Save the Children Nutrition Technical Advisor in 104 views

ROLE PURPOSE:
The Nutrition Advisor is responsible for the overall leadership and technical oversight in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Save the Children’s program and advocacy work on Nutrition and relevant sub-themes and cross-cutting areas.

The post is responsible for ensuring nutrition standards and practices are mainstreamed in the organization’s and partners’ work.  In addition, the post is expected to provide strategic direction and focus on Nutrition in line with other sectors where appropriate, developing innovative and evidence-based programs that will enable the country office to become a center of excellence in identified nutrition related areas, and conceptualizing projects that can achieve results at scale in prioritized areas. This includes both emergency and development programming. 

To ensure cross-sectoral integration and program coherence, the Nutrition Advisor will work closely with the technical advisors on building capacity and knowledge to achieve the Survive breakthrough. This position will also work closely with the other members of the Program Development and Quality (PDQ) Unit in relation to proposal development and resource mobilization; program learning, monitoring and impact; and policy advocacy.
SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Programme Development, Quality and Advocacy Director (PDQA)

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

Indirect: Provides guidance and technical support to Nutrition staff based in the field offices.

Budget Responsibilities: None
ORGANIZATION’S PROFILE:
Save the Children is an international independent non-governmental, non- profit, organisation founded in 1919. We work in over 120 countries worldwide. We are the world’s leading independent organisation for Children. Our vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

Save the Children has worked in Afghanistan since 1976. Our way of working close to people and on their own terms has enabled us to deliver lasting change to tens of thousands of children in the country. The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child is the basis of our work.

We are helping children get a better education, we make it possible for more boys and girls to attend school, we help children protect themselves, feel protected and influence their own conditions. We work with families, communities and health workers in homes, clinics and hospitals to promote basic health in order to save lives of children and mothers and improve the well-being of children in Afghanistan.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
In line with Save the Children’s dual mandate, these key areas of accountability apply to work in emergencies and in development settings.

SPECIFIC DUTIES
Thematic Area Leadership & Strategic Planning
• Regularly and pro-actively analyses the nutrition situation in the country and feeds this into the country office’s assessment and planning process upon which to design and improve programmes.
• Leads on inputting and defining the country office’s strategic plan with a focus on Nutrition, based on the evidence gathered ensuring integration of Save the Children’s theory of change, common approaches, strategic goals and best practises in the strategy and programme delivery.
• Identifies opportunities for innovations based on evidence and utilise these evidence-based results when designing Nutrition programmes.
• Actively participates in global and regional Save the Children discussions on Nutrition programming, ensuring that country office priorities are aligned with the global initiatives and best practises or areas requiring further support are pro-actively shared.

Programme Development   
• Lead the design of quality nutrition proposals and budgets, coordinating with other technical and implementation staff.
• Ensure proposals meet SCI and sector standards and are in line with strategic goal and SCI approaches.
• Actively communicate and coordinate with other technical advisors and project managers to ensure integrated approaches across themes especially regarding Health, FSL (incl. Cash), MHPSS, Hygiene, Gender, and Disabilities and Inclusion
• Build on technical knowledge, evidence, research and current/previous programming to lead the development of innovative proposals and programmes in close coordination with other teams. 

Fundraising and donor engagement
• Pro-active strategic fundraising engagement to support the implementation of the Nutrition strategic plan as well as evidence gathering to support programme work and development.
• Develop and maintain contacts with current and potential donors, partners and key technical agencies, in coordination with the PDQA Director including supporting donor meetings and visits. 
• Work with Business Development Manager and PDQA director to secure sufficient funding to maintain or expand the country office’s Nutrition programs as per the country strategic plan and the needs with a level of foresight and consideration of sustainability.

Programme Quality and Effectiveness
• Serves as the lead technical resource in innovative, creative and sustainable programming on Nutrition including CMAM, IYCF-E and Behavioural Change aspects.
• Ensure integration with other sectors in programme design and collective impact on children, especially Health, FSL (incl. Cash), MHPSS, Gender, and Disabilities and Inclusion.
• Builds the capacity, knowledge, understanding and confidence of field teams and partners to achieve the required quality standards in SCI/partner of the Nutrition work by developing, adapting, and sharing relevant tools, designing training modules and supporting the implementation and understanding of quality benchmarks including on the job technical mentoring.
• Support evidence-based learning for programme development, innovation, improvement and advocacy, ensuring that lessons learned are properly documented, effectively disseminated and, incorporated into wider design and implementation of SCI’s work and used to inform advocacy initiatives.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team to ensure quality MEAL systems and frameworks for nutrition programme that monitors the impact of projects and progress towards strategic programme and advocacy objectives including delivering on a learning agenda strategy and utilising evidence (research, evaluations, etc) to inform programming.
• Ensure accountability is considered throughout the design and implementation of the programmes especially in terms of child safeguarding as well as ensuring child participation in the design, implementation and monitoring of the programmes where possible.
• Pro-actively discussing opportunities for innovation and integration within programme design opportunities including engaging with Gender, Disabilities and Inclusion links.

Policy Analysis, Advocacy for Policy Change
• Support and inform the Save the Children’s Nutrition advocacy strategy, in close collaboration with the advocacy team, and in line with the strategic plan and national and global advocacy initiatives.
• Support research being conducted to inform programming, strategic direction, policy and advocacy with a technical lens and technical consistency.
• Keep abreast of national and global debates in policy and advocacy around Nutrition in order to apply to programming or advocacy.
• Represent Save the Children in a technical capacity for advocacy, communications or media purposes.
• Supports the increase in child participation through advocacy activities where relevant and safe.

Cluster representation and networking
• Represent SCI at the Nutrition cluster, as well as other working groups where appropriate; sharing ideas, updates and advocating for action where necessary
• Develop and maintain appropriate coordination mechanisms
• Participate in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars and related fora in the thematic area; and among donors, UN agencies, International NGOs, and national and sub-national government counterparts in coordination

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice) (please write skills and behaviours in line with values applicable to line of work/job)

Accountability:
• Consistently reliable and dependable at work and diligent in the use of time.  Prudent in the use of resources
Ambition:
• Apply lessons learned to support quality through continuous improvement.
Collaboration:
• Inspire team work through inclusiveness, effective communication and commitment to team accountability.
Creativity:
• Seeks opportunities to learn and develop, professionally and personally.
Integrity:
• Protects the privacy and confidentiality of information pertaining to staff, partners and beneficiaries. Protects the interest of the organization.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential;
 At least 5 years of experience in Nutrition technical advisory and/or managing Nutrition programs
 Relevant education degree
 Familiarity and experience with globally-accepted standards and practices on Nutrition specifically CMAM, IYCF-E and BCC for Nutrition, and Gender.
 Knowledge of Cash programming and MHPSS is desirable.
 Proven ability to develop high quality concept papers and project proposals.
 Communication abilities with various levels of Nutrition stakeholders – from decision-makers to field level practitioners.
 Experience in both development and humanitarian contexts.
 Has proven skills in program development and design, training design and delivery, and community facilitation processes, and networking and influencing
 Excellent oral and written communication English skills; Able to articulate ideas and concepts clearly verbally and in writing
 Computer literate and adept in the use of MS Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
 Highly organized, with good attention to detail and developed ability to prioritize multiple tasks to meet tight deadlines and organize work
 Can work well in highly stressful situations; able to manage multiple competing tasks,  prioritize deliverables and meet reasonable deadlines
 A team player, willing to work long hours toward the attainment of program objectives and deliverables
 Understands and believes in Save the Children’s mission and vision; commits to its objectives and willing to adopt Save the Children’s methodology and framework.