Nutrition Specialist -Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Open to non-Ethiopian Nationals only)

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

Ethiopia is a highly strategic country to for the globe to reach sustainable development goal (SDG) targets, as well as being in the middle of a L3 humanitarian emergency. As a result, UNICEF is a sought-after partner in Ethiopia for humanitarian and development donors due to the vast operational presence, implementation capacity and integrity. The donor relations portfolio in Ethiopia Country Office is one of the largest and most visible globally for UNICEF, with more than 160 active grants and more than 200 reports due to donors annually.

For every child, a champion

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, advocacy, and operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action.

In Northern Ethiopia, the security situation continues to be volatile, exacerbating existing humanitarian needs and vulnerabilities and significantly constraining humanitarian access to the populations in most need. In Tigray, more than 1 million individuals remain displaced, while recent clashes in Amhara have disrupted access to basic social services and have led to new population displacements and significant protection concerns. In addition, over 20 million people in Ethiopia are facing food insecurity. These are negatively affecting the well-being of communities and putting children and mothers at a higher risk of malnutrition. Overall, the country is struggling to cope with growing needs in wasting treatment, with about 1.2 million children targeted to be treated of severe wasting in 2023, a 45% increase from the target set in the previous year. Addressing these high needs requires strategic shifts from focus on emergency life-saving nutrition programing towards emergency preparedness and response planning, systems approaches, multi-sectoral and life-cycle approach for prevention and treatment of child wasting, inter-agency collaboration with other UN-Agencies, as well as building strong humanitarian development and peace nexus programming.

How can you make a difference?

• Coordinate with other UN agencies, including WFP, UNHCR, WHO, FAO and the Ministry of Health and other line ministeries for effective implementation of the Global Action Plan (GAP) on child wasting in Ethiopia.
• Advocate to MoH and support the enlistment of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food RUTF in essential medicines list for Ethiopia.
• Support mobilization of public financing for nutrition building on the success of the 2023 Match Funding application for Ethiopia.
• Support Acceleration of preventive packages for reduction of child wasting, using the systems approach – food systems, social protection systems, health systems, WASH and Education systems.
• Support climate resilient approaches programming and nexus for nutrition, building on resilient programming in collaboration with FCDO, KFW and CIFF.
• Contribute to humanitarian, development and peace nexus for nutrition outcomes, engage in national level dialogue and initiatives and support to take to scale.
• Support effective supply management inlcudign prevention and mitigation of aid-diversion, in line with internal UNICEF requirements and donor agreements, especially, the nutrition supplies.
• Participate in strategic programme discussions on the planning of nutrition programmes/projects, with special attention to fragile and emergency settings
• Provide technical support to UNICEF Field Offices on grant management, and general programme implementation.
• Support fund raising, coordinating donor visits, development of advocacy briefs, and writing of donor reports.
• Identify lessons learned and use the knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.

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 5 five years of relevant professional experience in a developing country in one or more of the following areas is required: nutrition, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant, and child nutrition.
• Experience in emergencies and fragile contexts in developing countries is an asset for this position.
• Experience in providing support to field offices, government and non-governement partners is required.
• Experience in nutrition programme/project development in a UN system agency or organization is 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 Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework 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.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

[If Applicable] Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF.

UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

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