Wfp

Nutrition Analyst

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant (CST) Level 1

Division: Nutrition, School Meals and Social Protection (PRGS)

Duty Station (City, Country): HQ, Rome Italy

Duration: 11 months

Background and Purpose of the Assignment:

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is one of the leading global institutions helping to measure and alleviate food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly in humanitarian settings and fragile contexts. Persistent nutrient gaps, rising food prices, and constrained household purchasing power continue to limit access to healthy and sustainable diets, particularly for vulnerable populations. Operating in more than 80 countries, WFP supports both emergency response and national systems to improve access to healthy, nutritious diets in women, children and the population at large. A key part of this work is the generation and use of data on food and nutrition security, dietary diversity and access to nutritious foods and nutritious diets, including food costs and expenditure to identify risks and inform nutrition interventions.

Evidence generated through analytics plays a critical role in shaping nutrition-sensitive policies, programmes and advocacy across food systems, education, and social protection. Robust standardised analytical approaches can support effective programme design, appropriate cash transfer value setting, and the nutritional adequacy of assistance across diverse food environments. WFP supports governments to conduct analysis on the cost and affordability of nutritious diets and supports stakeholders in identifying solutions to nutrient gaps through policy and programme design. In particular, WFP increasingly contributes to strengthening national capacity in nutrition analytics and evidence-based decision-making.

The Nutrition, School Meals and Social Protection Service seeks a consultant to join the multidisciplinary Systems Analysis for Nutrition team. The consultant will strengthen the capacity of government counterparts to undertake Fill the Nutrient Gap analysis, Sustainable Healthy Diet analyses and related cost and affordability assessments and support the translation of analytical findings into programme design, transfer value design, and policy-relevant decision-support products. The role will also contribute to the ongoing development, refinement, and institutionalisation of WFP's analytical tools and processes, including the Enhance platform, ensuring analytical rigour, consistency, and quality across varied country contexts.

Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

Assessment of market-based nutrition interventions and local food solutions

• Review of data related to household food expenditure, dietary intake, market functionality, food prices, locally produced complementary foods, Specially Formulated Foods and other local food solutions.
• Analysis of the feasibility of meeting nutrition need of moderate acute malnourished children and children at risk of malnutrition
• Assessment of the nutritional adequacy of cash-based transfer for nutrition, local food solutions and recipes

Strengthen capacity and application of Enhance analysis

• Contribute to the development and tailoring of training on cost and affordability analysis and intervention modelling using Enhance
• Support training of WFP Country Offices and government counterparts on cost and affordability analysis and intervention modelling using Enhance
• Support trainings of enumerators for primary data collection of food prices
• Support WFP Country Offices and government counterparts to set up cost and affordability monitoring to inform early warning and anticipatory action systems and adaptation to programme response
• Support documentation and development of guidance as needed

Cost and affordability of healthy and sustainable diets; Fill the Nutrient Gap, Sustainable Healthy Diet analysis and CO tailored modelling

• Support secondary data reviews and synthesis on nutrition, dietary intake, food security, food prices, household income and expenditure, and socio-economic indicators to inform WFP programme design, Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG), and Sustainable Healthy Diet analyses.
• Provide technical support to WFP Country Offices and national stakeholders on cost and affordability analyses, ensuring alignment with WFP priorities, FNG objectives, and sustainable healthy diets frameworks.
• Support the identification, assessment, and modelling of intervention options across strategies, delivery modalities, and transfer values, informed by WFP analytical tools and evidence.
• Contribute to the preparation and facilitation of country-level FNG and Sustainable Healthy Diet processes, including inception, validation, and dissemination of findings.
• Support the development of decision-support and advocacy products, including key messages, slides, briefs, and reports, translating analytical findings into actionable programme and policy recommendations.
• Prepare topic briefs and ad hoc nutrition analytics in response to internal WFP needs and external stakeholder requests.

Deliverables at the End of the Contract:

Market-Based Nutrition Interventions and Local Food Solutions

• Context-specific analyses assessing the feasibility of meeting the nutritional needs of children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and children at risk of malnutrition through market-based approaches, cash-based transfers, and local food solutions.
• Technical assessments on the nutritional adequacy of cash-based transfers for nutrition, locally available foods, and recipes, with clear implications for programme design and transfer value setting.

Strengthened Capacity and Application of Enhance Analysis

• Tailored training materials and delivery of capacity-strengthening activities for WFP Country Offices, government counterparts, and enumerators on cost and affordability analysis, intervention modelling, and food price data collection using the Enhance platform.
• Technical support and guidance to establish and/or strengthen cost and affordability monitoring systems to inform early warning, anticipatory action, and programme adaptation.

Cost and Affordability of Healthy and Sustainable Diets, FNG, and Country-Tailored Modelling

• Secondary data reviews and analytical inputs supporting Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG), Sustainable Healthy Diet, and country-tailored modelling exercises.
• Contributions to country-level analytical processes, including stakeholder consultations and dissemination events.
• Decision-support and advocacy products, including slide decks, briefs, summaries, reports and topic briefs translating analytical findings into programme and policy recommendations.

Qualifications & Experience Required:

Education:

Graduate level (Masters or above) in Public Health (Epidemiology or biostatistics), Nutrition, Economics (or Econometrics), Sustainable food systems, Agronomy, Statistics or other socio-economic disciplines with a strong quantitative data analysis component.

Experience:

• Between 3-5 years of relevant professional experience, including research and data analysis.
• Experience with dietary assessment, linear programming-based such as Cost of the Diet, Opti-food or other Nutrition Modelling tools, GIS and/or mapping software.
• Previous experience of working in low-middle income countries, experience in fragile contexts considered an asset.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proficient in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis based on secondary data required.
• Ability to use statistical software packages such as R, STATA or others.
• Solid knowledge of nutrition and food systems required.
• Knowledge of different types of programmes such as social protection, health, school feeding, livelihoods and resilience and emergency programmes is considered an asset.
• Good interpersonal skills and understanding of multicultural settings, including of different stakeholders (government, NGOs, academia, others).
• Flexibility in thinking, ability to adapt to different situations quickly and with ease.
• Capacity building and facilitation skills appreciated.
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills required.
• Flexibility in thinking and ability to adapt to different situations quickly and with ease.

Languages:

Professional level of written and spoken English, and aptitude to writing different types of communications.

Professional knowledge of a second UN language an asset, preferably French, Spanish or Arabic.