Maternal and Child Nutrition

UNICEF is committed to realising the rights of all children to help them build a strong foundation and have the best chance of fulfilling their potential.

We believe that ensuring a child is happy and healthy begins before birth: from ensuring their mother has access to good health care to reaching adulthood as a healthy, empowered and informed young person of the next generation. This journey relies on every child having access to quality health care, good nutrition, education, and growing up in a safe environment free from violence.

South African is faced with the triple burden of malnutrition, characterized by under nutrition in the form of stunting and wasting, micronutrient deficiencies (iron, vitamin A and zinc) and over nutrition (overweight and obesity). The stunting rate has remained nearly the same for almost
two decades since 2008 (from 24.9% to 28%). Child wasting has also increased from 2.5% in 2016 to 5.3% in 2024. Child overweight has also fluctuated over the years with 13% in 2016 and nearly doubling at 23% in 2024. The 2024 UNICEF report reveals that South Africa is one of the 20 countries that account for 65 per cent of all children living in severe child food poverty globally. Of particular concern, is that 23 percent of children in South Africa are classified in that category and are at risk of life-threatening malnutrition and related health complications. Several factors contribute to triple burden of malnutrition: the child food poverty crisis; food systems that fail to provide children with nutritious, safe and accessible options; families’ unable to afford nutritious foods, and parent’s inability to adopt and sustain positive child feeding practices. Under this urgency, UNICEF South Africa is recruiting a National UNV Specialist to support the implementation of nutrition programme. The objective of this project is to ensure children access to improved climate/emergency resilience of water, sanitation, hygiene and energy facilities in early childhood development centers, schools and health care facilities in cholera and flood affected areas and improve environmental health to foster healthy children. The Specific Objectives are: 1. To empower children and young people in water quality monitoring and climate resilient technologies; 2. To strengthen and model climate-resilient technologies for water, sanitation, hygiene and energy to respond to health risks and naturally induced disasters. UNICEF South Africa has one Nutrition Manager. However, to leverage Japan’s WASH technology, we are eager to get one WASH specialist from Japan to support the implementation of this project. Moreover, it is the first time for UNICEF South Africa implements this kind of project. The UNICEF South Africa would like to learn WASH technology from Japan. We are expecting that through the modelling climate resilient WASH facilities, the Government of South Africa can scale up this model of WASH facilities nationwide.

Under the direct supervision of Nutrition Manager, the UN Volunteer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the nutrition programmes/projects within the Country Programme, from development planning to delivery of results. In doing so, the incumbent implements a variety of technical and administrative programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, programme progress monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of results. The UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

1. Support to programme development and planning:
▪ Conduct and update the situation analysis for the programme sector(s) for the development, design and management of nutrition related programmes/projects. Research and report on development trends (e.g. political social, economic, nutrition, health) for higher management use to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery of results;
▪ Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning, through analysis of nutrition needs and areas for intervention, and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting;
▪ Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions; preparing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results-based planning (RBM), and monitoring and evaluation of results;
▪ Prepare required documentations and materials to facilitate the programme review and approval process.

2. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results:
▪ Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues. Provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision-making. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned;
▪ Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with the government and other counterparts to assess programmes/projects and to report on required action and interventions at the higher level of programme management;
▪ Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations/ procedures, donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity. Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution;
▪ Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.

3. Technical and operational support to programme implementation:
▪ Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys, and exchange information with partners and stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support. Take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results;
▪ Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on nutrition- related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results.

4. Networking and partnership building:
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve programme goals on maternal and child rights as well as social justice and equity;
• Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for nutrition programmes;
▪ Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) meetings and events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners and colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of nutrition programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF’s position and strategies with the UNDAF development and planning process;
▪ Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.

5. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building:
▪ Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders;
▪ Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results;
▪ Research, benchmark and report on best and cutting-edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems;
▪ Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.