Nutrition Innovations Consultant, Product Innovation Centre, Supply Division, Cph

Nutrition Innovations Consultant

UNICEF Supply Division, Copenhagen

 

Duration:  10 months

Location: Copenhagen or Remote

Travel: No travel is foreseen – if required, travel will be invoiced at actuals in line with UNICEF rules and regulations

Start Date: March 2021

 

BACKGROUND:

UNICEF procures and supplies over 5,000 products to address the needs of children. In 2019, UNICEF procured $3.826 billion worth of goods and services from all over the world, including life-saving commodities to improve the health, education, safety and well-being of children.  Much of UNICEF Supply Division’s (SD) work focuses on working with suppliers and a range of partners to ensure the availability of life-saving products. SD’s work in product innovation enables the development of new products or the improvement of existing ones, hereby ensuring value for money and the availability of fit for purpose and value for money products that can benefit children around the world.        

UNICEF Supply Division (SD) is seeking a full-time consultant to supplement the work of the SD Product Innovation Centre in the position of “Nutrition Innovations Consultant” to manage a number of Product Innovation Projects (PIPs) and new explorations in the area of Nutrition.

The office requires a project management expert ideally with nutrition expertise, to identify, and drive the development and scale up of high-impact product innovations which support nutrition programming for children. The consultant will be expected to drive product innovation projects to success, in close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. The consultant should be a self-starter with strong coordination skills and capability of driving projects and producing polished documentation independently.

 

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this consultancy is to bring a number of new and potential product innovation projects (PIPs) to fruition in the Nutrition space ensuring an equally important focus on supply and demand generation. The consultant will be further expected to provide input, both technical and commercial to existing product innovation projects in the Nutrition space and other activities related to enabling product innovation as required.

 

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT:

Under the supervision of the Innovation Manager, Product Innovation Centre (PIC) and in close collaboration with the Technical Specialist, Medicines and Nutrition Centre (MNC) and UNICEF Programme Division (PD), the consultant will:  

 

Manage a number of potential new and existing Product Innovation Projects (PIPs):

1. Ensure management of supply and demand elements of the ongoing ’Complementary Feeding Bowl Product Innovation Project ‘ in collaboration with WFP Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and UNICEF MENA country offices in close coordination with programme colleagues in NYHQ nutrition team.  This should culminate in Innovation Review Board Approval of either Field Trial or Transition to Scale phase.
2. Develop key validation elements of the ‘Eat-Play Box – innovative packaging project’ which will enable product boxes to be used as toys for children with and without disabilities, in collaboration with nutrition colleagues and a university.
3. Continue the exploration of a new Humanitarian Parenting Kit in collaboration with Nutrition/Early Childhood Development team in NYHQ – includes human centred design approaches to assembling key products for new parents in a humanitarian crisis and if valid progress through Need Phase of UNICEF Innovation Review Board governance structure.
4. Oversee the Vitamin A exploration for a potential innovation project in collaboration with MNC and Nutrition NYHQ teams.

 

Establishment and project management of the projects outlined above.

• Ensure appropriate project management, including planning and execution to achieve timely results
• Coordinate with country offices on the need and provision of product innovations
• Ensure high quality coordination and partner/stakeholder management including logistics, monitoring, reporting and user feedback
• Support the supervisor in Managing multi-stakeholder budgets and its distributions across projects
• Support the convening of advisory committees where relevant (and manage related meetings)
• Create project documentation including Innovation Review Board submissions, proposals and presentations for high-level endorsement
• Develop, review and edit country level concept notes, proposals and business cases.

 

KEY DELIVERABLES:

Most tasks are ongoing across multiple projects at once.  It is expected that the consultant would deliver the following for each of the projects as applicable (using existing documentation where available) in consultation with the Innovation Manager and Technical Specialists. 

Documentation

1. Document outlining the methodology and approach to validating and scaling the products
2. Finalize any pending tender documentation as part of an ongoing procurement
3. Document specifying the demand forecasts based on country office needs
4. Establishing monitoring frameworks to ensure user feedback on products.
5. A final report for each project, delivering an overarching recommendation for whether and how UNICEF should engage
6. Publish and manage opportunities for university and academic engagement

1. Innovation Strategy
2. Innovation Review Board Submission Documents (internal documentation)
3. Project Presentations
4. Monitoring Framework
5. Maintain project plans
6. Global and country level concept notes.

 

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

 Education:

• Master’s Degree in Nutrition, Food Technology, Food Science, Public Health, Innovation, or another relevant discipline such as Project Management
• A university degree combined with additional two years of relevant work experience in new product development, innovation or project management or additional courses in relevant subjects will be considered in lieu of a master’s degree if the candidate can demonstrate high level of experience with related projects.

Work Experience:

• Minimum five years of relevant, progressively responsible, professional experience is required
• Preferred candidate will have experience in managing innovation projects or managing scientific trials e.g. acceptability trials or field trials, ideally in the context of public procurement and / or in the development / humanitarian sector
• Knowledge of deploying nutrition products in developing countries is a strong asset
• Knowledge of the programming environment in which UNICEF operates is considered a strong asset
• Knowledge of UN procurement processes is an asset
• Prior experience working with or at UNICEF or other multilateral institutions would be a plus

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is essential.
• Knowledge of another UN language would be an asset but not essential.

 

EVALUATION PROCESS:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

1. Cover letter/application
2. CV
3. Financial quote at a monthly rate in US Dollars. Financial quote should be inclusive of service fees, taxes and all living expenses. DSA will not be paid in addition to monthly rate for this consultancy.
4. Examples of previous, relevant projects or work
5. 2 written references from previous employers, or contact details for 2 referees who may be contacted

Kindly note that the application deadline is 12 February 2021. Please indicate your availability and daily rate to undertake the terms of reference above.  Applications submitted without a monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF considers best value for money as a criteria for evaluating potential candidates.  As a general principle, the fees payable to a consultant or individual contractor follow the “best value for money” principle, i.e., achieving the desired outcome at the lowest possible fee.  Please note that consultants and individual contractors are responsible for assuming costs for obtaining visas and travel insurance.

Successful applicants will be evaluated by the following criteria:

	Applicant x
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION    (max. 80 points)
Overall Response (20 points)	20
Understanding of tasks, objectives and completeness and coherence of response	10
Overall match between the TOR requirements and proposal	10
Technical Capacity (50 points)	50
Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience/	15
Education (as outlined in ToR)	10
Health and nutrition expertise	5
Project management experience	15
Knowledge of UNICEF context/field locations	5
TECHNICAL QUALIFICATION – Total Points	70
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL     (max. 30 points)
Monthly rate
Other costs
Total estimated cost of contract
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – Weight Combined Score	30
TOTAL SCORE   (max. 100 points)