Background and Justification

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. 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 Eastern and Southern Africa (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, and within a largely unregulated food environments is especially concerning.

Given the proliferation of marketing, coupled with an entirely unregulated food environment which influences the consumption of unhealthy products among children, violating several child rights, and contributing to overweight, UNICEF ESARO is seeking an individual consultant who 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.

Scope of Work

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 Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda, analyze:
      1. Adolescent device use, platform preference and digital marketing prevalence;
      2. Popular foods and non-alcoholic beverages;
      3. Digital marketing strategies and adolescent exposure.
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 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 2.a.i-iii) based on retail sales for latest year.

 Expected results

The assignment will fill a significant gap in understanding some of the key drivers of the increasing consumption of unhealthy products among children and adolescents, and consequent obesity burden in ESAR. Resulting recommendations will support stakeholders involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies that regulate the exposure and power of unhealthy food and beverage products.

Activities and Tasks:

MONITORING OF DIGITAL FOOD MARKETING (COMPONENT A)

To guide the monitoring and restriction of digital marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages aimed at children and adolescents the proposed methodology will include the WHO CLICK monitoring framework[2], specifically, the first two steps of the CLICK framework where C stands for “Comprehend the digital ecosystem” and L represents “Landscape of campaigns”. For the latter, proposed methods include the WHO Protocols and Templates[3] for monitoring marketing of unhealthy products to children and adolescents in social media. The consultant will be required to undertake a critical analysis and write up of campaigns in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda of food and beverage brands through nutrient profiling and power analysis and influence of the identified campaigns on social media platforms.

MARKET SIZING (Zimbabwe and Tanzania only) (COMPONENT B)

Following standard market analysis procedures, this component entails three parts. Firstly, it involves combining desk research, data collection, and analysis. This includes secondary data analysis encompassing import/export statistics, investment reports, company reports of major players, academic papers, NGO reports, and press articles. Secondly, it includes analyzing local data such as UNICEF partner data and conducting store audits in formal and informal retail outlets to identify market trends. Thirdly, stakeholder consultations with various industry experts and authorities are conducted to gauge market size and value. The consultant should ensure that data from these diverse sources are triangulated for a comprehensive analysis, incorporating desk research, available data, and stakeholder insights.

The consultant will provide detailed guidance document on the application of study methods, and hold a stakeholder event to build capacity in ESAR COs and institutions for digital marketing analysis and food and beverage market sizing.

Outputs/Deliverables:   

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.

• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• 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.