Consultant - Nutrition Programme Costing and Resource Requirements Analysis

About the role

UNICEF is seeking a consultant in Kabul, Afghanistan, for a 7-month office-based assignment (with possible travel) to carry out a nutrition programme costing analysis. The goal is to estimate the financial resources needed to reach national nutrition targets over the medium term, producing evidence on costs, resource needs, financing gaps, investment priorities and cost-effectiveness to support strategic planning, budgeting, advocacy and resource mobilization.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct a nutrition programme costing analysis to estimate recurrent, capital and total programme costs at national and sub-national levels, including costs per beneficiary reached, child treated for SAM and HR-MAM, pregnant and lactating women served, FHH and CNDCC supported, and health facilities delivering nutrition services.
• Assess cost variation across provinces and delivery models, identify cost drivers and efficiency bottlenecks, and benchmark costs against comparable programmes where feasible.
• Develop 3-5 year resource requirement projections, including emergency surge scenarios, and carry out a financing gap assessment.
• Produce a Nutrition Investment Case showing the burden of malnutrition, costs and benefits of priority interventions, their cost-effectiveness and return on investment, and recommendations for sustainable financing and resource mobilization.

Required profile

• Master's degree or higher in Nutrition, Public Health, Health Economics, Health Financing, Development Economics, Epidemiology, Statistics or a related field; PhD preferred.
• At least 8-10 years of progressively responsible experience in nutrition, public health, health systems strengthening, health financing, programme costing or economic analysis.
• Demonstrated experience in programme costing, resource requirements analysis, budget analysis, financial modelling and investment case development in health and nutrition.
• Track record of leading complex assessments with multiple stakeholders, government institutions, UN agencies, development partners and NGOs, including in fragile, humanitarian or conflict-affected settings, preferably in Afghanistan.
• Strong English writing and communication skills.

Required skills

• Nutrition programming knowledge: maternal nutrition, infant and young child feeding, micronutrient interventions, IMAM and nutrition information systems.
• Costing methodologies: activity-based costing, ingredient-based costing, unit-cost estimation and expenditure analysis.
• Economic evaluation: cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit and value-for-money analyses.
• Desirable: experience with international organizations (UNICEF, WHO, WFP, World Bank, USAID, GFF, Gavi, Global Fund), familiarity with Afghanistan's health and nutrition systems, and knowledge of public financial management and programme-based budgeting.