Nutrition Specialist at Plan International

Role Purpose

• The Accelerated Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project aims to increase the utilization of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years in Nigeria.
• The World Bank-funded programme will be implemented across selected states through community-based nutrition services. In Kaduna State, there will also be an additional element of the provision of adolescent health services.
• The project will be implemented by Plan International Nigeria in collaboration with the State Ministry of Health,  State Primary Health Care Development Agency, local CSO partners and other relevant stakeholders.
• The Nutrition Specialist will be responsible for providing overall technical support to the design and implementation of basic package of nutrition services in one of the states where Plan International will be implementing the ANRiN programme (Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, and Niger).

Dimension of Role
The dimension of this role include:

• Provide strategic and operational advice and support to the Project team and partners in the technical delivery of the nutrition component.
• Member of the Project Management Team.

Key Roles/Responsibilities

• Support the process of programme design, including design of detailed programme activities and budget
• Provide technical advice to the programme management and implementation team throughout the programme cycle
• Oversee the implementation of programme activities from the technical point of view to ensure delivery of a high quality programme
• Support partners by providing advice on technical aspects during the programme implementation
• Support the programme management team during meetings with various stakeholders, including government officials, donor representatives, consortium members, partner organizations, media and others.
• Regularly utilize project level data, to track progress against planned service delivery outputs and outcomes, and manage performance.
• Support the process of programme evaluation by contributing to the design of M&E indicators of success/ tools and methodology
• Contribute to programme procurement process by offering technical advice, if/ as needed
• Contribute to donor reporting updates
• Lead on knowledge management development and dissemination
• Support programme communication team by providing on technical aspects of the project, as needed
• Join cluster meetings in nutrition and relevant working groups as required
• Support regular advocacies to local stakeholders to improve and sustain project buy-in and operations.
• Support the establishment and maintenance of good working relationship with the relevant State actors, local government authorities and other stakeholders.

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Essential:

• Master's Degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline (Public Health / Nutrition) with minimum of 5 years of experience
• Demonstrated experience of working on nutrition related issues with multi-sectoral teams in developing countries. Experience from African countries will be an asset
• Familiarity with analytical tools and ability to translate theoretical concepts into practical approaches for operational work
• Strong communication skills (oral and written) in English. Knowledge of other Nigerian languages will be an asset

Desirable:

• Applied technical knowledge in thematic area of Nutrition. Knowledge of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (MNCAH) and/ or Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) would be an advantage
• Significant experience implementing or advising large-scale, consortium-led, multi-year nutrition programmes in challenging contexts, ideally in Nigeria
• Strong relationships with nutrition sector specialists and relevant government offices in Nigeria would be an advantage
• Experience in capacity building of CSOs partnering in large nutrition projects
• Experience in contributing to robust M&E and Learning frameworks for nutrition programmes
• Experience working and collaborating with diverse sets of stakeholders, such as local NGOs, government officials, donor representatives, local and international staff
• Ability to represent project to various audiences including senior government officials and donor representatives
• Strong communication skills, including advanced report writing skills
• Experience and knowledge of the cross-sectional thematic areas of gender and safeguarding
• Nigerian national with the ability to articulate and demonstrate a strong understanding of the contextual challenges faced by communities in Nigeria (ideally in Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, or Kogi states).