Nutrition Analyst

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

31 July 2026-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.
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WHY JOIN WFP?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

Job Title: Nutrition Analyst

Type of Contract: Unique Consultant (CST) Level 2

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

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

Duration: 11 months (renewable)

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. A core pillar of this work is WFP’s analytical platform Enhance, developed in partnership with the Zero Hunger Lab at Tilburg University, Capgemini, and Johns Hopkins University. Using multi‑objective optimisation, Enhance assesses the cost and affordability of diets that meet nutritional, economic, and environmental objectives, and supports scenario and intervention modelling to inform evidence‑based decision‑making.

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.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Supervision, oversight and guidance

Provide day‑to‑day technical oversight, mentoring, and guidance to more junior team members, including review of analytical work and outputs, to ensure quality, consistency, and alignment with WFP nutrition analytics frameworks and processes.

Assessment of market-based nutrition interventions and local food solutions

• Collation and review of data related to food expenditure, dietary intake, market functionality, food prices .
• Analysis of the feasibility of meeting nutrition need of malnourished children and children at risk of malnutrition
• Assessment of the nutritional adequacy of food and cash-based transfers

Strengthen capacity and application of nutrition and diet analysis using Enhance

• Develop training on cost and affordability analysis and intervention modelling using Enhance
• Lead training of government counterparts on cost and affordability analysis and intervention modelling using Enhance
• Support trainings of enumerators on variables related to diet affordability
• 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

Fill the Nutrient Gap, Sustainable Healthy Diet analysis and CO tailored modelling

• Support secondary data review, synthesis and quantitative analysis related to nutrition, dietary intake, food security, food prices, household income and expenditure, and socio-economic indicators to inform Fill the Nutrient Gap (FNG), Sustainable Healthy Diet analyses, and country-tailored nutrition modelling.
• Provide technical support to WFP Country Offices and national stakeholders on cost, affordability and intervention modelling analyses, including identification and assessment of programme and policy options across transfer modalities, food systems strategies and nutrition interventions.
• Contribute to the development, adaptation and piloting of new analytical methods and modelling approaches, and support the preparation of decision-support, advocacy and dissemination products translating findings into actionable programme and policy recommendations.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

Supervision, oversight and guidance

Consistent provision of technical oversight, mentoring, and quality assurance for junior team members, resulting in high‑quality analytical outputs aligned with WFP nutrition analytics frameworks and established processes.

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.

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.

Cost and Affordability of Healthy and Sustainable Diets 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, Nutrition, Economics (or Econometrics), Food systems, Agronomy, Environmental Sciences, Statistics or other socio-economic disciplines with a strong quantitative data analysis component.

Experience:

• Between 6-8 years of relevant professional experience, of which, at least 3-4 years of experience in food and nutrition data analysis.
• Management or supervision experience desired.
• Proven experience with dietary assessment, linear programming-based (Cost of the Diet, Optifood, Enhance) and other Nutrition Modelling tools.
• Experience supporting capacity strengthening initiatives on analytics, especially in low-and -middle income countries.
• Experience presenting analysis findings or evidence to diverse audiences, including government stakeholders, programme staff and academic partners.
• Experience leading stakeholder engagement processes to develop evidence-based policy and programme recommendations from evidence and analytics desirable.
• Experience cleaning, processing and analysing large datasets and in database management preferred.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Proficient to conduct quantitative data analysis using Stata or R
• Advanced expertise in Excel
• Demonstrated ability to conduct literature reviews and identify key themes, preferably related to food systems or nutrition
• Proven ability to structure and manage projects required.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in multicultural settings.
• Flexibility in thinking, ability to adapt to different situations quickly and with ease.
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organised manner and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Knowledge of different types of programmes such as social protection, health, school feeding, livelihoods and resilience and emergency programmes is considered an asset.

Language:

• 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.

The position requires frequent travel (up to 25 percent of working time), including missions to fragile and emergency settings and occasional weekend travel.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

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Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.
• We strongly recommend that your Workday profile is accurate and complete, and that all sections are filled in, including your employment history, academic qualifications, language skills, and UN grade (if applicable). Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
• If you experience technical issues while submitting your application, you may contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org. Please note that this email is only for technical issues with an application - unsolicited applications or documents sent to this inbox will not receive a reply.
• At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.