Senior National consultant to develop the micronutrient guidelines and hospital recipes book, Kigali Rwanda, 3 months: (Deadline 26 February 2023)
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Background
In terms of nutrition outcomes in Rwanda, stunting and anemia among under-five children have remained high (33% and 37%, respectively), and overweight and obesity have doubled in the last 10 years, particularly among women residing in urban areas. This triple burden of malnutrition (i.e., undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity) is affecting human capital development targets and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, Child Food Poverty (CFPrates consistently remain high in Rwanda, with 53% of Rwandan Children suffering from CFP.
Despite reductions in malnutrition rates in Rwanda during the past decade, the current rates are still of public health significance. Micronutrient deficiencies and anemia remain key challenges in Rwanda and require accelerated effort to address it with a focus on children, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age innovatively.
Micronutrient malnutrition is a major impediment to socioeconomic development and contributes to a vicious circle of underdevelopment, to the detriment of already underprivileged groups. It has long-ranging effects on health, learning ability, and productivity. Micronutrient malnutrition leads to high social and public costs, and reduced work capacity in populations due to high rates of illness and disability.
The National Strategy for Transformation 1 covering the five-year period between 2017 and 2024 calls for the elimination of all forms of malnutrition in Rwanda. Scaling up prevention and control of micronutrient deficiencies is one of the areas of nutrition investment so far. To address the problem of micronutrient deficiencies, the government through Rwandan Biomedical Centre (RBC) in collaboration with development partners has worked on efforts towards the prevention of micronutrient deficiencies by the provision of micronutrient supplementation with vitamin A to under-fives and provision of iron folic acid to pregnant women as well as MNPs to children under two.
The government of Rwanda recognizes and emphasizes the importance of meeting adequate nutritional needs in the first 1,000 days of life, including exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months followed by nutrient-dense complementary foods. In many resource-limited community settings where predominant food is based on cereals, it has been noted that the available foods contain insufficient amounts of micronutrients, particularly iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin A, which are typically found in animal-source foods. Thus, access to micronutrient interventions such as home fortification of complementary foods for children 6-23 months is crucial to meet the needs for the child full potential development. Early life nutrition supports intellectual and physical development, as well as lifelong health, and is crucial in combating undernutrition. Therefore, adequate intake of essential micronutrients is vital in supporting maternal and infant nutrition during this unique window of opportunity.
In term of nutritional care and support in the health facilities, the practices regarding hospital diets are very heterogeneous. Hospital diets are rarely prescribed by physicians, and sometimes the choices of diets are based on arbitrary reasons. Often prescriptions are made independently from the evaluation of nutritional status, and without considering the nutritional status. Therapeutic diets (low salt, gluten-free, texture and consistency modified, …) are associated with decreased energy delivery (i.e. underfeeding) and increased risk of malnutrition. Therefore, there is a need to develop a national recipe book for hospitals which will guide health workers to provide appropriate diets according to patient’s medical conditions for better nutritional outcome
Child food poverty is a situation where young children are not fed the minimum diverse diet, they need in early childhood to grow and develop to their full potential.
Scope of Work:
The consultant is expected to undertake the following activities:
- Desk Review
- Review of the national health and nutrition documents (policies, strategic plans and guidelines) and identify
existing – guidelines on micronutrient deficiency in Rwanda to identify strengths and gaps.
- Review existing recipes book, identify areas of improvement for appropriate recipes for hospitals
Some of the key questions to be addressed include:
- Are the guidelines and recipe book in line with UNICEF/WHO recommendations?
- are programs operating in line with global standards?
- What are the best delivery models for the various micronutrients that can be used countrywide without affecting future sustainability?
- Who is best place to use the recipe book in the hospital?
- Draft the Micronutrient Guidelines and the hospital recipe book
- Convene a meeting with the nutrition stakeholders in Rwanda to discuss the proposed outline for the draft of the National Micronutrient Guidelines and the hospital recipes book
- Develop the 1st draft of a comprehensive National Micronutrient Guidelines for Rwanda, which incorporates possible micronutrients (Vitamin A, Iron, Iodine, Folic acid, etc.) deficiency control strategies, namely, supplementation, fortification, dietary diversification, etc.
- Develop the 1st draft of the hospital recipe book which is practical and uses accessible and local ingredients
- Convene technical stakeholder’s consultative meeting
- Convene at least a 1-day working session with national and selected district-level stakeholders to review and further refine the drafted micronutrient guidelines and hospital recipes book. The stakeholders must include, but not be limited to MOH/RBC, MINIGPROF/NCDA, UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, JICA, USAID).
- Share the draft micronutrient guideline and hospital recipes book with the key stakeholders for the final feedback
- Produce a final draft of the Micronutrient Guidelines and hospital recipes book for Rwanda and disseminate both
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- Prepare a summary brief of the Micronutrient Guidelines (preferably one page) and a PowerPoint presentation with the key components from the guidelines
- Develop a ‘User-friendly’ summary version of the micronutrients guidelines
- Design and print detailed and summary versions of the guidelines
- Design and print a practical hospital recipes book with pictures where relevant
- Plan and facilitate national dissemination workshops
6. Submit National Micronutrient Guidelines and hospital recipes book for Rwanda to the Rwandan government (MOH/RBC)
Duty Station/Location
The national consultant will work from home and sometimes at the UNICEF premise for activities and processes that require physical presence. The Consultants can work from RBC too.
Timeline
The expected duration of the assignment is 60 working days from February – April 2023
Work Assignment Overview
Tasks/Milestone:
- Desk Review of current guidelines of micronutrients and hospital recipes books nationally and globally
- Draft the Micronutrient Guidelines; MMS operational guideline and implementation tools including registration books and mother’s card based on recommendations from the technical working group
- Draft the hospital recipes books
- Finalize the micronutrient guidelines; MMS operational plan and implementation tools and the hospital recipes book with highlighted changes based on the stakeholder meeting and any other follow-up meetings
- Produce a summary of the Micronutrient Guidelines for Rwanda and present/disseminate the Guideline
- Plan and facilitate national dissemination workshops for the 2 national documents
Deliverables/Outputs:
Payment 1: 10% of total payment
- Desk review report on micronutrients deficiency finalized. To be completed by 15 March 2023
Payment 2: 10% of total payment
- First draft of MMS operational guide and implementation tools completed. To be completed by 15 April 2023
Payment 3: 40% of total payment
- Final draft of micronutrient guideline; Final MMS operational guide, and implementation tools finalized. To be completed by 15 May 2023
Payment 4: 40% of total payment
- A 1-page summary brief of the Micronutrient Guidelines finalized. To be completed by 15 June 202
- Dissemination workshop report about the guidelines and hospital recipe book conducted. To be completed by 30 June 2023
Selection Criteria
Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Education: Advanced university degree (Master or Higher) in Nutrition, Public Health or related field, with experience in nutrition/micronutrients policy, strategy and guidelines development in the context of Rwanda
Relevant work experience: At least 8 years of professional experience in the Nutrition and/or Public Health field; Sound experience in reviewing and drafting policies, strategies and guidelines.
Previous experience in nutrition programming in the context of Rwanda.
Knowledge of Rwanda’s nutrition landscape is an asset.
Competencies: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, excellent written and oral communication skills; effective organizational skills; high drive for results; high commitment; teamwork and strong interpersonal and intercultural skills.
Languages needed: Fluency in English (verbal and written) is required, knowledge of any other UN language is an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
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:
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.
The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
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