Consultancy: Consultant, Financing and costing of nutrition services for the prevention and care of child wasting – Nutrition Section, PD, NYHQ (remote based) – Req # 536921

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Consultancy title: Financing and costing of nutrition services for the prevention and care of child wasting 

Section/Division/Duty Station: Nutrition Section / PD / New York (remote based)

Duration: 222 days (11.5 months)

 

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

While advances have been made in some countries with the integration of essential nutrition interventions services into the national health systems (e.g. severe wasting treatment, Vitamin A supplementation), financing of these programmes remains an important bottleneck. The prioritization of nutrition-specific interventions and the mobilization of financing depends, in part, on accurate cost estimates. The current evidence on the cost to implement interventions to prevent and treat wasting is limited and conflicting, especially for wasting services integrated into national health care systems.

UNICEF is currently working towards improving the reliability and validity of cost per nutrition service estimates at country level. This will in turn feed into more accurate costed nutrition plans, including the Common Results Frameworks (CRFs) supported by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement, which can be used for evidence-based investment cases that ultimately serve high level nutrition advocacy. The next step, and the motivation for this assignment, is to develop guidance to support national governments to move from a costed nutrition plan to a financed nutrition plan.

Sufficient financing of wasting services is still challenging to achieve even where there is political commitment. In many countries treatment of wasting continues to be viewed as an emergency intervention and as such often relies on external humanitarian funding mechanisms which are short-term and unpredictable. A more sustained and integrated approach to financing of nutrition-specific services for the treatment and prevention of wasting is required particularly in light of the likely reduction of available foreign assistance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Scope of Work:

The focus of this assignment is on financing nutrition services for the prevention and care of child wasting. Additional contribution will be expected towards ongoing work on costing of nutrition services which will ultimately feed into the work on financing. Finally, knowledge dissemination and capacity building will also be a small component of this assignment.

The outputs of this consultancy will provide information more broadly on nutrition financing, as well as on the current financing situation and the opportunities for budget expansion with regards to services addressing wasting in selected countries globally. the consultant will identify crucial evidence gaps related to nutrition financing that currently limit investment.

Financing prevention and care of wasting (75%)

The scope, content and methodology of the deliverables for this component of the assignment will be proposed by the consultant at the end of the inception phase. The inception report should also describe the nature of the support and information required by the consultant from UNICEF as well as any potential risks or challenges to achieving the deliverables.

• Review of current financing situation of services for the prevention and care of wasting. The aim is to understand current sources and mechanisms of financing, trends, advantages and challenges with regards to financing for nutrition, specifically wasting. Some fiscal space analysis and modeling of future scenarios will enrich this process.
• Identify financing requirements and funding gaps. To develop a good financing strategy, the government ought to know how much is required over a given period as well as trends in financing to establish funding gaps.
• Support the development of a resource guide for financing treatment of wasting. For the purpose of this guide, financing will include consideration of the source, allocation, and management of funds for wasting programs. This will be developed in collaboration with Research for Development (R4D).

Dissemination and capacity building (25%):

There is a need to enhance the capacity of UNICEF nutrition staff and government officials to undertake costing exercises and advocate for more domestic and innovative financing for the prevention and care of wasting.

•           Lead the preparation of presentations, briefs and webinars related to financing and contribute to those related to costing.

OBJECTIVES

The overarching objective of this assignment is to provide clear information on pathways to financing services for the prevention and care of wasting and to develop guidance to support national governments in the progressive integration of wasting services and financing into national health systems and budgets.

Specifically, the consultancy should achieve the following:

1.         Establish clear and tangible pathways to mobilize domestic, international and innovative monetary resources that will support the establishment and/or scaling-up of services for the prevention and care of wasting.

2.         Build capacity among the nutrition community including UNICEF nutrition staff and national governments for financing nutrition services for the prevention and care of wasting.

Task/milestone , Number of days, Deadline

Inception report, 30, March 2021

Report of current financing situation of prevention and care of wasting interventions, 90, June 2021

Resource guide on financing mechanisms of treatment of wasting with country case studies, 60, October 2021

Lead or collaborate in the development and presentation of webinar(s) on: a) current landscape of financing mechanisms; b) resource guide on financing mechanisms and country case studies; c) cost and cost-effectiveness of wasting treatment; d) costing tools; e) decision chart on costing methodology and tools, 42 , December 2021

TOTAL   222       

Qualifications

• Masters in a science related field (e.g. public health, nutrition, health science), with 5 years of relevant experience.

1) Education

• Advanced university degree in economics, health economics, public health, statistics, public finance management, development studies, social or public policy, preferably with specialization in social budgeting or public finance management and fiscal space analysis in social sectors. 

2) Work experience

• 5 years professional experience in public finance management, economic research or similar field.
• Experience with financial modeling, assessing financial services and/or financial strategy development preferred.

3) Competencies

Outstanding communication skills, with ability to write and speak in a clear and practical manner in English is mandatory, French is an added advantage.

Requirements:

• Completed profile in UNICEF’s e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
  • your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference (can be downloaded here: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_consultancy_assignments.html 
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

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

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, appearance, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious and ethnic backgrounds 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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.