Review of policies and programmes in prevention and management of all forms of malnutrition across all life stages in 14 Pacific Island Countries.

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The UNICEF Pacific Islands’ multi-country programme covers the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Together, these 14 countries and territories are home to 2.45 million people, living on more than 660 islands and atolls stretching across 17.2 million square Kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, an area comparable to the combined size of the United States of America and Canada.

Collectively the Pacific faces a triple burden of malnutrition with three of the most prevalent nutritional threats to early childhood development being childhood stunting within the first 1,000 days of life, micronutrient deficiency among women and children especially anaemia, and overweight and obesity among women with a growing concern among children including adolescents. These conditions are present concurrently in the sub region, in the same country, the same household and sometimes in the same child.

Five of fourteen countries do not have recent data on stunting (Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, FSM and Palau) and four countries, (Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu) have low prevalence rates. Nauru, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, RMI, and Kiribati have medium to very high rates of stunting.

Rates of childhood overweight are high in Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu and Tonga. Except in the three countries (Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) where the rates of maternal overweight are between 60% and 80%, in 11 other remaining countries, more than 80% of women are overweight or obese.

Rates of anaemia are of concern in both women and children ranging from 22% to 41% in women and from 27% to 49% in children under the age of five years.

UNICEF is seeking consultancy services to undertake a review of policies and programmes across the life course under implementation in all 14 countries with specific focus on reducing stunting during the first 1,000 days including the prevention and management of acute malnutrition, preventing micronutrient deficiencies in women and children with a focus on anaemia, and preventing overweight and obesity in women and children.

The findings of the review will be important for the respective governments in all 14 countries , to undertake evidence based policies and planning including prioritizing actions to prevent stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity across different life stages. The findings will inform the development of UNICEF multi-country programme 2023-2027 as well as to advocate and leverage resources, strengthen partnership and action in improving the nutrition outcomes of children and women in these countries.

How can you make a difference?

The consultant/institution will lead the review across 14 countries. This will involve desk review for situation analysis, stock take of existing policies and programmes, understanding drivers and determinants of the nutritional status, an assessment of policy options and practical, strategies and recommendations for action being sure to situate recommendations and strategies within resource context of the 14 countries. The consultancy will be undertaken remotely and is envisaged to require consultation with government departments, civil society organization as well as with sub-regional organizations including WHO, the Pacific Community, IFAD and FAO

The assessment may require (not limiting to) the following stages

1. Develop a review framework or matrix: Develop a review framework or matrix for analysis of available data and policies across the life courses and the program being implemented. A draft tool for overweight and obesity prevention is shared in the Annex, which could be adapted and expanded for stunting and micronutrient deficiencies across the life-stages in consultation with UNICEF.
The nutrition situation analysis is available with UNICEF and could be used for the background.

2. Review of the policy/programme landscape: Identify policies and programmes that contribute to increase or decrease in stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity as well as those shaping an obesogenic environment. Policies that affect the population across all life stages should be considered. For example, for overweight and obesity, this could be food prices, availability and labelling and including policies specifically affecting children such as TV advertising and school food standards, etc. Similarly, for stunting pertinent policies covering the first 1,000 days, nutrition during adolescents, pregnancy and lactation, low birth weight, infant and young child feeding, prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition, and multisector coordination structures. For micronutrient deficiencies, existing policies include areas such as dietary diversity, fortification, supplementation as well as infection prevention. For children and adolescents, the availability of school health and nutrition, school feedings etc could be considered.

Simultaneously, this also requires stock-take of the levels of implementation of programs for prevention and management of stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies as well as overweight and obesity. The review for program interventions will be guided by recommendations from Lancet 2021, results areas and programmatic priorities of UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030 as well as polices and strategies available at country levels. Together with desk review of available policies and programme, this requires consultations with regional organizations like FAO, SPC and WHO that are active in the area of nutrition in the Pacific.

