Programme Policy Officer (Universal Salt Iodization), FTA-NOB

Job Description

ABOUT WFPThe United Nations World Food Programme is the worlds largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.?The mission of WFP is to help the world?achieve Zero Hunger?in our lifetimes.?Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.?WFP Sudan has the potential to reach millions of food-insecure people across Sudan ? with a total of 7.8?million people assisted in 2020. WFP Sudan, one of the largest and complex operations for?WFP globally,?is currently rolling out its five-year?Country Strategic Plan?(2019-2023), which aims to provide emergency assistance through a hybrid approach (Cash, food and vouchers), along with life-changing types of programmes (Nutrition, Resilience and School Feeding).BACKGROUND:Over the past few years WFP Sudan has worked with other UN agencies and stakeholders and supported the Government of Sudan to develop National Micronutrients Strategy, 2017-2025 in which food fortification is one of the key strategic interventions.?This Strategy has four main sub-strategies; fortification, supplementation, dietary diversification and other complementary public health measures. Each sub-strategy has an action plan map that outlines the steps needed for scaling up a harmonized implementation over the next five years.WFP, jointly with FAO and WHO in 2016 were awarded a multi-year grant on food fortification to work on improving the nutritional status of vulnerable populations across Sudan through increased availability, access, and consumption of fortified food, micronutrient powders and bio fortified varieties of crops. The project focused on three critical aspects: the legal and regulatory environment, the supply and the demand and will collectively strengthen institutional frameworks and increase community, private sector and government awareness of the benefits of food fortification.The nutrition situation in Sudan is characterized by persistently high prevalence of both acute and chronic malnutrition with little changes observed in the past two decades. Currently, Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) stands at 13.6% nationally while stunting is estimated at 36.3% among children aged 6 to 59 months. In Sudan, micronutrient deficiencies are widespread, most common being iron, vitamin A, and iodine possibly linked to poor dietary diversity with only 24% in children and 8.5% in women having diverse diets. Anemia rates are very high, estimated at 42% for children under 5 years of age, 16% for women while about 13% of women experienced night blindness in their last pregnancy. This has significant consequences on children?s cognitive development, and impact on maternal mortality. Consumption of iodized salt remains low (approx. 15 % of households-only 5% consume adequately iodised salt) meaning that over 1 million infants remained unprotected from iodine deficiency disorders.Therefore, WFP will further consolidate its lead role and engagement in food fortification and continue to support government, private sector and other stakeholders to enhance the awareness on and capacity for food fortification as critical nutrition strategy to improve the nutrition situation.JOB PURPOSEThe overall aim of this role is to provide technical assistance and support the various processes for the enactment of the mandatory salt iodization, both to government and private sector, as part of the overall support to food fortification policies, strategies, programming and implementation management, legislation and enforcement of legislation and standards, as well as providing advice to the WFP international food fortification lead and?head of nutrition on the developments in salt-iodization, nutrition and the food fortification landscape, programming and opportunities in Sudan, including WFPs positioning in this area of expertise.KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)The Programme Policy Officer for Salt Iodization will work under the Head of Nutrition and the direct supervision of the Food Fortification Manager, and will beresponsible?for the following:

• Contribute to the development and strengthening of national nutrition initiatives, projects, plans and processes, including the development of national government policies, strategies, action plans, protocols, and guidelines related to salt iodization in line with international guidance and current evidence.
• Provide project management support to specific and defined programmes and projects of considerable size/complexity, ensuring a coordinated approach with wider programmes that complies with WFP standards and procedures.
• Develop and co-ordinate data gathering and monitoring/assessment systems ensuring that rigorous quality standards are maintained.
• Research and analyse a range of policy and operational issues to inform the development of policies, programmes and activities, with a focus on the further strengthening of salt iodization interventions to reach a maximum coverage.
• Track and analyse data to provide input into reporting activities and contribute to the preparation of accurate and timely reporting on nutrition activities that enables informed decision making and consistency of information presented to stakeholders.

• Liaise with internal and external counterparts to ensure effective collaboration, monitor ongoing salt iodization and integrated projects and programmes, and highlight potential risks to project delivery, ensuring timeliness and efficiency.
• Support the identification of potential partners and partnership negotiations to ensure a collaborative and holistic approach to meeting nutrition needs e.g. through salt-iodization.
• Support the capacity building of national government staff, private sector, civil society and WFP staff to address nutrition needs, e.g. through providing inputs into training materials and guidelines.
• Contribute towards the development and/or implementation of protocols and tools relating to food technology and supply chain issues for salt iodization, ensuring alignment with government policies and legislation.
• Guide ad supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with analysis and queries.
• Undertake additional tasks as required ensuring that salt iodization objectives in specific and nutrition objectives in general are achieved.

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