Programme Associate (Micronutrients)

The Programme Associate (Micronutrients) will provide technical, operational, and coordination support to strengthen the implementation and scale-up of rice, millet, and sorghum fortification initiatives in Nepal. The role supports capacity strengthening, coordination, monitoring, and programme support to promote sustainable mainstreaming of fortified foods within Nepal's food system.

Responsibilities

• Support capacity strengthening of farmers and private sectors on farming and product innovation, production, branding, and market linkage.
• Provide technical and operational support to the Government of Nepal to develop Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) strategies and knowledge management products to promote consumption of fortified food products.
• Facilitate capacity strengthening of local government on millet and sorghum value chain optimization, integration into fiscal planning, and linkage of products with existing school meal and nutrition-sensitive social protection programmes.
• Support knowledge sharing sessions of evidence generated by academia to the Government of Nepal and stakeholders (private sectors).
• Facilitate dissemination of enrichment/fortification standards through training/workshops to policymakers, stakeholders, and government officials.
• Support capacity strengthening of Government of Nepal's laboratory and regulatory officials on food safety quality assurance and product development.
• Liaise with Government of Nepal, local government, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Food Management and Trading Company Limited, Family Welfare Division, WFP, Cooperating Partner, and academia to conduct studies generating evidence and knowledge on millet and sorghum value chains, nutritional quality, policies and programmatic interventions.
• Support formation of technical working group and facilitate regular meetings for national standards formulation.
• Support coordination among government entities and academia during research including sample collection and ethical clearance.
• Facilitate dissemination of research findings to government and relevant entities.
• Support organization of and WFP participation in national and provincial coordination platforms and forums on food fortification and nutrition.
• Facilitate joint supportive supervision and monitoring visits with government counterparts to fortified food production sites and laboratories.
• Prepare and maintain monitoring tools and trackers to ensure research and programme activities progress as planned.
• Support documentation of lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations from fortification and value-chain strengthening activities.
• Support design and implementation of studies on nutritional value, feasibility, and consumer acceptability of fortified millet- and sorghum-based products.
• Support knowledge-sharing sessions presenting evidence to government and stakeholders including private sector.
• Support analysis of research findings and translate evidence into policy and programme recommendations.
• Provide technical inputs to development of national enrichment/fortification standards for millet and sorghum.
• Prepare periodic progress reports, briefs, and updates on fortification and millet/sorghum programme implementation.
• Provide regular programme and business support to nutrition and food fortification team of WFP country office.
• Support country office in periodic reporting including weekly programme input and country briefs.
• Prepare documents such as briefing notes, presentations, and communication materials on fortification and millet/sorghum programming.
• Undertake other duties to support day-to-day nutrition and fortification activities including support to field staff.

Requirements

• Completion of secondary school education.
• A post-secondary certificate in related functional area and/or a bachelor’s degree in food science, nutrition or related fields is desirable.
• At least six years of experience in Public Health, Nutrition, food fortification, or related fields.
• Experience and expertise in delivery of nutrition prevention and treatment programmes including social and behavior change communication.
• Experience negotiating, training, communications, advocacy, and resource mobilization.
• Knowledge and experience of UN and Government partnerships will be an asset.
• Has collaborated with technical teams (i.e., nutrition and food fortification), implementing programmes and observed or assisted with policy discussions.
• Knowledge of Nepal's food, nutrition, agriculture, and social protection policy landscape.
• Ability to analyze research findings and translate evidence into policy and programme recommendations.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, negotiation, facilitation, and partnership-building skills.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate diverse stakeholders across government, academia, private sector, and cooperating partner (CP).
• Strong communication, presentation, and report-writing skills in English and Nepali.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and data management/reporting tools.
• Ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams while maintaining strong attention to detail and results orientation.
• Nepali Typing skill is an asset.
• Fluency in both written and spoken Nepali and English languages.
• Knowledge of local languages will be an added value.

Skills

• Public Health Nutrition
• Food Fortification
• Social and Behaviour Change Communication
• Training Delivery
• Advocacy
• Resource Mobilization
• Government Partnership
• Policy Analysis
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Negotiation
• Facilitation
• Partnership Building
• Programme Coordination
• Report Writing
• Presentation Skills
• MS Word
• MS Excel
• MS PowerPoint
• Data Management
• Nutrition Programme Development
• UN Partnerships Promotion

Languages

English, Nepali