3. Propose recommended strategies and programmes options for action: Examine current policies, legislation and strategies for actions, including actions to address inequities, cost and resources, and country capacity for implementation of potential strategies. The proposed strategy and programmes for action should consider stakeholder positions, opportunities, and barriers. Highlight priority areas/niche areas for UNICEF to develop and/or complement/contribute (both in formulation of policies as well as implementation of programs) to prevent all forms of malnutrition (stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity) across the life stages (early childhood, middle childhood and adolescents, pregnancy and breastfeeding) in line with UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030.

Key questions that this assignment would like to get answers are:
1. In context of the prevalence of existing triple (or double) burden of malnutrition in the PICTs and programmatic priorities envisages by UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030, which policies, legislation and strategies are available at country levels.
2. To translate the policy priorities into actions, what program interventions are currently being implemented (by government, private sector and CSOs) in these countries? What is the scale/coverage of these interventions?
3. What are the weaknesses and gaps in Policy and Programmes for these 14 PICTs, and what are opportunities or niches that could be proposed for UNICEF in terms of formulation/updating of policies/strategies or implementation of program interventions to address the triple burden and realize the program results and priorities established by global strategy 2020-2030. Also if these opportunities/programmes could be prioritized and proposed as action plan for next five years.
4. Documentation of coordination, planning and financing for these programmes, and also document any strength, weaknesses, any opportunities and gaps and challenges, if any
5. Overall findings, gaps, challenges and policy options; and alignment of existing policies and programmes to regional and global strategies and frameworks

The purpose of this assignment is to help guide the relevant ministries of the PICTs, as well as UNICEF and other relevant stakeholders to support the PICT governments in formulating/updating policies as well as in designing and implementing programme interventions to reduce the existing double or triple burdens of malnutrition in pacific .

All Applications must include: 

• Technical proposal
• Financial proposal (for individual outlining daily rate)
• One sample of similar work done within last 3 years
• List names and email of at least three referees

After the opening, each proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its financial value price. The proposal with the best overall value, composed of technical merit and price, will be recommended for approval. UNICEF will set up an evaluation panel composed of technical and procurement staff and their conclusions will be forwarded to the internal UNICEF Contracts Review Committee or other relevant approving authority. The evaluation panel will first evaluate each response for compliance with the requirements of this Terms of Reference. Responses deemed not to meet all the mandatory requirements will be considered non-compliant and rejected at this stage without further consideration. Failure to comply with any of the terms and conditions contained in these Terms of Reference, including provision of all required information, may result in a response or proposal being disqualified from further consideration. The overall weighting between technical and price evaluation will be based on the predefined criteria. The technical component will account for 70% of the total points allocated and the financial component (commercial evaluation) will account for 30% of the total points allocated. The currency of this proposal shall be in US Dollars. All quoted prices/rates must be exclusive of all taxes since UNICEF is exempted from government taxes, levies and duties.

Commercial evaluation:
The price/cost of each of the technically compliant proposals shall be considered only after evaluation of the above technical criteria. A maximum 30 point assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest financial proposal. All other price proposals will receive scores in inverse proportion according to the following formula:

Score for price proposal A = (Maximum score for price proposal * Price of lowest priced proposal)/Price of proposal A. As a result of the financial evaluation, the points of each proposal will be taken into further consideration in the final evaluation.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Public Health, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Biochemistry, Public Health Policy, Global/International Health, Health Economics. 
• The consultant or team of consultants) tasked with undertaking review of policies and programme should have some essential skills including:
  • For individual at least 10 years of work experience on public health and/or nutrition.
  • Understanding statistical reports on stunting, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity and their trends
  • Understanding the life course and the growth and nutritional status of children
  • Familiarity with using on-line databases e.g. hosted by UNICEF, WHO and FAO
  • Ability to communicate with researchers and government officials to obtain and check facts
  • Ability to summaries evidence, in writing and in workshops and meetings
• Fluency in English is required

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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.