13-Febuary-2024

About Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger-USA is a global humanitarian organization that takes decisive action against the causes and effects of hunger. We save the lives of malnourished children and we enable entire communities to be free from hunger. With more than 8,000 staff in over 50 countries, our programs reached 17 million people in 2019.

About the Country Program in Ethiopia

Action Against Hunger has been operational in Ethiopia since 1984 responding to both chronic and acute needs through a multi-sectoral strategy where nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods, WASH, and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support activities are integrated to have a meaningful impact on peoples resilience. Action Against Hunger currently operates in 5 different regions (Oromia, Somali, Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz, and Gambella) with a portfolio of 20m USD/year of emergency, resilience building, research, and innovation programs. We have a country team of around 600 staff in 17 regional and satellite offices. Our main donors in Ethiopia in 2020/2021 are BHA, ECHO, Europaid, UNHCR, UNICEF, GFFO, BPRM, SIDA, EHF, WFP, CIAA, and others.

I. Summary of position

The Nutrition Expert-Deputy HoD under the direct supervision of the Head of Department for Nutrition and Health, provides technical support to Action Against Hunger-Ethiopia mission in the operationalization of mainly Nutrition programs, provides capacity building to the nutrition and health staff under the department, assists in the development of a country strategy, coordinates with the Head of Department in the designing and formulation of an integrated health and nutrition programs and projects. S/he liaises with various focal points at the Ministry of Health and regional health bureaus, ENCU and various Technical Working Groups (TWGs) with a focus on building partnerships and the missions portfolio on Maternal, Infant and Young Child and Adolescent nutrition programs, coordinates with project partners and stakeholders for efficient management and functioning of health programs and projects in the mission. S/he will spend at least 25%-to-50% of time in the field and depending on the need and humanitarian response, it could be up to 80%. S/he is also expected to collaborate with the Health expert and other thematic area technical advisors based in capital office as well as with Nutrition and Health program managers, supervisors, field coordinators to ensure functional and viable programmatic as well as operational coordination and integration between all Action Against Hunger programs (Nutrition and Health, WASH, FSL, PG-MHPSS, Emergency Preparedness and Response and MEAL).

The roles purpose, engagement and delivery is:

Purpose (The substantive focus of the job encompassing scope, depth and difficulty of work both conceptual and applied)

1. Design, develop, implement and evaluate health actions and programs.

• Assess and analyze the national Nutrition policy and Strategy landscape and dynamics in Ethiopia and contribute to Action Against Hunger-Ethiopia mission country strategy development.
• Support the Nut and Health-HoD in producing technical and strategic health program reports for internal and external communication purposes.
• Assist the Nut and Health HoD in developing Develop nutrition technical guidelines and SOPs.
• Build capacity of field nutrition and health staff on project management approaches, including implementation, monitoring, reporting, with a focus on high quality services.
• Conduct joint supportive supervision provide formal trainings and OJT wherever required to the field teams with a focus on ensuring the standards and quality of Nutrition and health programs.
• Ensure that annual BoQs are prepared as per the latest information received from various bases and are prepared in line with standard templates to better inform project budget preparation.
• Engage with the Nut and Health HoD and other technical advisors based in capital level to develop a multi-sectoral project proposal based on emerging evidenced ensure effective implementation at field level.
• Produce and/ or contribute to high quality, analytical project and programme progress update reports.
• Provides technical advisory support and consultation on high impact nutrition programs for the mission.
• Identify programmatic challenges and bottlenecks in the overall nutrition programing approaches in the past years and suggest, propose ideas and for upcoming country strategy plan
• In case of any nutrition emergency mainly in Action Against Hunger operational areas, supports and assists collective response efforts together with government officials and other stakeholders, and assists the appropriate implementation of the emergency response on ground, regular documentation and reporting of the same.
• Participate in the designing of multiyear flagship nutrition and health proposal funded by major donors such as USAID.

Engagement: (The focus of interaction both internally and externally needed to deliver a service seek collaboration and build effective partnerships)

2. Foster External coordination, representation and communication in the field of Health.

• Together with the Nut and Health HoD, Participate and represent Action Against Hunger in sectoral and cluster based Nutrition coordination and task force meetings such as Nutrition Cluster (ENCU), ECSC-SUN, UN and MoH led nutrition program planning sessions in close communication with the Nut and Health- HoD.
• Regularly and timely, communicate to the HoD, other thematic area technical advisors, program managers, nutrition and health supervisors on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), revised national guidelines and strategies, guidelines, joint statements and recommended action plans related to Nutrition programs.
• Produce and share sectoral, and cluster based weekly and monthly nutrition briefing reports to the Nut and Health HoD for further review and submission to the ENCU or MoH.
• Participate and support in the development and validation of nutrition technical protocols, SOPs and MoU together with other organizations and agencies when needed and ensure their effective roll out, utilization across all areas of operations.
• Participate in the HNO/HRP exercise at ENCU and in various assessments, surveys, program implementation as per the MoH, EDRMC and ENCUs request.
• Advocate for implementation of high impact nutrition strategies as well as interventions, generate prove of concepts and evidenced that could serve as an input for policy change and adaptation at national level.
• In consultation with the Nut and Health-HoDs, act as a focal point for the dissemination of Nutrition information and research findings from surveys, researches, evaluations and assessments.

