Head of Nutrition & Health Department at Action Against Hunger | ACF-International

Description

• We are looking for a highly skilled, creative HOD Nutrition & Health, responsible for designing strategies and coordinate activities of Action Against Hunger in the fields of Nutrition and Health (Focusing on long term strategic direction including humanitarian operations) for projects that are being implemented in the region

About the Program

• Action Against Hunger has been operational in Nigeria since 2010 responding to both chronic and acute needs through a multi-sector strategy where nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene activities are integrated to have a meaningful impact on people’s resilience.
• The main objectives of the country program are 1/ to continue building on Action Against Hunger’s reputation for nutritional expertise to deliver integrated nutrition, WASH and FSL assistance in the high caseload Northern Nigeria States and build evidence from out pilot projects to influence policy makers to find long lasting solution to undernutrition and hunger and 2/ responding to the dire humanitarian situation created by the devastating conflict on-going in the North East while applying, where possible, attempts to find durable solutions in line with the New ways of Working and Humanitarian Development Nexus.
• With a central office in Abuja and 3 main field office across the North, Action Against Hunger runs intervention in 3 States of Northern Nigeria including two States affected by the on-going conflict.
• We have a country team of around 550 staff (45 international) and a budget for 2018 projected at 50 M US$. Our main donors and partners in Nigeria include USAID/OFDA&FFP, DFID, ECHO, EU EDF, AFD, UNICEF, SIDA, SDC and GAC.

You'll contribute to ending world hunger by:

• increasing the programs’ quality and impact through the implementation, designing strategies and coordinate activities of Action Against Hunger in the fields of Nutrition and Health (Focusing on long term strategic direction including humanitarian operations) in conformity with Action Against Hunger and international standards and national policies.

Key Activities
Design, develop and evaluate actions in the field of nutrition and health:

• Nutrition and Health Assessment (SMART/Rapid SMART/SQUEAC/SLEAC etc.) and analysis of prevailing context of nutrition and health in country.
• Initiate studies and/or operational research based on the analysis of data provided by other partners (NGOs, UN agencies, governmental departments).
• Engaging in teamwork with Heads of Departments in other technical areas to develop an integrated multi-sectoral approach.
• Drawing up new proposals for intervention in medical and nutritional programme areas for submission to funding bodies in collaboration with Program Managers and Field Coordinators [Development grants].
• Liaison with finance and logistics departments to establish budgets for new programmes in nutrition and health [Development grants].
• Developing and monitoring budgets allocated to the field of nutrition and health.
• Identifying challenges and proposing research projects and innovative approaches in the field of malnutrition.
• Building on good practice, experience and assessments in the framework of AAH's organizational development strategy and ensuring that recommendations arising from assessments are implemented.
• Engage with M&E HoD in reviewing and technical validation of methodology of Baseline/Endline surveys and reports related to nutrition and health.

Monitor and coordinate programmes in the fields of nutrition and health [development grants defined by the mission]:

• Control, validate and monitoring of the resources used by the programmes in order to draft request and undertake quality control.
• Monitoring programme quality by using APR indicators qualitative and quantitative reports submitted by nutrition and health Programme Manager.
• When possible, appropriate and relevant, promote an integrated approach in the programmes to ensure a sound understanding of the causes of malnutrition in an area (e.g. study of market prices) – in liaison with FS.
• Producing a synthesis of all data collected by Nutrition and Health Programme Managers and informing the Mission Country Director and relevant HQ personnel of the key indicators having a bearing on the programmes.
• Producing activity reports for funding bodies on medical and nutritional aspects of the programmes.
• Explore opportunities and propose concrete plan for digitalized reporting system for nutrition and health activity in field.

Manage the Nutrition and Health team in capital if any and be the Technical/Support Manager of the Nutrition and Health Program Managers [development grant defined by the mission]:

• Managing overall planning and dispatching of work as well as individual action plans for the Nutrition and Health team in capital.
• Providing support to the Nutrition and Health team in capital on routine matters.
• Organising and leading meetings with the Nutrition and Health team in capital.
• Organising and leading Nutrition and Health team in capital appraisals.
• Appraising technical performances and skills of Nutrition and health Programme Managers.
• Providing technical support to teams in the area of health and nutrition.
• Identifying the training needs among the team members.
• Creating, organising and leading training sessions for technical teams he/she is responsible for.
• Liaison with the Field Coordinator to deal with any problems within the Nutrition and Health Program Managers.

