Nutrition Specialist - Maternal Nutrition, P-3, Fixed Term Position, Global Programme Division, Nutrition and Child Development, COE Nairobi - Kenya #00133690

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to Commitment

How can you make a difference?

The Global Programme Division (GPD) plays a central role in driving programme excellence across UNICEF by providing global strategic leadership, policy direction, and technical guidance. It ensures coherence across sectors, regions, and partners while supporting country-level implementation through integrated technical assistance.

As part of this structure, UNICEF has established Centres of Excellence (CoEs) to deliver high-quality, demand-driven support to Country and Regional Offices and their partners. These centres provide cross-cutting expertise to strengthen policy reform, programme design, institutional capacity, and humanitarian response.

Improving maternal nutrition is essential to achieving UNICEF’s goals for child survival and development. A woman’s nutritional status before, during, and after pregnancy directly affects maternal and child health outcomes. Despite growing momentum, challenges such as undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and anemia remain significant.

In response, UNICEF is implementing the Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan (2024), which focuses on scaling up essential nutrition services, particularly through antenatal care platforms in priority countries. This role contributes to advancing UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2026–2029 and strengthening delivery of technical assistance for maternal nutrition globally.

Under the supervision of the Senior Adviser, Nutrition, the position supports country offices and partners in operationalizing global strategies to prevent anemia and other forms of malnutrition in women. This includes providing technical assistance on policy development, programme implementation, and strengthening maternal nutrition services across both humanitarian and development settings.

The role contributes to implementation research, advocacy, and scale-up of key interventions such as multiple micronutrient supplementation, while supporting multi-country grant management, donor reporting, and results monitoring.

In addition, the position strengthens knowledge management, partnerships, and coordination across global and regional stakeholders, contributing to UNICEF’s leadership in maternal nutrition and supporting sustainable, country-owned results for women and children.

The position is established to provide technical, operational and/or programmatic support in advancing the unit’s priorities and delivering on organizational commitments. The incumbent contributes to the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of key initiatives, ensuring alignment with UNICEF policies, standards and strategic frameworks.

Key responsibilities include supporting programme planning and execution; conducting analysis and preparing technical inputs to inform decision-making; coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to facilitate effective collaboration; and contributing to knowledge management, reporting and documentation of results. The role also supports quality assurance, compliance and timely delivery of outputs, while identifying risks and proposing mitigation measures.

Under the guidance of the supervisor, the incumbent is expected to demonstrate initiative, manage competing priorities, and contribute to continuous improvement of processes and programme effectiveness.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Classified Job Descriptions - Nutrition Specialist_Maternal Nutrition _00133690.pdf

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Public Health, International Development, Medical Sciences, Social Science, Nutrition and any other related fields.
• Work Experience: At least 5 years of relevant work experience in Nutrition, Partnerships, Emergency, Maternal Nutrition, Public Health, Health Systems Strengthening, humanitarian response and any other related fields.
• Skills: Experience in maternal nutrition policy and programming, knowledge of UNICEF programs in the field of maternal nutrition. Experience with key partners such as WHO, Child Nutrition Fund and key donors. Proven communication skills. Computer skills, including Sharepoint navigation and various office applications, Experience in planning and financial management
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language
• Public Health Nutrition, Maternal Nutrition, Child Nutrition, humanitarian assistance and development, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, partnership management, Proficiency with VISION software, analytical writing
• Relevant experience at country level in designing and scaling up maternal nutrition programmes.
• Relevant experience at country particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

In this role, you will collaborate with colleagues across multiple locations. For effective collaboration, we encourage flexible working hours that accommodate different time zones while prioritizing staff wellbeing.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.