Nutrition in Emergency Specialist

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

**Job Title**:Nutrition in Emergency specialist - WFP Rapid Response Team

**Type of Contract**:International Consultant

**Division: NUT - **Nutrition Division

**Duty Station (City, Country)**: Home-based, when not deployed

**Duration**:11 months

**BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT**:
The World Food programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency implementing programs to fight hunger and is part of the global community working to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, which includes ending malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Emergency preparedness and response is a core component of WFP’s work.

Hunger and malnutrition are widespread among crisis-affected populations, disproportionately impacting women and children. Forty-five percent of deaths in children under-five are associated with undernutrition, related to both acute and chronic undernutrition. Poor nutrition also has longer term consequences related to child growth and development - these latter consequences are largely irreversible. WFP’s emergency nutrition programming is an integral part of any humanitarian crisis response and globally.

In particular, WFP facilitates access to appropriate nutritious foods for children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in order to prevent or treat malnutrition and thus makes a crucial contribution to saving lives and strengthening physical resilience to shocks in emergency-affected communities. Given the multiple causes of malnutrition, WFP also advocates for a comprehensive response to address the underlying and immediate causes of malnutrition to be achieved in partnership with other key sectors (i.e., optimal IYCF practices, good health services, proper hygiene and sanitation and household food security). WFP works with governments, UN partners (mostly UNICEF and UNHCR) and other international and national organizations to ensure a well-coordinated nutrition response.

**PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT**:
The Nutrition Division at WFP Headquarters is seeking a full-time consultant to join a Rapid Response Team (RRT), in order to support timely, appropriate and well-coordinated nutrition responses in emergencies. Members of the RRT may be called to respond to sudden-onset or slow-onset crises, to support scale-up, scale-down, and/or quality improvements and coordination in existing emergency nutrition programs. The RRT role intends to fill _short-term_ capacity gaps until medium
- to long-term solutions are found by Country Office. Each assignment is not expected to exceed three months on average. RRT members will be deployable within 72 hours after VISA is obtained and will be on deployment an estimated 70-80% of their time. When not deployed, the RRT members will contribute to other workplan priorities of the Division’s Operation team. The consultants are expected to attend security trainings required for hard ship duty stations. They will receive a thorough briefing before the first deployment_._

**ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES**:
Following responsibilities are indicative and will be aligned with priorities determined by the concerned WFP country office and outlined in a specific TOR for each deployment. During country deployment the tasks will be carried out in close collaboration with the different functional teams of the country office (such as program, supply chain, reporting, etc.). During non-deployment, tasks will be coordinated with members of the Emergency Nutrition team of Nutrition Operation team of WFP’s Nutrition Division.
- **Provide immediate technical and programmatic support to WFP’s nutrition response in emergencies in crisis affected countries. Depending on programme needs, general responsibilities include**:

- Coordinate with WFP country office, Regional Bureau (RB) and HQ to plan and support the start-up/scale-up of emergency nutrition responses.
- Provide support to strengthen the capacity of WFP staff and key partners involved in the nutrition response to ensure quality program implementation, including facilitating the development or adaptation of training and guidance materials as needed.
- Strategically engage with the country’s Nutrition Cluster or equivalent coordination mechanism, working closely with government, UNICEF, UNHCR, NGOs and other partners to develop strategies and implement coordinated/multi-sectoral responses.
- Liaise with Food Security Cluster to ensure that assessments and nutrition and food security responses are aligned and well-coordinated and support collaboration with Health and WASH clusters.
- Support to and advocate for nutrition assessments in collaboration with government partners, UN agencies, NGOs and other nutrition actors and in coordination with WFP’s Vulnerability analysis and mapping (VAM) team. Identify joint assessment opportunities when applicable.
- Provide