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Under the overall supervision of the Regional Nutrition Advisor and working closely with the Nutrition Specialist for overweight prevention, food environments and nutrition of school age children and adolescents, the individual consultant will conduct a study that consists of 1) an analysis of the potential exposure and the power of digital marketing to adolescents in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda, and 2) a study on market sizes and trends in sales of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

Background and Justification

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories in the world, including 21 in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESAR), to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide.

Childhood overweight and obesity present a global public health challenge, affecting immediate well-being, increasing the risk of non-communicable diseases, and carrying societal and economic consequences. In the ESA region, an estimated 3.6 million children under 5 and nearly 20 million school-age children are estimated to be overweight. The pervasive marketing of unhealthy products, high in saturated fat, salt, and free sugars (HFSS), is a major factor driving childhood overweight, violating multiple rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Recent years have seen a shift from traditional to digital marketing channels, with evidence suggesting that digital marketing of HFSS products has comparable or even greater adverse effects than traditional media. Children, often unsupervised, access digital media from an early age, intensifying the urgency to address this issue. In the ESA region digital media use is growing but evidence is limited on the extent and nature of digital marketing of unhealthy products to which children are exposed, possibly due to the lack of regulation in digital spaces. As devices become more widely distributed this will increasingly become one of the drivers to high prevalence rates of childhood overweight.

The pervasive marketing of unhealthy foods HFSS, within a largely unregulated food environments is especially concerning. Sub-Saharan African markets have a large informal sector, equivalent to at least 80% of total retail sales. Informal retailing, conducted by unregistered and unlicensed traders like street hawkers and market stall vendors, poses monitoring challenges. Positioned closer to consumers along transport routes and hubs, these traders appeal to customers through personalized service, stocking preferred brands, and offering credit. Emphasizing affordability, their product range includes small packs grocery items such as bread, maize meal, cooking oil, soft drinks, crisps, sugar, and single eggs. The lack of comprehensive sales data in East and Southern African (ESAR) countries hinders the estimation of market size and trends for packaged foods and non-alcoholic beverages. This data gap is particularly crucial given the informal sector’s significant role in distributing unhealthy, ultra-processed items. Obtaining market sizing data becomes imperative to understand the scope of informal sales, both registered and unregistered.

Given the proliferation of marketing of all forms, coupled with an entirely unregulated food environment which influences the consumption of unhealthy products among children, violating several child rights, and contributing to the childhood overweight epidemic, UNICEF is seeking an individual consultant to conduct digital marketing studies of food and non-alcoholic beverages in three countries in ESAR – Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda – and market assessment in two ESAR countries, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

Objectives

1. Monitoring of digital food marketing:
   1. To situate digital marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages at national, regional and international level, drawing on policies, laws and regulatory frameworks
   2. In the context of Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda, describe and assess:
      1. the digital media and marketing landscape through desk research on adolescent device use, platform preference and digital marketing prevalence;
      2. the most popular foods and non-alcoholic beverages, including preferred brands for each country, particularly among adolescents;
      3. the digital marketing strategies, emphasizing the influence wielded and tactics used, and assessing adolescents’ potential exposure to these.
2. Market sizing:
   1. To size market in retail value for i) total packaged food categories, ii) sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and iii) chained fast food outlets latest year[1];
   2. To identify the priority five to six packaged food categories by retail sales;
   3. To provide a three-year historic growth rate for total packaged food and priority food categories/SSBs, to assess and compare how these products have performed over time;
   4. To rank leading manufacturers in packaged food, SSB and chained fast food operators based on retail sales for latest year.

Expected results

The completion of the assignment will fill a significant evidence gap in understanding some of the current and future key drivers of the increasing consumption of unhealthy products among children and adolescents, and consequent overweight and obesity burden in three ESAR countries. Resulting recommendations on how best to address and these obesity drivers will support policymakers and other stakeholders involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies that regulate the exposure and power of unhealthy food and beverage products.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Master’s in one of the following disciplines: Public Health, Nutrition, Public Policy, Psychology, Marketing, Technology (with a focus on health/nutrition). CVs of involved professional should be made available upon submission of a technical proposal
• The consultant should have experience in market research, digital ecosystem, knowledge of regulatory and cultural framework in ESAR region, childhood overweight prevention, excellent documentation and report writing skills (in English) and able to work in a multicultural environment.
• Experience working in ESAR Region, for the food industry and for UN agencies (especially UNICEF) will be considered an asset.
• Specific requirements for the consultant:

  Essential: experience of minimum 10 years in quantitative and qualitative research; releasing studies on behavioral change, food marketing directed to children, digital marketing, digital ecosystem, etc.
  Desirable: Knowledge of CLICK monitoring framework/methodology for monitoring digital marketing of unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages directed to children (or other similar internationally endorsed); nutrition/health, public health, nutrient profile models, quantitative and qualitative research.

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.  Full Advert for Individual Consultant.pdf