Senior Associate, Food Fortification at Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

Tasks and responsibilities

• Technical Assistance (food technology), Monitoring and Evidence Generation
• Undertake needs assessment for food producers, identify capacity gaps that need to be filled in order to meet required standards for the school meal programme.
• Conduct technical needs assessment of laboratories to evaluate their capacity for monitoring and regulation.
• Assess and tailor technical assistance and business training to actors in the food industry and laboratories.
• Collate and analyze data and contribute to the preparation of technical and needs assessment reports relating to food quality and safety, to inform risk management and mitigation.
• Prepare evidence-based recommendations to enable rapid response to situations with food safety concerns.
• Support project teams on the food technology aspects of food assistance programs, ensuring compliance with food and safety regulations.
• Monitor and evaluate projects impact defined in the results and monitoring framework. 
• Contribute to Food Fortification projects in terms of partnership management, technical, reporting, and monitoring support ensuring activities are delivered on time aligning with donor and organizational compliance in line with the policies and best practice standards of GAIN.
• Under the guidance of the Senior project manager, coordinate and schedule project review meetings at regular cycles and preparing documentation of findings and recommendations in PRISM.
• Support the design, planning, implementation, and monitoring of the LSFF project activities in Nigeria, ensuring alignment with GAIN's strategic objectives and national nutrition policies.
• In close collaboration with the Senior Project Manager, contribute to developing a detailed implementation plan as per the GAIN Project Management Guidelines (PMG) and draft the necessary project documentation. Actively work on stakeholder mapping and management of key interest groups (external partners, governments, regulatory agencies and other government agencies) to effectively implement the project.
• In consultation with the Senior Project Manager, develop project implementation plans, monitoring plans and budgets.
• Organise and maintain frequent field visits to ensure that project progress is on track and the risk mitigation plan is up to date, proactively reporting to the Senior Project Manager issues which require wider attention and resolution.
• Collaborate with government agencies, food producers, and other stakeholders to strengthen the regulatory environment and enforcement of food fortification standards and guidelines.
• Monitor project progress and performance against targets, using GAIN's Project Monitoring and Improvement (PMI) framework and tools.
• Liaise with relevant environment, gender and safeguarding specialists to ensure that themes are present and relevant in project activities. Relationship Management
• Represent GAIN to external stakeholders, technical meetings and conferences as necessary.
• Contribute to building strong partnerships with civil society, INGOs, government entities, private sector and other organizations.
• Contributing to a culture of mutual accountable partnership with other teams within GAIN that supports programmes and projects.
• Work closely with Project Managers, the professional services teams (Finance, Legal, etc.) to manage and deliver effective projects.

Resource Management

• In collaboration with the Project Manager, develop project summaries, collate lessons learned and draft best practice documents.
• Support the Project Manager in preparing donors’ reports in collaboration with project teams, technical teams, funding team and support teams. Prepare internal/external presentations as required either remotely or in person.
• Contribute to fundraising activities as requested.

Knowledge Management

• Ensure regular monitoring activities are undertaken according to the work plan and organisational requirements to ensure maximum impact and continuous improvement of country communication efforts.
• Develop GAIN’s suite of standard training materials and tools for other stakeholders to use as part of its programs to support private providers.
• Deliver regular webinars for knowledge sharing and dissemination of the learnings to relevant actors/stakeholders.
• Maintain and update a reference document repository on SharePoint.
• Facilitate high level liaison with other organisations working on complementary projects in the same or different countries to share knowledge and best practice.
• Plan and support the creation of communications materials.

Key organisational relationships

• Reporting to the Senior Project Manager
• Close collaboration with the other projects and operational staff.
• Liaises regularly with GAIN Programme Services Team and Knowledge Leadership teams.
• Government, Donors, NGOs, Private Sector, Academia and others
• Food producers, Federal Ministry of Health, NAFDAC, SON, FCCPC, National Fortification Alliance, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Institute of Public Analyst of Nigeria (IPAN), Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) etc.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Competencies

• Clear and systemic thinker that demonstrates good judgment, expert problem solving and creativity.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills; diplomacy, tact and negotiation.
• Strong ability to be flexible and adaptable in times of unexpected challenges and to provide creative solutions while always maintaining work ethic and goals.
• Strong ability to work with diverse groups/individuals, ranging from local partners, local authorities, community groups, civil society and the private sector.
• Data management/analysis skills Computer literate with good skills in PowerPoint, Excel, MS Word, Outlook Job-specific competencies
• Good working knowledge and understanding of food processing operations in terms of food safety and food quality management and production standards.
• Ability to coordinate and influence the formulation, implementation, monitoring of international development projects.
• Working knowledge of food producer technical auditing principles
• Understanding and technical knowledge of value chains Experience
• Proven experience in managing food fortification programs in Nigeria (staple foods, complementary foods, food processing, regulatory frameworks, food safety and quality).
• Proven experience in project management, implementation and coordination in a multi-cultural environment in nutrition, food system and food fortification.
• Experience working with Government, Donors, NGOs, Private Sector, Academia and others.
• Experience or in-depth understanding of working with the private sector, in particular SMEs.
• Experience in group facilitation to ensure effective stakeholder participation and consensus building.
• Capacity building / previous business training experience is preferrable.
• Application of food fortification principles, practices, and regulatory frameworks in Nigeria.
• Facilitating large and diverse groups to ensure effective stakeholder participation and consensus building. Private Sector experience highly desirable

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in food technology, Health Sciences, Food Control, Nutrition or other related field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses.
• Equivalent recognized international accreditation in project management
• Other relevant qualifications in supply management, business management, international relations, sustainable development, economics, development studies, peace and conflict studies or related field will be advantageous.

Other requirements

• Fluent written and verbal English
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to project sites and work in challenging environments.