Programme Policy Officer (Nutrition and Fortification)

The incumbent will be based at the Basic planning division of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), New Delhi and will provide technical support towards overall enhancement of the nutritional effectiveness of the public distribution system (PDS). The position will also work in close collaboration with WFP and will function as a part of the Nutrition and School Feeding team of WFP.

Responsibilities

• Review, research and recommend evidence-based nutrition sensitive interventions and best practices from other countries for possible integration into the PDS.
• Provide technical and policy level support to operationalise feasible nutrition-based solutions including fortification as agreed with DFPD.
• Analyse national datasets (e.g., NFHS, CNNS, HCES) to monitor the need for nutritional alignment in the PDS as well as impact of PDS on demographic health trends, generating evidence-based reports to guide policy.
• Facilitate cross-ministerial coordination on agreed nutrition interventions in the PDS to improve national nutritional indicators.
• Serve as the nodal technical point at DFPD linking the Ministry of Food Processing, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for proposed nutrition interventions in the PDS.
• Assess and document the learnings from the Country wide implementation of the fortified rice scheme and other such nutrition interventions including areas for improvement.
• Support the development of training modules and capacity building of government counter parts, partner agencies for the roll out of planned nutrition interventions in the PDS.
• Develop information, education, and communication (IEC) strategies and materials for state-level officials and the public on nutrition as agreed with DFPD.
• Develop & support State departments in the implementation of SOPs and protocols on quality control & quality assurance of agreed nutrition interventions.
• Support department in addressing technical queries with regards to nutrition related intervention during parliament sessions, review meetings etc.
• Other support as required by DFPD or WFP.

Requirements

• Advanced University degree in Public Health Nutrition, Nutrition, Food Technology, Medicine or other relevant field.
• At least one year of professional experience on nutrition.
• 10-12 years of experience working in partnership with the government/UN agency/INGO on nutrition related issues is desirable.
• Extensive experience of working across Government Ministries and Department and supporting the implementation of large-scale nutrition projects at either National and State level is desirable.
• Experience of providing inputs into policy discussions and decisions on nutrition is an added plus.
• High level of proficiency with MS office package.
• Knowledge of GIS tools such as QGIS, ArcGIS and data visualization tools such as Tableau will be useful.
• Knowledge of coding for developing AI/ML solutions will be an added advantage.
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English & Hindi

Skills

• Public Health Nutrition
• Nutrition Policy
• Nutrition Program Implementation
• Government Partnership
• UN Agency Collaboration
• Large-scale Nutrition Projects
• Microsoft Office Suite
• QGIS
• ArcGIS
• Tableau
• Data Visualization
• AI/ML Coding
• Technical Support in Nutrition
• Health/Nutrition Project Management

Languages

English, Hindi