The objectives of the study are to:

• Analyse available data sources to understand the nutritional status of school-age children and adolescents, disaggregating the data across demographic factors to identify trends and gaps.
• Collect and analyze data on dietary intake and school-age children and adolescents’ knowledge and attitudes on nutrition to inform targeted interventions and policies.
• Collect and analyze data to better understand the status of school food and nutrition environments including food availability and affordability.
• Review and evaluate existing policies, legislation, and programs including youth-led initiatives aimed at malnutrition prevention among school-age children and adolescents, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Identify key stakeholders across relevant sectors involved in malnutrition prevention efforts, mapping out their roles and influence to facilitate collaboration and collective action.
• Estimate the total cost of recommended interventions to improve the nutrition of school-age children and adolescents.

Work Experience

• The consultant should have experience in quantitative and qualitative primary data collection, managing field workers including their training, literature review, and writing peer-reviewed articles in the field of public health nutrition, and childhood malnutrition prevention in low-income countries. Excellent documentation and report writing skills (in English and French) and the ability to work in a multicultural environment is necessary.
• Experience working in ESAR Region, in school environments, and for UN agencies (especially UNICEF) will be considered an asset.

Specific requirements for the consultant:

• Essential: Proficiency in English and French is required; experience of a minimum of 10 years in quantitative and qualitative research; field worker management, including training; releasing studies on childhood malnutrition prevention, policy, and programme design for the prevention of malnutrition; stakeholder engagement; intervention costing experience.
• Desirable: Knowledge of school-age children and adolescent nutrition, and school nutrition environments.