Nutrition Youth Engagement Intern

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children are given opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination or, bias. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. Therefore, the focus on equity and inclusion is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations. The Zimbabwe Vision 2030 is “working towards building a new Zimbabwe, a country with a thriving and open economy, capable of creating opportunities for investors and employment” .

Undernutrition remains the major issue among children under 5 years of age and with over one out of every four (27%, or 570,000 children) Zimbabwean children stunted, not growing and developing to their full potential (JME 2023 ), the country is regressing against this indicator. In addition, 1.5% of children under 5 years (or 160,000 children every year) are wasted and an estimated 11,000 children need life-saving treatment for severe wasting every year. Overweight rises rapidly with age (from 4.3% among children less than 5 years to 13% among adolescents 15-19 years and 54% among women 40-49 years of age), driven by food systems and food environments that fail to provide adequate, safe and nutritious food. A key driver of poor nutrition outcomes is child food poverty - children’s inability to access and consume a nutritious and diverse diet in early childhood. In Zimbabwe, 530,000 children under 5 years (25%) are living in severe food poverty, habitually consuming diets which include foods from just two or fewer food groups.

UNICEF Zimbabwe’s Nutrition and Child Development section works with government counterparts and sector partners to protect and promote diets, services and practices that support optimal nutrition, growth and development for all children, adolescents and women. The section has recently incorporated early childhood development under its portfolio and is working closely with Government counterparts to strengthen the coordination, quality and scale of interventions to support early childhood development in the country.
The Nutrition and Child Development section has the following main functions:
1. To support government and sector partners on nutrition and child development enabling environment including policies, coordination for multi-sectoral action, data and evidence generation and resource mobilization, including increasing public financing towards the sector.
2. Support government and sector partners to improve access to and quality of nutrition and child development services in the country.
3. Work with government and sector partners to provide quality and timely nutrition response to emergencies.
4. Strengthen effective internal and Government multi-sectoral coordination for ECD and support policy, strategy, financing, and systems strengthening for ECD.
The UNV will support increased nutrition engagement with young people including in school and out-of-school, to support advocacy for better nutrition choices for the young people of Zimbabwe.

Under the direct supervision of the Nutrition Specialist with oversight from the Chief Nutrition and Child Development, the Intern will undertake the following tasks:
• Contribute to the development of concepts which ensure youth and adolescents participate in nutrition, improvement of food systems and food environments.
• Contribute to development of nutrition polls which collect views and opinions from young people and help measure participation of young people in nutrition programming.
• Contribute to promotion of nutrition information through youth groups and organizations to reach more young people with nutrition messages.
• Facilitate dialogues with school aged children, adolescent and youth on nutrition to raise the voice of youth
• Working with the Nutrition Specialist and SBC, develop nutrition content for nutrition campaigns for both staff and communities.
• Work with the Youth Nutrition Ambassador and provide nutrition technical support to the ambassador for all nutrition engagements.
• Work with and mentor youth advocates, youth leaders and junior parliamentarians as agents of change for nutrition and bring out the voice of youth on nutrition.
• Promote the utilization of technological innovations to promote nutrition.
• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor

Results / Expected Outputs:
As an active UNICEF ZimCO Nutrition & Child Development team member, ensure efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support is rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:
• Active young advocates for nutrition are available and well informed of the nutrition issues in Zimbabwe.
• The lived experiences of nutrition of adolescents and young people are heard and documented and contribute to nutrition programme design in Zimbabwe.
• Young influencers are aware of and informed of nutrition issues and best practices and advocate for better nutrition and better food enviroenmnets for young people in Zimbabwe.
• Collegial relations maintained within the office and between the sections which facilitate a positive learning environment for the UNV