Senior Program Officer - Nutrition & Food Assistance at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary

The Senior Program Officer – Nutrition and Food Assistance provides field-level managerial and technical oversight to the day-to-day implementation, coordination, supervision and provision of technical support including capacity building to the program team, He/She will work closely both with management and support staff (including finance, operation, MEL, CARM, Protection and program) in Gwoza and Maiduguri to ensure the day to day activities are implemented according to schedule, budget and required quality.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Collaborate with other team members for effective integration between other services like Nutrition and health services
• Collaborate with Local authorities and other partners to harmonize different efforts for better impact and sustainability.
• Able to learn and update his/ her information or knowledge to adapt to the changing situation and context.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

• Manage the food and nutrition activities implemented in assigned LGA and ensure that staff are effectively engaged in their tasks.
• Supervise day to day field level implementation of food and nutrition activities i.e. management of uncomplicated SAM cases through established OTP services, Nutrition surveillance activities i.e. community nutrition screening, nutrition surveys and assessments and IYCF promotion and support, Food Vouchers redemption i.e dry, fresh and fleshy food redemption.
• Ensure that beneficiaries are effectively targeted according to established vulnerability criteria.
• Raise procurement requests to initiate procurement process following MC policy and periodically evaluate and update project procurement and supply needs.
• Draft monthly financial forecast and quarterly financial need forecast in line with the detailed project activity plan/Monthly activity plans and send it to Program Manager
• Consolidate and submit quality food and nutrition and related activity reports (including success stories and lessons learned reports).
• Closely collaborate with other sector teams at the field level to ensure an integrated Food and Nutrition approach internally with MC sectors and externally with complementary activities implemented by other nutrition actors.
• Discuss and follow up on any technical problems related to food and nutrition programming and brainstorm solutions.
• Conduct and facilitate regular food redemption and Post Distribution Monitoring.
• Ensure sound monitoring and joint supervision of program activities in close collaboration with other programs.
• Actively participate in area-level nutrition, food security and Health sector meetings.
• Serve as technical focal person for all field-level engagements.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Track project teams’ daily attendance and validate monthly attendance for supervisees.
• Communicate with HR for necessary staff meetings, performance reviews, appraisals
• Work with the team to develop a detailed project implementation plan and orient the project teams on their roles and responsibilities
• Identify specific technical gaps in project implementation teams and in liaison with the Technical Advisor organize internal training for them.
• Organize LGA-level weekly nutrition team meetings and provide feedback on improvements, gaps and standardization of the service provision and reporting

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Train and support community nutrition Monitors and make sure they transmit/convey messages clearly to the community.
• Creates and maintain relationships with local health and other authorities to link services with the existing health structure smoothly,
• Upholds the image and values of Mercy Corps at all times,

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning 

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Food Assistance and Nutrition Officer, Clinical Officer, Nutrition Counselor, & Pharmacist Assistant.

Knowledge and Experience

• Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition, Food Security, Agriculture or other related fields, a relevant master’s degree is a plus.
• Minimum (4) years experience in nutrition and/or food security and livelihood programming, policy or research, with at least two (2) years experience in a resource-challenged setting.
• Substantial hands-on experience in social and Behaviour change programming and or CMAM programming is required.
• Familiarity with the intervention areas
• Knowledge of nutrition assessments and surveys is a plus.
• Microsoft Office Skills (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word).
• Excellent analytical, written and oral communication skills.
• Willing and able to be based within remote areas, where services are limited.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team, including cross-cultural teams.
• Fluency in Hausa, Kanuri and English.