National Consultant: Multiple Micronutrient Supplement Market Shaping Consultant, Home-based, 6 months

UNICEF Nigeria country office invites applications from highly motivated and committed persons to support the Nutrition Section as a consultant in market-shaping to work with stakeholders to shape the market for MMS in Nigeria. If you are that person, we encourage you to apply and become part of a highly motivated and committed team.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, Health

How can you make a difference?

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, leaving no one behind. In partnership with the government and other stakeholders, UNICEF aims to deliver good quality nutrition services at scale to build resilience and protect the most vulnerable, particularly during the First 1000 Days of Life from pregnancy to when a child is two years of age. Currently, Nigeria is off track to achieving the nutrition targets of the World Health Assembly 2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Nigeria is among ten countries globally where anaemia among women is above 50%. With an estimated eight million live births in a year, Nigeria accounts for 12% of the global maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Whilst 67% of pregnant women received at least one ANC visit, only 31% received Iron Folate Acid supplementation, with high geographic disparities in coverage across the states.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends multiple micronutrient supplements as part of ANC. They are also on WHO’s Essential Medicines List (EML), and countries are increasingly interested in introducing MMS as the standard of care (SoC). MMS contains 15 vitamins and minerals, including Iron 30mg and Folic acid 400mg. In 2021, a ministerial order permitted the use of MMS during pregnancy as part of the standard of care. MMS has since been added to the National Micronutrient Deficiency and Control Guidelines, and provisional approval has been given for its inclusion in Nigeria’s 8th Edition of the Essential Medicines List.

UNICEF, in partnership with development partners, is supporting the government in delivering MMS at scale as part of the standard of care for ANC for optimal pregnancy and birth outcomes. A key enabler to the rollout of MMS in Nigeria is ensuring a robust and efficient domestic product supply pipeline. To this end, UNICEF in partnership with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) conducted an industry consultation to enable the domestic production of several health and nutrition commodities, including MMS. Subsequently, UNICEF is coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to assess and identify local vendors who have the potential to produce MMS for both domestic, regional and global markets.

To enable UNICEF to work in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to define and manage a transparent pathway to certification of technically qualified and interested vendors who have the potential to locally produce MMS for the domestic, regional and global markets.

As part of the above, UNICEF is recruiting a market-shaping consultant to work with stakeholders to shape the market for MMS in Nigeria.

Scope of work:

Under the overall guidance of the Chief of Nutrition and the Chief of Supply and the direct supervision of the Nutrition Manager, Abuja, the consultant will:

1. Follow-up on the report of UNICEF’s Supply Division Visit to Nigerian manufacturers/suppliers of MMS.
2. Assess the size of the local MMS market and the inputs required by local manufacturers to meet international standards and formulations, particularly the UNIMMAP formulation.
3. Identify capacity gaps and areas of improvement to meet international requirements.

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1. Follow up on the capacity assessment of local manufacturers of MMS;
   • Production capacity and internal quality assurance measures
   • Certification and related documentation of manufacturers e.g. NAFDAC, Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON).
2. Assess the size of the local MMS market and inputs required by local manufacturers to meet international standards and formula.
   • Identify and quantify annual country requirements of MMS for the medium to long term in alignment with the country scale-up plan.
3. Under the guidance of the UNICEF supply team, identify capacity gaps and areas of improvement to meet international requirements.
   • Map the regulatory requirements in Nigeria for manufacturing of MMS
   • Document the capacity needs of local manufacturers and areas of strengthening to meet national and international standards.
   • Identify programs and projects to provide support to local manufacturing in Nigeria.
   • Prepare gap analysis and certification roadmap for selected vendors requiring technical and/or financial assistance to become certified.

Expected results:

The consultant will contribute to shaping the local market in Nigeria to produce MMS.  

1. 1. Certification roadmap for the identified local manufacturers.
   2. Regular updates on the status of local manufacturers with respect to certification/approval by UNICEF

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Education:  

Master’s degree in pharmacy or a field relevant to global health and procurement.

Experience: A minimum five (5) years progressively responsible professional work experience relevant to medicines and nutrition products to include product dossier assessments for procurement or regulatory registration.

• Experience with the UNICEF Supply Manual, guidelines for public procurement, and the procurement process.
• Experience evaluating technical information such as stability studies, comparative dissolution, analytical methods, certificates of analysis, manufacturing processes, manufacturing quality control measures, product usability.
• Experience with product introduction, WHO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, UNICEF approval processes, NAFDAC and SON processes, etc
• Demonstratable knowledge of International Council for Harmonization (ICH) quality guidelines (http://www.ich.org/products/guidelines/quality/article/quality-guidelines.html)
• Proficiency in MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Experience related to global public health is an asset.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

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 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 contract.