State Facilitator at Committed To Good (CTG)

Overview of Position

• Our client's nutrition program aims to prevent child malnutrition in all its forms across the life cycle, with the goal to protect & promote diets, services & practices that support optimal nutrition, growth & development for all children, adolescents & women.
• To ensure adequate nutrition for every child, our client Bauchi field office has been working with the state government focusing on the child’s nutrition in their first 1000 days of life. Action supported so far has included prevention of all forms of malnutrition (particularly stunting, wasting & anemia) creating an enabling environment, systems strengthening, & optimal dietary practices & social norms in development & humanitarian context. Where prevention fails, treatment services are being provided to under-fives.
• In 2022, 3,783,949 children 6 - 59 months were supplemented with Vitamin A, 15,170 children 6 - 23 months diets were supplemented with small quantity lipid nutrient supplements to improve dietary diversity, 184,566 primary caregivers of children ages 0 - 23 months received counseling on infant & young child feeding to adopt essential nutrition practices & 45,336 children aged 6 - 59 months were admitted for the treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
• However, with the achievement listed above, child food poverty, a state where young children are not fed the bare minimum number of foods groups, they need in early childhood still persists in Bauchi field office states, only 8% of children 6 - 24 months are fed with the minimum acceptable diet (MICS 2021).
• To meet the minimum dietary diversity for healthy growth & development, children need to consume foods from at least five out of the eight recommended food groups.
• To provide the necessary technical support needed to reverse this trend, it is important that negative social & cultural norms affecting household food & nutrition are addressed as well as diet diversity, homestead food production of vegetables & legumes, especially orange flesh sweet potatoes.
• Orange fleshed sweet potato in Nigeria (OFSP) also known as “solo gold is a variety of sweet potato with high dry matter & a lot of nutrients. This variety of sweet potato is tolerant to sweet potato weevil & resistant to sweet potato viral disease, it matures in three to four months.
• OFSP can be consumed as a vegetable (boiled, fried, raw, or roasted) as well as in different products through processing & value addition for improved household food intake. Also, different varieties of food/snacks can be made from OFSP when processed into flour this includes puff-puff, chips, cake, porridge, bread, juice & Kunu. These products can be commercialized for income generation, job & wealth creation for all, especially women & youth.
• The current need for scaling up the dietary diversity intervention in Bauchi state implies the provision of technical support, supervision & monitoring to improve the minimum dietary diversity of children 6 - 24 months.
• The need for recruitment & deployment of a State Supervisor to provide adequate technical oversight is identified as key to achieving the objectives of the program.

Role objectives

• The State Supervisor will perform his / her tasks, duties & responsibilities delegated under the direct supervision of the Nutrition Specialist, Bauchi field office.
• The State Supervisor will work closely with our client's focal point in the field office & with SMOH State Nutrition Officer, nutrition focal persons & other state & LGA level staff of Bauchi State to strengthen the capacity of government system in the states. S / He will support the efforts of state government to promote child survival & development through prevention & treatment of malnutrition, especially severe acute malnutrition (through IMAM), counseling & promotion for adoption of recommended IYCF practices & micronutrient supplementation among children 6 - 23 months.
• The State Supervisor will provide support in ensuring effective coordination, networking & information sharing with the government & other stakeholders in Bauchi state, to help scale up the management of severe acute malnutrition (IMAM intervention), community infant & young child feeding & micronutrient supplementation & home fortification activities.
• Identify bottlenecks in the implementation of nutrition interventions (IMAM, IYCF, MNDC & advocacy) & systematically explore solutions in collaboration with State Nutrition Officer, LGA nutrition focal person & supervisor.
• Ensure effective operation of systems for community based management of severe acute malnutrition for children with age of under 5 years.
• Conduct monitoring & supportive supervision in collaboration with SNOs / nutrition focal persons to identify & document the success & challenges of the program.
• The State Supervisor in cooperation with State Logistic Officers & SMOH SNO, will assist in planning, developing distribution plans, supply requisition & ensure timely delivery of nutrition supplies to the PHC & / or IMAM sites.
• Support State Nutrition Officers to prepare & timely submit proposals required by our client.
• Support in preparing & submitting weekly & monthly reports including IMAM data (admissions, defaulters, cured & death as well as stock levels & any potential supply gaps) as well as updates on community IYCF & MNDC activities.
• Articulate the monthly work plan in collaboration with our client's focal point & submit it for approval to the supervisor & report the implementation progress.
• Review correctness & completeness of routine program data (IMAM, IYCF, MNDC) in collaboration with State Nutrition Officer before its submission to our client's field office.
• Follow up implementation of state (our client) supported activities to ensure they are according to the proposed budget & activity plan.

Project reporting:

• A detailed work plan submitted, discussed & reviewed with the supervisor at the beginning of each month.
• A monthly progress report submitted to the supervisor for review, discussion & feedback.
• Weekly trip reports & summary of action points from meetings submitted to the supervisor for weekly activities undertaken.
• A quarterly monitoring & supervision report should be submitted to the supervisor indicating best practices, challenges, proposed solutions & next steps.
• Nutrition program data including IMAM, IYCF, and data submitted no later than the 6th of the following month.
• A monthly update on the status of nutrition supplies at the state & LGA level submitted not later than the 1st of each month.

Requirements / Key Competencies

• University Degree in Nutrition or Public Health or Nursing Biochemistry or related technical areas & at least a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, preferably in management of acute malnutrition, IYCF & basic nutrition programming.
• Must be computer literate.
• Fluency in English & Hausa is compulsory.
• At least 5 years experience in health/nutrition program management.
• Demonstrated skills with statistics analysis software related to data management.
• Experience in working with communities on nutrition or other health related issues.
• Experience working in emergencies will be an advantage.
• Good verbal & communication skills.
• Working with people.
• Demonstrated leadership skills.

Team management:

• This role has no team management responsibility .