Senior Consultant to develop a national guideline on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child nutrition (MIYCN) in emergency, Kigali, Rwanda, 4 months (Work from office) - For Rwandan Nationals ONLY

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Background:

In emergencies, maternal and infant nutrition is important to prevent illness and death. Adequate nutrition is particularly important in an emergency. Infants and young children are mostly vulnerable during emergencies, when circumstances can lead to illness, infection, and potentially death.

The onset of outbreaks like EVD, COVID 19, Marburg and others showed that infectious diseases can disrupt the environments in which malnutrition could increase among under five children. Disruptions to families, separation between a mother and her child, child nutrition and feeding can have negative consequences for children’s well-being, cognitive development and growth. In addition, measures used to prevent and control the spread of the disease can expose children to malnutrition. Isolation measures can sometimes negatively impact children, if either a caregiver or a child is placed in an isolation facility while the other remains at home. Children who are left alone or are without adequate nurturing care, adequate nutrition and supervision at home due to illness of the primary caregiver or who are isolated or quarantined in a facility are at increased risk of all forms of malnutrition, including wasting, stunting and/or exposed to death. This is particularly heightened for infant and younger children, as well as children with special needs like infant on exclusive breastfeeding. The urgency to handle medical response doesn’t necessarily consider other aspects of child nutrition.

Health emergencies such as EVD or COVID-19 are often led by the health sector and health professionals are often not giving importance to maternal, infant and young child nutrition. It is important that during the response to such emergencies, health professionals can identify critical child nutrition issues and refer them to the required personnel and services. Also, policies, standards and protocols should follow a holistic approach that considers the child’s best nutrition as a primary consideration.

Emergencies disrupt people's lives, potentially leading to risks in feeding and caring practices for infants and young children, alongside increased vulnerability to diseases and malnutrition.

In Rwanda, the EVD, COVID-19 and Marburg experiences showed that breastfed infants and young children are not fed appropriately during the pandemic.  Young children separated from their sick mothers are not receiving appropriate nutritional care and caregivers do not have enough information and knowledge on appropriate child nutritional care and support in the context of emergency.

The lack of MIYCN guidance on how to take care of infant and young children during emergencies is affecting breastfeeding mothers and their young children during pandemics. This consultancy aimed to develop a Rwanda National Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition guidance aiming to establish a framework for protecting the nutritional well-being of mothers, infants, and young children, during crisis situations and respond to all issues related to child nutrition in emergency context.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Develop a comprehensive Rwanda National guideline on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child nutrition in emergency.

Key Tasks:

The consultant is expected to undertake the following activities:

Review of the global documents and national nutrition documents on maternal, infant and young child nutrition in humanitarian situation (policies, strategic plans, emergency SOPs and guidelines) and identify existing emergency guidelines in Rwanda to identify strengths and gaps on nutrition and maternal infant and young child nutrition in emergency.

Some of the key questions to be addressed include:

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Payment 1: 20%

Payment 2: 80%

Duration and Location

The consultancy will be for 4 months from May 2024 to August 2025 and the consultant will be based in RBC & UNICEF.

Selection Criteria

Applications shall be assessed based on their technical and financial proposals. Maximum scores for technical and financial applications will be 75% and 25%, respectively.

Successful candidates in technical evaluation will have their most competitive, all-inclusive financial proposals evaluated too.

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UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.