Organizational Setting

For more than four decades, FAO has been working with the Government of the Philippines, civil society, community-based organizations and the private sector to address challenges in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector. Joint efforts have included increasing sustainability in agricultural production, promoting value-adding practices, improving post-harvest management, enhancing productivity and increasing the resilience of agriculture-based livelihoods to natural disasters, climatic hazards and armed conflict.

Wild foods contribute to diet diversity and quality (IPBES 2022, Vogliano 2021, Burlingame 2019, Ickowitz 2014), supporting nutrition and income for an estimated half of the world’s population and 70 percent of the world’s poor (IPBES 2022). Gathering wild edible plants and hunting animals takes place in both high as well as low-and middle-income countries, often irrespective of economic status of households (IPBES 2022). Although not confined to rural areas, people have been found to forage and farm hundreds of wild species in rural areas, many gathered from the forest, averaging 100 useful species per location, and between 300-800 aggregately per country (Bharucha & Pretty, 2010), reaching as high as 1 403 species across India (Ray et al. 2020). Wild species are typically multipurpose, and often have nutritional content superior to their domesticated counterparts (Burlingame 2019), in addition to health benefits which extend the value of foods into the realm of medicine (Kuhnlein 1996).

Data on edible wild species use, availability and composition however is incomplete, as is information on consumption at scale (Raneri et al. 2023, Muir et al. 2020, Sorrenti 2017). “Underassessed” foods such as wild foods are often hidden, missing, inaccurately or insufficiently reported or missing from standard statistics, making recommendations about what to eat and grow arguably biased (Halpern et al. 2020). In turn, programmes and policies related to diets, biodiversity and sustainable land use tend to overlook potential benefits of consuming wild foods for reaching recommended nutrition intakes, and the potential benefits of gathering as a mode of food acquisition.

Existing studies assessing wild food consumption moreover have utilized more than one dietary intake method (usually 24-hr recall and food frequency questionnaire, and repeat recalls on non-consecutive days), require specific nutritional expertise and are financially and time prohibitive (Raneri et al. 2023). While no single method can assess dietary patterns or exposure perfectly and acknowledging the inherent trade-offs between specificity and comprehensiveness of data (FAO & World Bank, 2018), the dietary diversity questionnaire (DDQ) is the preferred tool to better capture consumption of wild foods in large-scale settings. The DDQ is a quick, low burden tool assessing micronutrient adequacy and dietary diversity, and it has a comparative advantage since it is widely rolled out in hundreds of countries, is scalable and can be incorporated into other sectoral surveys.

Through FAO’s Technical Cooperation Program (TCP), the Philippines is one of the five recipient countries (Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, and Vietnam) to implement an inter-regional TCP on “Strengthening Country Capacities to enable Forest-Based Contributions to Healthy and Sustainable Agri-food Systems” . The TCP aims to strengthen institutional capacities to support and upscale interventions to enhance forest-sector contributions to healthy and sustainable agrifood systems.

Specifically, the TCP aims to build capacity on data and knowledge on NWFPs and associated food systems to facilitate the generation of scientifically sound evidence for policy and finance decision makers; promote an enabling environment by enhancing multi-sectoral dialogue and associated interventions and policies, ensuring women, indigenous peoples and local communities’ representation; and catalyze funding from multilateral and bilateral donors to support and upscale interventions identified during
the activities of the proposed TCP project.

Reporting Lines

The Assistant Technical Nutritionist will work under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in the Philippines, the direct supervision of the Assistant FAO for Programme, and day-to-day guidance of the National Food Security and Nutrition Specialist. He/She will work closely with the National Food Security and Nutrition Specialist of FAO Philippines and Forestry specialist (non-wood forest products, food security & nutrition) of the FAO Headquarters for the conduct of rapid assessments on potential forest foods and related systems contributing to improved food security, nutrition and biodiversity.

Technical Focus

The Assistant Technical Nutritionist will support in the conduct of rapid assessments of key forest foods for Philippines. He/She will also serve as an alternate focal point for the FSN Specialist. The Assistant Technical Nutritionist will support in coordinating with relevant stakeholders specifically with the main government partner of FAO and the identified members of the Technical Working Group (TWG).

Tasks and responsibilities

The Assistant Technical Nutritionist shall perform the following responsibilities:

•    Provide support to the National Food Security and Nutrition Specialist in the preparation for meetings, workshops and trainings;
•    Provide review and recommendations for the improvement of the proposed methodology and rapid assessment template;
•    Support and facilitate the conduct of focus group discussions, consultations and meetings in target areas for rapid assessment;
•    Provide support in the documentation, data gathering and analysis of information during assessments, consultations and meetings;
•    Provide support to the Food Security and Nutrition Specialist in the conduct of meetings related to the project, as necessary, and provide feedback for actions or ways forward;
•    Carry out any other relevant duties within his/her technical competence as may be requested by FAO.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in the field of Nutrition, Public Health or other related fields;
•    At least five (5) years of relevant experience in nutrition research, assessments or surveys;
•    Working knowledge (level C) of English;
•    National of the Philippines or resident of the country with valid work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills 

•    Professional experience in implementing nutrition programs
•    Strong background in coordination, planning and implementation of nutrition projects
•    Good experience in participative training and research methodologies, food security and nutrition issues.
•    Demonstrated capability of providing technical assistance and recommendations related to food security and nutrition at the local level.
•    Knowledge and skills on MS Office applications;