Consultancy - Consultant to Strengthen UNICEF Food Environment Policy Advocacy, Governance & Conflict-of-Interest Resources,GPD-Nutrition,Bangkok, Thailand, 11 Months (Remote)

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

UNICEF is seeking an individual consultant to provide specialist, time-bound support to strengthen its global, regional and country-level work on preventing overweight and obesity among children and adolescents. Globally, one in five children and adolescents aged 5–19 years—391 million—are living with overweight, including 188 million living with obesity. While undernutrition remains a significant concern in most low- and middle-income countries, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing among school-age children and adolescents.

Since initiating its work on food environments in 2020, UNICEF has made substantial progress in developing evidence-based tools and resources to support Country Offices. Demand for support is increasing, notably through REACH, as more offices seek to translate these resources into national action. During this Strategic Plan period, UNICEF aims to scale up technical assistance to help Country Offices apply available tools and advance the introduction, implementation and monitoring of national food-environment policies, contributing to UNICEF’s Strategic Plan commitment to reduce malnutrition in children and adolescents.

The assignment will strengthen and update UNICEF’s overweight programming guidance, technical resources and strategic positioning. This includes developing an evidence-informed position on the clinical management of obesity in children and adolescents, clarifying its relevance to UNICEF’s mandate and prevention-focused programming, and integrating the implications into updated guidance. The consultant will support selected Country Offices to apply UNICEF advocacy, technical, and conflict-of-interest resources to priority food-environment policy processes; provide responsive technical assistance to country and regional teams; and synthesize implementation lessons for wider learning. The assignment will strengthen the quality, consistency and practical application of UNICEF’s support for overweight and obesity prevention and help identify priority evidence, implementation and guidance gaps.

Minimum requirements:

Education:

• Master’s degree in Human Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition.

Work Experience:

• At least 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in food systems, food environment policy, nutrition policy, public health policy, governance, advocacy, or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the development, implementation or evaluation of food-environment policies, including areas such as food marketing restrictions, healthy school food environments, healthy retail, fiscal measures, food labelling, public procurement or related policy interventions.
• Demonstrated experience developing policy toolkits, guidance documents, frameworks, implementation resources, decision-support tools or advocacy resources for governments, UN agencies, development partners or civil society organizations.
• Experience conducting stakeholder analysis, political economy analysis, governance assessments and/or conflict-of-interest assessments related to public policy processes.
• Experience synthesizing evidence and translating technical information into practical guidance, policy recommendations and advocacy products.
• Experience working with UN agencies, international organizations, governments or development partners.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Knowledge of another UN language is desirable.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:

• Strong understanding of food-environment policies and overweight and obesity prevention.
• Strong analytical, research and writing skills.
• Demonstrated ability to develop practical tools, frameworks and guidance resources for non-technical users.
• Excellent facilitation, consultation and stakeholder-engagement skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into user-friendly products and recommendations.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.

Desirables:

• Experience working on food policy advocacy, governance and conflict-of-interest management.
• Familiarity with UNICEF, WHO or other UN system policy and programme environments.
• Experience working across multiple countries and regions.
• Experience supporting policy change processes in low- and middle-income countries.