Develop and launch programmes in collaboration with governmental and local agencies [development grants defined by the mission]:

• Negotiation with local partners on work organisation, protocols, action plans, training at all levels (local, regional and national) taking account of all those involved in the area.
• Negotiation of agreement protocols with the programme partners.
• Whenever necessary, updating the agreement protocols to secure the efficient functioning of the programme (e.g. structural change in the partner agency, redefinition of roles).
• Coordinating the implementation of programmes with representatives of national and local government.
• Linking up with partners and taking part in meetings with other agencies (WFP, UNICEF, and other NGOs etc.) with a view to defining partnership agreements.
• Analysing training needs and arranging training for the teams of programme partners.
• Lending technical support to the development of national and local strategy in the struggle against malnutrition.
• Setting out a common strategy and action plan (Action Against Hunger and partners) concerning specific projects.
• Collaborating with partners by the ongoing provision of useful information and regular meetings.
• Building a long-term strategy for the programme, with a view to enabling the partner to achieve autonomy, with particular attention, where necessary, to cost recovery aspects.
• Influencing the definition of national protocols through negotiation with representatives of partner structures (notably the Ministry of Health) with a view to disseminating Action Against Hunger's technical standards for dealing with malnutrition.
• Defining a country-specific strategy for technical advocacy in link with the Country Director and HQ.

Represent Action Against Hunger and its positioning in the field of nutrition and health [cross cutting across humanitarian and development grant]:

• Developing and maintain relations with current and potential donors (visits to projects, presentations of Action Against Hunger and its work, requests for funding).
• Representing Action Against Hunger in meetings with the health authorities and other agencies (cf cluster) and participate in national networks on nutrition.
• Promoting the philosophy and protocols of Action Against Hunger to local partners (NGO, MoH, etc.).
• Representing the areas of health and nutrition in the national coordination of Action Against Hunger.
• Producing technical, strategic and activity reports in the fields of health and nutrition (for partners).
• Producing and/or publishing information, both internally and externally, concerning technical progress in the fields of health and nutrition in the country of intervention.
• Elaborating communication tools for disseminating information on Action Against Hunger and the nutrition and health dimensions of its programmes.

Requirements

• You have an advanced University degree (Masters) preferred in human nutrition, medical sciences or social sciences.
• You have a Minimum of 4 years of previous experience working with NGOs specifically in nutrition and/or health.
• You have advanced knowledge of N&H guidelines and procedures including those of donors and international standards (e.g. SPHERE).
• You have significant experience with INGOs in recovery and complex emergencies.
• You have experience with nutrition and coverage surveys, and rapid nutrition assessments.
• Excellent team management, budget management and representation competencies.
• You have experience with external representation and knowledge of Nut & Health Cluster mechanisms.
• You have a good understanding of Social Behavior Change and nutrition sensitive programming.
• Previous experience with partnerships and alliances is an asset.
• You have advanced knowledge of donors’ guidelines and procedures (ECHO, UNICEF, OCHA, CIDA, EU, DFID, USAID, etc.)
• Familiarity with Action Against Hunger and acceptance of Action Against Hunger’s principles.
• You are fluent in written & spoken English.
• You have the ability to explain complex concepts in straight-forward language.
• You are committed to gender equity and equality.
• You have a genuine interest in & commitment to the principles of Action Against Hunger.
• Your work style builds confidence with others, and you believe that every problem has a solution. It is the way we approach the problem that makes the difference.
• You are able to remain calm under pressure and can easily adapt to changing circumstances
• You are ready and willing to integrate into hard working and fun team that believes in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

Our Core Values
In this position, you are expected to demonstrate Action Against Hunger-USA-USA’s five core competencies:

• Respect: We work with compassion and dedication, treating everyone the same way we expect them to treat us.
• Integrity: We believe that being honest and fair is integral to every aspect of our work; conducting our work with a spirit of sincerity, truthfulness and transparency is imperative.
• Creativity: We encourage new ideas, embrace innovative solutions, and create opportunities for meaningful and exciting ways to do our jobs and provide solutions to address the needs of the populations we serve.
• Excellence: We strive to provide services that meet, and even exceed, the expectations of our stakeholders (populations in need, staff, communities and donors).
• Empowerment: We are committed to fostering an environment in which our staff, partners and communities where we work have the space to grow, develop and feel confident about participating.

Benefits
Action Against Hunger-USA values its employees and offers a comprehensive remuneration and benefits package. These include but are not limited to:

• Health Insurance
• R&R Breaks
• Paid annual leave (vacation)
• Training opportunities.