Nutrition Specialist

About us

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. It is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children’s rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.

UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in 191 countries through country programmes and National Committees.

What We Do

UNICEF works to protect the rights of every child in South Sudan

UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation.
Before, during and after humanitarian emergencies, UNICEF is on the ground, providing lifesaving support and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, UNICEF is never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures.

In South Sudan, continues to grapple with persistent nutrition insecurity stemming largely from disabling socio-economic and political conditions, exacerbated by a long history of shocks. These include years of conflict, droughts, flooding, suboptimal maternal and childcare practices, gender disparities, and widespread repeated episodes of childhood illnesses. The post COVID pandemic and global events have affected South Sudan, which has negatively impacted food security and the nutrition situation.
Following South Sudan’s Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM, 2017) guidelines, UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP), jointly provide technical guidance and lifesaving commodities to ensure that more children and women benefit from equitable access to integrated and quality curative services for the management of wasting, including in emergencies. South Sudan’s Nutrition Cluster Strategy provides guidance to implement different strategies by county priority. The cluster guidance includes the implementation of the recently released the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global guidelines on the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema (acute malnutrition) in infants and children under five (5) years. . The guideline comes with a new result area to manage High Risk Moderate Acute Malnutrition (HRM) with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), alongside the usual Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) burden. For this new approach, South Sudan is among the 5 frontrunner countries globally and will be piloted in 13 counties in 2 states with medium deprivations and malnutrition levels that resulted from a multiple deprivation longitudinal analysis. For operational reasons, a purposive selection was undertaken and agreed with MOH, UNICEF and WFP to come up with these 13 counties for the anticipated pilot.

Based in Juba, the IUNV Nutrition Specialist will be dedicated to the operationalisation of the new WHO global guidelines on the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema pilot in the 13 counties in South Sudan.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Nutrition Manager (Wasting) or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer Nutrition Specialist will ensure that:
• South Sudan’s Ministry of Health develops and disseminates a country roadmap towards the operationalization of the updated guideline on the Prevention and Management of Wasting and Nutritional Oedema – that includes the pilot in the 13 counties, learning and inform post pilot at-scale timelines.
• Further, the country has supplemental operations guideline on the Prevention and Management of Wasting and Nutritional Oedema will also include digitalized data collection and reporting plan, alongside the CMAM training package, job aids, and supporting supervision tools, for the initial 13 counties.
• With these in place, that Implementing Partners and communities are engaged and sensitized on the new approach in the 13 counties, to ensure execution.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/expected outputs
• As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to Ministry of Health and Implementing Partners and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:
o Success of a test pilot for the operational training materials operations guideline on the Prevention and Management of Wasting and Nutritional Oedema that will also include the use of the four-color band new MUACs, digitalized data collection and reporting.
o Completion of a Training of Trainers on the developed operational materials.
o Appropriate capacity enhancements, followed by implementation in the 13 pilot counties.
o Supplementation of all children 6-59 months classified as HRM with RUTF, as with SAM.
o Supporting the documentation of all stages of the implementation for purposes of internal and subsequent regional and global learning; alongside, supporting periodic publications/ case studies.
o Finally, draw a road map for national scale beyond the initial 13 counties.
• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment.
• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.