Position - : Senior Nutrition Advisor

TEAM/PROGRAMME:

Senior Leadership Team - Ethiopia Country Office

LOCATION:  Addis Ababa, Save the Children CO

Post Type: National

Duration; 3 years with Possibility of extension

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

ROLE PURPOSE:

Ethiopia has registered remarkable progress in reducing the burden of malnutrition over the past decades. Despite improving trends, however, undernutrition remains very high in Ethiopia. To accelerate the nutrition gains and address the challenges, the Ethiopia government has developed and endorsed food and nutrition policy in 2019 that hinges on the principle of attaining food and nutrition security as a constitutional human right. This has leveraged government commitment that is backed by a policy framework to enhance multisector responsibility and accountability to ensure that its citizens are food and nutrition secured.

Save the Children Ethiopia Office has been one of the major partner supporting the GoE through its multiple Nutrition programmes/projects in both development and emergency contexts. Currently, the country office is implementing different multi-sectoral nutrition programming to strengthen multi-sectoral coordination, building the capacity of nutrition sensitive and specific sectors to implement the national Food and Nutrition Policy and Strategy, supporting Sector Ministries in nutrition sensitive livelihoods and agriculture interventions, social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) and etc.

To ensure the quality of implementation of our nutrition programming, Save the Children plans to recruit a senior nutrition advisor who can provide the required technical leadership for our development nutrition programmes. The Senior Advisor will be responsible to technically lead all development nutrition programmes in planning and executing capacity building actions, ensure the implementation of Save the children’s quality parameters like quality bench marks, common approaches and others. S/he will work to establish and strengthen relationship and a critical link between the Save the Children’s global, regional and in-country stakeholders and partners. The senior advisor will lead to strengthen strategic partnerships for new business development and work in designing nutrition programmes that will impact the life of children and their families. S/he plays a role of internal coordination for our nutrition programming and represent the CO in both internal and external platforms. The senior advisor will lead the processes of identifying and document learnings, organize and share learning sessions and follow up the implementation at all levels of program operations.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to:  Report to Health and Nutrition Technical Director

Dimensions: Save the Children works in all regions in Ethiopia with a current staff complement of approximately 1,600+ members and current expenditure of approximately $90+ million each year.

Staff directly reporting to this post: none

Length of Contract- One year with possibility of extension

Place of Work - Addis Ababa, Save the Children Ethiopia Country Office

A.KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

Technical Leadership:

·       Lead the development of a nutrition program strategies of country offices to achieve the CO’s strategy and ambition of 2030

·       Provide technical leadership for nutrition development programmes

·       Identify talents and capacity gaps, build capacity and mentor nutrition program managers, specialists, officers and coordinators through development/adaptation of relevant training materials.

·       Explore and generate innovative approaches and opportunities to enhance the portfolio and quality of SCI’s nutrition programs

·       Build networks across field offices and collectively address any technical challenges to ensure program quality

·       Support nutrition program operation team to understand and contextualise global guidance, quality standards like quality bench marks, common approaches, donor and stakeholder quality requirements and other quality parameters.

·       Develop policy papers and advocacy asks (or related material) based on research evidence, technical learning from projects, policy gaps’ analysis, and the development of good practices.

·       Plan and facilitate high level technical meetings and conferences within the sector.

Programme Quality in Design & Implementation:

·     Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new nutrition programme development

·     Proactively and technically engage with nutrition donors to position/pitch the approaches, evidences and successes of SCI

·     Promote optimal multi sectoral nutrition programming approach as an overarching framework of the national food and nutrition policy and its strategy that supports working in collaboration and partnership with all nutrition specific and sensitive sectors at national and sub-national levels

·     Lead the design and support the implementation & monitoring of nutrition programmes; ensure that sectoral and internal technical best practice (including Save the Children’s Common Approaches) is applied in collaboration with program operation units and staff

·     Undertakes measures to ensure the quality of nutrition programs of SCI as per the programming principles of SCI, generate, synthesize and share learnings and best practices.

