Child Nutrition and Development Specialist
Organizational Context
UNICEF has a 70-year history of promoting child survival, protection, and development globally. In Tanzania, UNICEF collaborates with government entities to enhance nutrition and development outcomes for children, adolescents, and women through evidence-based, systems-strengthening approaches. The Zanzibar program focuses on improving the utilization of equitable services, promoting quality diets, and encouraging nurturing care practices, fostering convergence across various sectors and strengthening government ownership and community engagement.
Job Purpose
The National UN Volunteer Nutrition and ECD Specialist will support UNICEF's Child Nutrition and Development Programme in Zanzibar. This role provides crucial technical, strategic, coordination, monitoring, and documentation support for key nutrition and early childhood development (ECD) interventions. The assignment directly contributes to the implementation of the Zanzibar Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Action Plan and the Multisectoral Early Childhood Development Programme. The specialist will focus on improving maternal, infant, young child, and adolescent nutrition, integrating early stimulation and nurturing care, preventing and treating wasting, enhancing food environments, and strengthening nutrition-sensitive WASH and climate-related interventions, ultimately aiming to improve access to quality services and promote better nutrition practices.
Responsibilities
The specialist will provide expert technical, strategic, operational, and coordination support for UNICEF-supported child nutrition and development programs in Zanzibar. Key responsibilities include: Programme Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring (40%): Supporting the planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of interventions in maternal nutrition, micronutrient supplementation, infant and young child feeding, ECD, wasting prevention, adolescent nutrition, school health, nutrition-sensitive WASH, food environment, and fortification. Providing technical guidance to government counterparts and operational support to implementing partners, ensuring quality assurance and alignment with workplans. Conducting field monitoring and supportive supervision visits to identify and address bottlenecks. Documentation, Visibility, and Knowledge Management (20%): Documenting program results, best practices, and lessons learned. Preparing high-quality program updates, briefs, and visibility materials. Facilitating knowledge sharing between Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania programs. Evidence Generation and Data Use (20%): Supporting the collection, analysis, and use of routine data for nutrition and ECD programs. Advising on the integration of indicators and reporting tools into existing systems. Contributing to learning exercises and assessments to inform evidence-based decision-making. Partnerships, Capacity Building, and Peer Learning (20%): Providing technical support to counterparts for operationalizing guidelines and strategies. Supporting capacity strengthening of service providers and community structures. Facilitating peer learning and building effective working relationships with government institutions, UN agencies, NGOs, and community groups.
Work Experience
A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience is required in areas such as nutrition, public health nutrition, nutrition planning and management, maternal/infant/young child/adolescent nutrition, community nutrition, multisectoral nutrition, or early childhood development programming. Experience providing technical support for program design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting is essential. Experience integrating gender equality into programming is highly desirable. Experience working with government institutions, UN agencies, or NGOs is an asset.
Skills
Strong technical understanding of maternal, infant, young child, and adolescent nutrition programming, and the links between nutrition, caregiving, and early childhood development. Proficient in program planning, coordination, monitoring, reporting, and quality assurance. Excellent writing, communication, and presentation skills. Good analytical skills for data use in decision-making. Ability to work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders and undertake field travel. Proficiency in standard computer software and digital communication tools is desirable. Core values include self-awareness, ethical conduct, collaboration, partnership building, innovation, strategic thinking, and driving for results.