Behaviour Change and Demand Creation Specialist

**Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance**

**Job Title**:Behaviour Change and Demand Creation Specialist

**Type of Contract**:International Consultant

**Division: NUT - **Nutrition Division

**Duty Station (City, Country)**: HQ, Rome Italy

**Duration**:11 months

**BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT**:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. As such, nutrition is integral to our mission of reaching Zero Hunger and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As WFP is increasing its nutrition focus, it is important to bolster staff understanding of the central role of nutrition and healthy in achieving WFP’s wider mission and the roles we each play in promoting good nutrition. Furthermore, a cornerstone of the SDGs is the support that agencies such as the UN and specifically WFP can give to governments to reach their commitments to Agenda 2030. Achieving increased capacity in nutrition both within WFP and with partners, especially government partners, has been articulated in a comprehensive in WFP’s Nutrition Policy and Country Capacity Strengthening work.

To implement the new corporate strategic plan, countries are developing multi-year Country Strategic Plans. Many of these plans include Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) for supporting nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive objectives to address all forms of malnutrition, including the double burden. These activities include direct implementation and support to partners and governments in the form of technical assistance and country capacity strengthening. The scale of cash programming and the increased focus on social protection present unprecedented opportunities to influence diets, and SBC is required in order to empower recipients of cash assistance to meet their needs and maximize the nutritional value of their purchases. An increased focus on the food system, food value chains also presents unprecedented opportunities to influence diets. Changing behaviours is required to empower recipients of this assistance to meet their essential needs. maximize the nutritional value of their purchases and drive the demand for nutritious foods and healthy diets that are accessible through formal and informal markets, while discouraging the consumption of unhealthy foods and drinks high in fat, sugar and salt.

There is a high demand for tools, capacity and support to implement complementary behaviour change and demand creation interventions across different country contexts and programme outcomes. To meet the demand, WFP HQ will aim to develop practical, easy to use tools and guidance, increase in learning exchange for best practices and document evidence of the impact of behaviour change interventions. This will lead to better programme outcomes and improved diets nutrition through a range of WFP programming.

**ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES**:
The Behaviour Change Consultant will report to the Chief of Nutrition Integration and coordinate across the Nutrition Integration Team, the Nutrition Division and other divisions including VAM/RAM, CBT, Social Protection and Supply Chain. The Behaviour Change Specialist will be expected to draw on their leadership skills, experience in organizational capacity building in behaviour change, strategy development and technical assistance to governments. The Behaviour Change Specialist will be expected to lead the following:

- **Establish new processes and guidelines for the use of behaviour change approaches and interventions to enhance programme design and implementation to achieve programmatic outcomes including healthier diets and improved nutrition outcomes.**
- Collaborate with WFP divisions and units including Cash Based Transfers (CBT), Social Protection, Gender and Protection, School Based Programming, Food Systems and Resilience and Supply Chain to define and integrate behaviour change as an essential part of all response packages through business cases, policy briefs and advocacy meetings
- Initiate and lead an inter-unit behaviour change community of practice for engagement across NUT division (including M&E and research) to facilitate exchange of learning and evidence of behaviour change as part of nutrition programming (CBT and Social Protection, HIV/AIDS, prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition, school-based programming, resilience).
- Support innovation for behaviour change working with RBs and COs as well as the Innovation unit within WFP.
- **Support capacity building of WFP RBs, COs, governments, and partners in behaviour change and demand creation**.
- Support RBs and COs in the development of proposals, strategies, and tools for capacity building, design and implementation of behaviour change policies and strategies.
- Support capacity building in the design, implementation, and evaluation of behaviour change through technical as