluate the impact of strategies for the prevention and control malnutrition, and to track trends over time. Understanding the magnitude and distribution of malnutrition and its determinants requires up-to-date high-quality information systems to guide the successful scaling up of nutrition actions. Likewise, tracking progress and trends holds governments and partners accountable for their actions to improve nutrition, and informs future priority setting. Setting targets and defining systems to track their achievements are essential steps for defining policies and strategies and for establishing accountability systems. Countries have agreed on three interrelated sets of global targets: Global Nutrition Targets 2025, Noncommunicable Disease Targets and SDG targets 2030. Measuring progress will require developing national targets and reporting on their achievement. The Monitoring Nutrition Status and Food Safety Events Unit (MNF), within the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, defines indicators and nutrition surveillance systems, hosts and maintain nutrition databases, monitors nutrition trends and measures the impact of country food and nutrition policies.
Currently, MNF hosts the upgraded and expanded Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Information System (VMNIS), which was established following a request by the World Health Assembly to strengthen surveillance of micronutrient deficiencies at the global level. One component of VMNIS is the Micronutrients Database that compiles national, within-country regional and first-administrative level data on vitamin and mineral nutritional status of populations in Member States. This Database is used to monitor micronutrient status around the globe, provide global estimates of the burden of micronutrient deficiencies, and calculate trends in micronutrient deficiency over time. The Database has been expanded into a more comprehensive surveillance system that includes most indicators of micronutrient status being used worldwide today.
Deliverables
Task 1. Enter micronutrients survey data into the Micronutrients Database
Deliverable: Entry of micronutrients survey data into the new WHO Micronutrients Database platform. First months of the contract will be dedicated to ensure the Database is up-to-date data in urinary iodine concentrations data in order to produce global iodine estimates. Electronic copies of surveys for possible inclusion in the Micronutrient Database will be provided by the Iodine Global Network (IGN) as well as per manual searches in academic sources. These surveys will be reviewed by WHO staff based on WHO inclusion criteria and eligible surveys will be entered into the database. Around fifty surveys will need to be entered and/or validated per month.
Task 2. Review and include data from systematic search in academic sources
Deliverable: Revision of references found in the systematic search in different academic databases. This search aims to find new data sources to be included into the database.
Task 3. Contribute to the testing of Micronutrient visualization tool
Deliverable: Test the functionality and data checking of the Micronutrients Database visualization tool. This tool will be part of the Nutrition Data Portal, which has recently been developed.
Qualifications, experience, skills and languages
Educational Qualifications
Essential: First university degree in nutrition, agriculture, public health, epidemiology, maternal and child health or closely related field.
Desirable: A master’s degree in nutrition, public health, epidemiology, or closely related field relevant to the functions of the position.
Experience
Essential: Four years of experience in health sciences, with focus on epidemiology and nutrition.
Desirable: Experience with databases and additional WHO official language
Skills/Knowledge
Knowledge and skills in assessing epidemiological and micronutrient status assessment methods in national, regional and 1st admin-level surveys.
Languages and level requiredEssential: Expert knowledge of English
Desirable: Knowledge of a second UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish)
Technical supervisor
Monica Flores Urrutia
Technical Officer
floresm@who.int
Duty station
Home-base, off-site
Travel
No travel is required
Remuneration and budget (travel costs excluded)
Band level A: USD 6500 per month (Full-time); the working schedule for this consultancy will be at 50%. Contract duration: Two months with the possibility of a further 6-month extension.
How to apply
- Kindly send your CV and cover letter to the following e-mail address nutrition@who.int before 31 January 2022.
- Please include “Consultancy - Micronutrients database” in the subject matter of your email application.
- Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.