Delivery: (The focus on the execution of the work and the role on the team for supporting business/operational functions in terms of timeliness and quality)

3.Overall management of the Health researches, Survey, Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) activities:

• Support and assist technically in the development of sound and quality integrated Nutrition proposals and ensure proposals are Sex, Age Disaggregated Data (SADD) sensitive.
• Review and compile monthly Nutrition and integrated project APRs, provide timely feedback to nutrition and health program managers and make follow up on areas of improvement.
• Ensure the quality of Nutrition and integrated project data and utilization of it for internal programming, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation purposes.
• Participate in the development and review of best practices, lessons learned and documentations on Nutrition and integrated programs and projects and ensure that all are reflected in reports, Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approaches and project designing exercises.
• Support MEAL team in systematic management of nutrition surveillance data, tool development, planning exercise and implementation activities.
• Participate and support in Nutrition and health data quality assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives together with MEAL team.
• Provide support in the identification and articulation of nutrition research, survey and assessment needs within and outside Action Against Hunger operation areas.
• Together with the Nut and Health-HoD and MEAL team, ensure that all Nutrition program surveillance and surveys, assessments and evaluations have passed through relevant reviewing and approval stages.
• Participate and collaboration with key governmental authorities (MoH) and other relevant groups (e.g. Academic institutes, nutrition agencies, ENCU and other INGOs) during Nutrition researches, surveys, assessments and evaluations.
• Together with MEAL team, ensure that the nutrition researches, survey, assessments, evaluation, and ethical clearance considerations are applied in the field in line with agreed approaches and protocols validated by relevant actors, including academic institutes, EFDA, EPHI and MoH.
• In the absence of Nut and Health-HoD or during delegation, act as a focal point for the dissemination of Nutrition information and research findings from surveys, researches, evaluations and assessments.
• Coordinate with MEAL team, Nut, and Health-HoD on appropriate nutrition research and survey data analysis, result interpretation, timely internally and external validation, report writing and dissemination at national and sub national level.

4. Coordinate within the Action Against Hunger team and provide technical support and management to the Nutrition and Health team

• Ensure adherence to and standard practices of nutrition projects in line with national guidelines, protocols and SOPs in all operational areas by all nutrition and health staff.
• Responsible to technically support nutrition programming in AAH Ethiopia mission in close coordination with the HoD.
• Supports and follows the effective procurement, transportation, utilization of essential lifesaving nutrition commodities such as (RUTF, RUSF, SC+ etc) in line with SOPs and guidelines at both national and base level.
• Closely support various bases in health project implementation, monitoring the effective delivery of nutrition projects with the aim to ensure the quality benchmarks for nutrition services are met and projects are implemented as per the standard guidelines and protocols.
• Regularly follow project budget utilization as per the latest information (BFUs) received from finance department and provide regular guidance and support to base team for efficient budget utilization.
• Participate and support in the effective roll out, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of innovative and adaptive nutrition programs such as Family MUAC approach, MAMI care pathway etc.
• Support and assist the implementation of community level Social Behavioral Change Communication activities in all operational areas, including refugee camps.
• Collaborate and communicate with technical and support advisors, program managers, DCD, CD, and any other AAH resource persons in order to ensure the coherence of activities and reports.
• Informing/updating the HoD on assessment/survey implementation and any issues on a regular basis.
• Support and monitor the consistent applications of standard operating procedures (SOPs), revised national health strategies and policy, guidelines, joint statements and recommended action plans related to health programmes by all base staff.
• Participate in regular Grant Review and APR Meetings and provide updates on project implementation progresses and suggest and take doable action points to ensure timely and effective completion of nutrition projects.
• Conduct regular technical review of Nutrition work plans, project reports received from base/filed team and provide timely feedback.
• Participation in departmental coordination team meetings and in other general and strategic departmental meetings.
• Follow up of logistics requirements for routine health project activities, including health supply procurement, undertaking of health surveys in liaison with the logistics department and in collaboration with HoD, program managers as well as field coordinators.
• Provide periodic Nutrition project progress updates to HoD and collectively review project progress and produce progressive plan of actions based on the findings of the exercise.
• Together with the Nut and Health-HoD, guide and technically assist Nutrition and Health program managers, supervisors in preparation of nutrition project plans, organizing various high impact Nutrition trainings, periodic reports, budget management and preparation of project related documents.
• Support HoD in preparing, organizing and documenting Nutrition project documents, including project (grant) proposal, master beneficiaries and BoQ for each base.
• Provide capacity building trainings for government and project nutrition and health staff on revised national nutrition guidelines and protocols.
• Provide regular post training follow up support and technical assistance to Nutrition and Health program managers and supervisors as well as government health program supervisors.
• Capacitate field team on skill based analysis and interpretation of nutrition program surveillance data, reviewing APRs and providing timely feedbacks, and proposing recommendations when necessary.
• Support and ensure that nutrition supplies and commodities such as essential medicines, medical equipment and RUTF, RUSF and SC+ are available in all Action Against Hunger bases and supply chain management is properly monitored to ensure continuity of essential nutrition services in all operational areas.

