Purpose of the Consultancy
To support the work of the Safe, Healthy and Sustainable Diet Unit in the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS), in particular in developing evidence-informed WHO guidance on diet and health to reduce the burden of diet- and nutrition-related health problems, including obesity and diet-related NCDs to ensure WHO’s guidance and technical support are solidly based on science.
Background
The WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS), through the work of the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Subgroup on Diet and Health, is updating the dietary goals for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases established in 1989 by the WHO Study Group and later updated by the 2002 Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. Updating of the dietary goals and developing guidance on healthy dietary patterns are important elements of WHO’s efforts in implementing the Nutrition and NCD agenda for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as achieving the ‘triple billion’ targets set up by the 13th General Programme of Work (2019 – 2023), including one billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.
As a result of this large body of work, WHO has already released updated guidance on intake of sodium, potassium and free sugars, and is currently preparing to release the final updated guidance on saturated fatty acid and
trans-fatty acid intake.
Furthermore, recently the draft guideline on total fat was released for public consultation and a number of other draft guidelines are in a process of being finalized to be released also for public consultation before their finalizations.
Leading up to the UN Food System Summit in September 2021 and the Nutrition for Growth Summit to be hosted in Japan in December 2021, WHO is accelerating its efforts in finalizing and releasing important updated dietary recommendations to serve as the science-based guidance to promote healthy diets.
Work to be performed
Specific tasks to be performed are to support the finalization of the guidelines on the intakes of total fat, saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates (including fibre), non-sugar sweeteners and healthy dietary patterns. The work will also include, among others, supporting of:
- the preparation and running of the NUGAG meetings;
- liaising with the authors of the systematic reviews to ensure their timely publications;
- managing and reviewing of public consultation and peer-review comments.
Specific requirements on qualification, experience, skills and languages
Educational qualifications:
Essential: Advanced university degree in nutrition science, epidemiology, biochemistry, physiology, food science, public health, or other related areas.
Experience:
Essential:
- At least 7 years' experience in carrying out scientific work or research in nutrition, noncommunicable diseases or public health, with focus on the issues related to diet and health, dietary guidance, prevention of obesity and diet-related NCDs at national or international levels.
- Proven record in preparing technical documents and scientific publications.
Desirable:
- Experience in authoring systematic reviews of the interventions or development of evidence-informed guidelines in nutrition
- Experience in using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence profiles for assessing the certainty of the evidence and also for informing the recommendations.
Skills / knowledge:
Computer literacy: word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.
Endnotes, RevMan and GRADE Profiler desirable.
Language requirements:
Essential: Expert knowledge of English
Desirable: Additional WHO official languages would be an asset.
Dates and Duty Station
Dates:
Start date: 22 April 2021
End date: 21 December 2021
Duty station:
Off-site (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 14 April 2021.