Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Officer at Action Against Hunger | ACF-International

Location: Damasak, Borno

Job Summary

• The Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Officer will be based in Damasak, Borno state and work under the supervision of the Nutrition Deputy Project Manager.

Specific Objectives
The specific objectives to be achieved includes but are not limited to:

• Conduct rapid/detailed assessment of Infant and Young Child feeding practices in mothers/care givers at mobile clinics.
• Provide personalized IYCF counselling sessions to pregnant women for the preparation of breastfeeding and colostrum feeding and all mothers with children under 24 months.
• Ensure proper maintenance of IYCF integration with all CMAM components.
• Conduct Simple Rapid Assessment (SRA) of all mothers with children under 24 months that attend the OTP/SFP programme through the local Mobile clinics.
• Conduct detailed assessment of child feeding practices in women that require additional support or reveal difficulties.
• Maintain clear communication with all other CMAM programme staff regarding the status of beneficiaries.
• Educating mothers on the quality, quantity and frequency of complementary feeds to promote adequate weight gain.
• Utilize the provided education material on breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices, provide practical and specific advice for the mother’s needs.
• Ensure a comfortable, calm environment for counselling sessions and maintain good relationships with the beneficiaries.
• Conduct education sessions within the surrounding community on the importance of IYCF practices in conjunction with community mobilisers.
• Aid in establishing mother to mother support groups (Community Health Groups – CHGs) within the community to provide additional support for mothers and extend knowledge of good IYCF practices.
• Play an active role on advocacy to promote proper IYCF Practices, antenatal and post-natal checkups, importance of institutional deliveries, vaccination and growth monitoring.

Requirements
The successful candidate will:

• Have bachelor’s degree in Health, Nutrition, Nursing or related field. Higher level degree preferred
• Have a minimum of 2 years working experience in humanitarian contexts, with at least 1 year in conflict/insecure contexts including CMAM, IYCF and community mobilization.
• Have the ability and willingness to frequently travel to villages and stay at the field
• Have the willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult working conditions.
• Have the capacity to supervise and coach health workers.
• Be professional, motivated, open, creative, mature, responsible, flexible and culturally sensitive.
• Have excellent team, budget and project management and representation competencies.
• Be proficient in statistics and other softwares (Microsoft Office package, SPSS, SPHINX, STATA, EPI Info, ENA for SMART, GIS, etc.)
• Be fluent in English.
• Be committed to Action Against Hunger mission, values and policy.
• Be proficient with local languages (Kanuri, Fulani, Hausa).
• Have previous NGO experience managing mobilization in different interventions (i.e. cash transfers, wash, Nutrition).