·     Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in all our nutrition programme in design and implementation.

·     Technically lead to ensure development and humanitarian nexus with SCI’s nutrition programming

·     Provide technical backstopping as needed during humanitarian health and nutrition response needs for the country office

·     Lead and support program operations to implement behaviour centred nutrition programmes, which includes working with program operation teams to develop, monitor and revise social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) strategies, formative researches and materials development and identifying appropriate indicators to monitor and evaluate behaviour change.

·     Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation

·     Respond to requests for technical expertise from field offices and nutrition program/project offices

·     Provide technical leadership and closely work with MEAL and other sectors in strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation and the use of data across all levels to improve program performance.

·     Regularly and optimally coordinate efforts and closely work with members and regional office

Networking and External Engagement:

·     Develop and strengthen strategic relations, bilaterally and in network, with key influencing stakeholders in the sector, particularly government departments, UN agencies and private and institutional donors in country.

·     In collaboration with business development team and other units, contribute in strengthening strategic partnerships in identifying partners and donors to strengthen Nutrition portfolio of the country office

·     Facilitate effective partnership with key stakeholders engaged in the implementation of nutrition programmes.

·     Closely work with and contribute on the national technical advocacy platforms, taskforces, working groups and subgroups

·     Collaborate with nutrition partners and stakeholders to ensure synergy, sharing of technical resources, learning and mutual supports.

·     Represent SCI in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars and all relevant platforms

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

§  Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

§  Holds suppliers accountable to deliver on their responsibilities

Ambition:

§  Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and takes responsibility for their own personal development

§  Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

§  Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

§  Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

§  Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

§  Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

§  Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

Integrity:

§  Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence

§  Displays consistent excellent judgement

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

Education

§  Master’s Degree in Nutrition or other related disciplines, BSc degree with exceptional and relevant work experience may be considered in lieu.

Experience and Skills: 

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in technically lead, managing and implement large-scale nutrition development projects,
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in team situations
• Solid experience in designing and technically support the implementation of nutrition programming that ensure programmes/projects towards impact, scale and sustainability.
• Experience in providing technical leadership for nutrition development programmes
• Experience and skill in building capacity and provide mentorship nutrition program managers, specialists, officers and coordinators
• Experience and skill in identify and documenting learnings, best practices, and facilitate learnings
• Experience in developing donor relationships, working with/guiding national level technical working groups, working with government partners, with partner agencies.
• Good knowledge of the Ethiopian health and nutrition systems and policies
• Strong result orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind sets
• Good skill in communicating, organizing group discussion, and presentation
• Good computer skill (MS word, MS excel, MS access and other data generating tools)
• Solid experience working with Government of Ethiopia especially with more than one ministry is preferred.
• Demonstrated skills working in partnership with CSOs, international donors and agencies.
• Significant expertise providing technical assistance to national level nutrition policies, strategies or other multi-sectoral programs and staff working on nutrition.
• Training, negotiation, mentorship, facilitation and team building skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Amharic, able to communicate professionally with a wide range of contacts; able to show tact and discretion when dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
• Commitment to Save the Children values

KEY COMPETENCIES

Technical competencies:

·      Ensures linkages across portfolio ensuring quality and coherence of MEAL systems and evidence gathering

·      Manages resources and capacities to develop and maintain quality MEAL systems

·      Facilitates strategic alignment of data to global priorities

Generic Competencies

·      Child Rights: Promotes an enabling environment for participation, and accountability to children

·      Be the Innovator: Promotes innovation to find new and better approaches to driving progress for children

Deliver Results at Scale: Promotes a clear focus on impact in a project and programme design, management, and oversight

Generic Competencies

• Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities

• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalised children and adolescent
• Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery

Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peerS,

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI’s global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Gender Equality Policies, supported by relevant procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SC Health and Safety policies and procedures.

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. The duty station of the position holder will be in Addis Ababa This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

The Organization
We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realize the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:
• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.