Purpose of work

To review national data sources to contribute to the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME)  work, facilitate the preparation of the country consultation, to update SDGs 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 and to contribute to  the updates and maintenance of the Global Nutrition Targets Tracking Tool.

Background

WHO has the mandate to assess the nutritional status of populations, monitor and evaluate the impact of strategies for the prevention and control malnutrition, and to track trends over time.  Likewise, tracking progress and trends holds governments and partners accountable for their actions to improve nutrition, and informs future priority setting. 

The Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS) is addressing the burden of disease from physical, chemical and microbial hazards in food and unhealthy diets, maternal and child malnutrition, overweight and obesity. The Monitoring, Surveillance and Reporting of Nutrition and Food Safety (MNF) Unit defines indicators and nutrition surveillance systems, hosts and maintain nutrition databases, monitors nutrition trends and measures the impact of country food and nutrition policies, amongst other functions.

In collaboration with UNICEF-WHO-WB Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) group, within the area of nutrition monitoring, the Unit maintains the WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition and develops tools to help carrying out standard analysis of anthropometric surveys and to monitor countries targets towards the nutrition global targets and respective Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, a repository of standardized anthropometric child data initiated more than 20 years ago, includes data from national and sub-national surveys and other sources such as studies, nutrition surveillance. Since 2012, WHO joined forces with UNICEF and the World Bank group, and the JME collaboration has since produced harmonized estimates that feeds into global reports on the nutrition status and progress towards target and SDGs for children under 5 years of age. This work is mainly carried out using the WHO Anthro Survey Analyser, a tool that allow the assessment of anthropometric data quality and produces standard outputs used for the review of the data sources.

These estimates are also used as underlying data in the Global Nutrition Targets Tracking Tool (https://www.who.int/data/nutrition/tracking-tool). This tool is used by Member States  and other data stakeholders to set and monitor progress of the six nutrition targets endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012 for 2025 at country and global levels. 

Deliverables

Contribute to  the JME work, (expected 50%):

• Contribute to the communication with countries to gather survey reports and datasets and discuss related concerns (March-December)
• Contribute to  the reanalysis of raw dataset from surveys and assess its methodology and potential data quality issues. A review report is prepared for each survey following a list of criteria summarized in a template (March-December)
• Participate in the JME group discussions to decide inclusion of surveys in the JME dataset (March-December)
• Facilitate, in collaboration with UNICEF, the JME SharePoint by including all information available for each survey and its review summary report (March-December)
• Assist in preparing analyses outputs as required to support MNF technical officers in the end-to-end data process for the malnutrition estimates (March-December)
• Assist in drafting, formatting and editing documents and materials that could support capacity building workshops, dissemination of estimates and country consultations (March-December)
• Facilitate the country consultation for UNSD reporting on SDG 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 scheduled in 2025 (August-December)
• Contribute to the production of related reports and outputs to feed into global reports and data platforms: GHO, HEAT, Global health Statistics, SDGs, etc (June-August)
• Perform regular checks on the functionality of the WHO Anthro Survey Analyser as required (March-December)
• Contribute to the development of training material on this tool (PPT, video, etc) (March-December)

Contribute to the required updates of the Global Nutrition Targets Tracking Tool and training (expected 50%):

• Facilitate the required updates of the Tracking Tool, including checking coherence of information to be aligned with latest update of the JME as well as the functionality of the tool (June-December)
• Contribute to  and carry out capacity-building national and regional workshops in the monitoring tools (March-December)
• Contribute to the development of new training materials around the uses of the Tracking Tool and update the existing ones as necessary (March-December)
• Facilitate the planned translations of the tools training materials (March-December)

Qualification, experience, skills and languages

Educational Qualifications

• Essential: First university degree in Statistics, Epidemiology, Public Health.
• Desirable: Advanced university degree in epidemiology or public health

Experience

• Essential: 5 years to 10 years relevant experience in data statistical analysis on health indicators, with the use of statistical packages R (preferred) or STATA is required.
• Desirable: Experience in nutritional (anthropometric) surveys and in performing data quality assurance.
  Previous work experience with WHO or the JME group. 

Languages and levels required

• Essential: Expert knowledge of English (written and spoken)
• Desirable: Working knowledge of French or Spanish.

Location

Off-site: Home-based

Travel

The consultant may be expected to travel

Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded)

• Remuneration: Band level B (USD 7,000 – 9,980 per month)
• Expected duration of contract: 10 Months (March to December 2024)
• Target start date: March 2024
• Work schedule: 100%

How to apply

• A cover letter explaining the applicant’s motivation for applying to this position.
• A copy, in pdf format, of the applicant’s updated WHO CV or Personal History Form (detailed instructions on how to create or update WHO CV through the following link: https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobsearch.ftl
• PLEASE NOTE: The selected candidate(s) will be asked to produce copies of all degrees/diplomas/certificates as mentioned in their CVs or Personal History Forms, as well as a copy of their passport and other documents as appropriate.
• Full contact details
• Description and contact details of at least 3 recent references (the references shall be related to the present Terms of Reference).

A prospective applicants requiring any clarification on technical or contractual matters may notify WHO via email ([email protected]) no later than 16 February 2024.

• Deadline for submission of applications
  The deadline for submission of applications is 16 February 2024 at 16h00, Geneva time.
• Email address for submission of applications
  Applicants should submit the required documents in PDF format by email to: [email protected].
  Please include ” WHO Consultant for the Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (JME) work” in the subject matter of your email application.  Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted and incomplete submissions will not be considered.