Progress to address undernutrition remains limited with both the indirect impacts of COVID-19 and ongoing challenges arising from climate change set to increase risk and burden over the coming years. There has been extensive work done to better understand who is most at risk of undernutrition – noting that it is evident that the poorest and those living in more fragile / conflict-affected settings are typically more likely to experience undernutrition. Ensuring investments to prevent and treat undernutrition are prioritized to where needs / risk is greatest will be important for making progress to reach the SDG targets, to fulfil commitments to leave no one behind and in a context where funding for nutrition is constrained. This assignment is intended to inform FCDO’s response to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact Review (ICAI) review, in particular to ensure they have evidence-based guidance and recommendations for FCDO teams to improve the design, targeting and monitoring of investments intended to address undernutrition – including to improve access to nutritious diets.

The Technical Assistance to Strengthen Capabilities Project (TASC) hosted by Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) under the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) (formerly DFID) are recruiting a senior and a medior nutritionist, with strong programme/policy expertise across a range of ‘sectors’ relevant to the prevention and treatment of malnutrition, and with experience undertaking literature review with a solid understanding of how to assess and handle evidence of varying quality.

The objectives of this assignment are:

•            To describe who is typically most vulnerable to undernutrition in low-income and middle-income countries and who is likely to remain / be most vulnerable over the coming decade

•            To describe who is least reached with nutrition-specific services and who is least likely to access a nutritious diet

•            To set out evidence-based strategies for preventing / treating undernutrition (including by improving access to nutritious diets) among those most at risk – including options for improving coverage of nutrition-specific services and the role of other approaches that aim to reach marginalised groups (e.g. social protection)

•            To provide recommendations for how FCDO can improve their design and targeting of investments to effectively reach those most at risk of undernutrition, including by improving reach of nutrition-specific services and access to nutritious diets

The assignment starts in January and runs until the end of May 2021, where the final deliverables including the final guidance are to be submitted.

For more information and for the Terms of Reference, kindly get in touch with Hanna Ivascu, Hanna_Ivascu@dai.com with your CV.