II.Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly supervises new nutrition experts to be hired for Capital.

• Acting as the direct technical supervisor for Nutrition and Health program experts in Action Against Hunger operational areas in the absence of HoD and/or during delegation at capital.

III.Gender Equality Commitments& Zero Tolerance to Abuse

• Foster an environment that reinforces values of people of all genders equal access to information.
• Provide a work environment where people of all genders must be evaluated and promoted based on their skills and performance.

• Promote a safe, secure, and respectful environment for all stakeholders, particularly for children, beneficiaries, and members of staff.

• Help to prevent any type of abuse including workplace harassment and sexual abuse and exploitation.

• Respect beneficiaries women, men, children (boys and girls) regardless of gender, sex orientation, disability, religion, race, color, ancestry, national origin, age, or marital status.

• Value and respect all cultures.

IV.Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA):

• Beware of minimum operating standards of SEA

• Protect and prevent others from SEA.

• Report SEA.

• Strictly comply with AAH child protection and SEA policies.

V.Fiscal Responsibility

• The Nutrition expert will ensure timely budget utilization of Nutrition programs and project activities in liaison with finance department, Nut and Health HoD, field coordinators and Nutrition-Health program managers.

• S/he will provide regular follow and support to the base team, specifically for Nutrition-Health team (Pharmacist, nutrition and health managers and supervisors) on ways to efficiently and timely utilize project resources, including project-committed budget without compromising the quality of expected deliverables.

VI.Physical Demands

• While performing the duties of this job, the nutrition expert is required to sit for long periods and to concentrate on work, including typing, and turn out heavy volumes of work accurately, within short time frames under stressful situations in the context of a humanitarian development nexus programming approaches. Must be able to proofread own work accurately so that only minor corrections are needed on an infrequent basis.

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

VII.Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

• The duties of the job require regular job attendance at least five days per week. Must be available to work outside normal office hours or on the weekends as required.

• Must be able to travel as required for standard domestic and international business purposes. While performing the duties of this job in the field, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases.

I.Required Qualifications and Professional Experience

• Masters degree in public qualification or medicine and progressive experience of working in the nutrition and health sector on both development and humanitarian context for over 10 years.
• At least 5 years of practical experience on designing, implementing, leading and evaluating high impact nutrition and Health programmes preferably in Ethiopia.
• Experience in managing Nutrition projects or grants funded by major donors USAID, FCDO, GAC, ECHO, UNICEF, UNHCR, SIDA etc.
• Good knowledge in drugs and medical supplies management with practical exposure to Integrated Pharmaceutical Logistics and Supply Management System (IPLS).
• Exposure to Health and Health related research initiatives.
• Having a better understanding and exposure to the national Adolescent, Maternal, Infant, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition progressive agendas, Policies and strategies.
• Practical exposure to and participation in national Nutrition coordination platforms and various Technical Working Groups (TWGs).
• Having practical experience working in INGOs and humanitarian sector is preferable.

II.Required Skills & Competencies

• Strong communication skill.
• Good strategic and analytical capability.
• Practical exposure and experience in capacitating (Training, mentoring, coaching and supervising frontline health workers and supervisors.
• Embracing Diversity, Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation, good experience in staff management.
• Ability to take new initiative forward and prioritize multiple tasks with minimum supervision.
• Desirable project management, networking and representation skill.
• Quality report writing skill and capable of working in team.
• Knowledge and skill of MS Office Suite and other statistical software (Epi Info 7, ENA for SMART, and SPSS) is required and comfortable working with computers with minimal IT support.
• Genuine interest in and commitment to the mission and principles of Action Against Hunger.
• Fluent in written and spoken English and Amharic, preferably in other local languages as well.