Consultancy to uptake Guidance on Women and Girls Nutrition in Humanitarian Settings, PG Nutrition-(Remote/Home-based) #591797

Contract Duration: 7 months

Working arrangement: Remote/Home-based

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For every child, nutrition

Background

More than one billion adolescent girls and women globally suffer from undernutrition, largely due to deficiencies in essential micronutrients and anemia, as well as underweight and short stature. Pregnant and breastfeeding women and adolescent girls are at heightened nutritional risk compared to their non-pregnant and non-breastfeeding peers. In humanitarian and emergency settings, these risks are further exacerbated by exposure to violence, disruption of essential services and livelihoods, weakened social support systems, and widening inequalities.

In the context of the global food and nutrition crisis, UNICEF estimates that the number of malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women and adolescent girls increased by 25 per cent between 2020 and 2022 across 12 crisis-affected countries.1 These trends underscore the urgent need for more systematic, coordinated, and context-appropriate approaches to protect and improve the nutrition of women and adolescent girls in humanitarian settings.

In 2023, UNICEF launched a flagship report, “Undernourished and Overlooked: A Global Nutrition Crisis in Adolescent Girls and Women” which informs that malnutrition in pregnancy, especially anaemia significantly increases the risk of maternal mortality, obstetric complications and low birthweight infants and pregnant women and adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to be at risk of malnutrition; introducing a dangerous intergenerational cycle of malnutrition that is hard to break. Consequently, in March 2024, UNICEF launched the Maternal Nutrition Action Plan, aiming to reach 16 million pregnant women across 16 priority countries with an essential package of services, by the end of 2026.

In 2024, UNICEF, WFP, and partners with the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) released the “Programme guidance to Protect the Nutrition of Women and Adolescent Girls in Humanitarian Settings.” The guidance is intended to be used alongside existing humanitarian assessments, food security analyses, and response mechanisms. It focuses on the specific actions and programmatic adaptations required to address the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and adolescent girls across acute emergencies, protracted crises, and recovery contexts. The guidance is designed for country-level implementation.

To support the application of the programme guidance, UNICEF seeks to engage a consultant to provide technical, coordination, and documentation support across selected countries.

Purpose of Assignment:

The purpose of this consultancy is to support countries in the adoption of guidance on women’s and girls’ nutrition in humanitarian settings. The consultant will facilitate consultations, complete mapping and analysis of uptake of the recommendations from the guidance, assist in the development of country adoption roadmaps, and contribute to documentation and learning to inform uptake in other countries.

Scope of Work:

Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Centre of Excellence (CoE) - Global Nutrition Practice and jointly guided by UNICEF and WFP global teams, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Country Selection and Consultation

1. In collaboration with the UNICEF and WFP global teams, identify three countries with humanitarian contexts for initial engagement. The selection of countries will align with requests received from countries for support in Emergencies and/or maternal nutrition in humanitarian contexts.
2. Plan and facilitate initial consultations with Country Office teams and national cluster/sector coordination mechanisms on the consultancy, its objectives, and proposed activities.

1. Mapping and Analysis of Uptake

1. Co