Job Description– Nutrition Regional Officer

ACF West Africa Regional Office

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Position:Nutrition and public health specialist
Beginning: 15st April 2012 Supervised by:Regional Programme Coordinator
Working area: Region West Africa – West Africa Regional Office
Duty Station : Dakar, Senegal
Language : French and English
Period
February – July 2013
Post creation: no / Forecast duration: 6 months with possible extension depending on funding secured
Background
Founded 30 years ago,ACF International | Action Against Hungeris an international humanitarian organization committed to ending child hunger. Recognized as a leader in the fight against malnutrition, Action Against Hunger saves the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger.
With 30 years of expertise in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster and chronic food insecurity, Action Against Hunger runs life-saving programmes in over 40 countries benefiting five million people each year. With head offices in theUnited Kingdom,France,Spain,the United StatesandCanada, our international network shares its combined resources, breadth of experience and technical expertise in pursuit of a world without hunger.
As a non-governmental, non-profit, non-religious organization, we are committed to principled humanitarian action as outlined in our International Charter of Principles: independence, neutrality, non-discrimination, free and direct access to affected populations, professionalism and transparency.
In line with ACF international strategic plan 2010-2015, a regional approach for west Africa was developed in 2010 – 2011 to increase our impact on acute malnutrition in this region. As a result of country field experiences and our understanding of the overall context, ACF has been committed to increase its impact in the region as a whole.
A West Africa Regional Office (WARO) was set up in 2009, which has been growing since. At the time of writing, the WARO now plays 3 critical roles:
  1. Management of (i.e. Support to and Follow-up of) regional projects: methodological guidance (tools, guidelines, advises), M&E tools & systems harmonization, follow-up of projects' progress, support to scaling-up, backstopping, lesson-learning and the dissemination of good practices across countries. Currently the WARO oversees 5 regional projects: ECHO Sahel Response 2012 (ending March 2013), ECHO crossborder cholera project in Guinea & Sierra Leone (ending Dec 2012), DFID Sahel response 2012 (ending in March 2013), SIDA Sahel response 2012 (end date is currently being revised and should be around March 2013), and an AFD longer term project ending in 2015. Countries concerned by regional projects are: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea. The current post-holder is the lead for all grants that have a major focus on nutrition – currently, the SIDA and the AFD projects.
  2. Strategic development: identification of funding opportunities, development of partnerships, support to / lead on the design of regional proposals, donor negotiations & representation; several funding opportunities have been identified and the current post-holder is expected to play an extremely important role at this level, by finalizing outstanding proposals, elaborating new ones in collaboration with country missions and HQsand helping to secure funds through negotiation with donors and the promotion of ACF programming.
  3. Advocacy and profile-raising: participation to regional meetings & fora, donor representation, regional organizations’ representation,networking with UN/ NGOs/ academics & universities/ regional bodies, advocacy (in the field of health & nutrition and in collaboration with the advocacyofficer andf the food security & livelihoods expert). The current post-holder will be involved in high-level representation and debates with NGO, UN and governmental stakeholders on malnutrition treatment & prevention, and will play a paramount role in enhancing and promoting ACF added-value and positioning.
ACF West Africa strategy for 2011-2015 is focused on:
ACF Strategic Approach in West Africa
The Nutrition well-being as a common objective
Field evidences / Tackle systematic peaks of nutritional vulnerability / Monitoring & Evaluation
Strengthen health systems capacities to treat Severe Acute Undernutrition
Mainstream improved methodologies to measure nutrition status, risk and programme delivery
Provide innovative solution for the Management of moderate acute undernutrition
Reduce risk of undernutrition through preventive and systematic seasonal actions
Solution focused / Improve capacity to respond to emergency
Emergency Nutrition capacity development
Leverage ACF Rapid Response and Emergency Preparedness Operations and Mechanisms / Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development
Reduce Structural vulnerability to undernutrition
Promote behavior changes for improving care practices at household and community level
Improve access to safe water and basic sanitation
Research / Improve small holders food production, diet quality and diversification
Advocacy for Community and government ownership and commitment
Risk management and seasonality ; treatment of Acute undernutrition ; prioritization of nutrition in agricultural policies
The WARO office has several programme & technical positions (Programme Coordinator, Food security and Livelihoods specialist, Nutrition & Public Health specialist, Advocacy Officer) which play a critical role by:
-Catalyzing/Encouraging scale up and enhancement of programmes’ quality at field level:
  • By providing advises to country missions to enhance the quality of their programmes (regional projects being one priority, but advises can be provided on an ad hoc basis for national projects);
  • By streamlining and enhancing methodologies and M&E systems and tools;
  • By facilitating the dissemination of successful approaches and learning (capitalization), and by providing and sharing evidence of sustainable, cost-efficient and impact-oriented solutions:
  • By ensuring critical analysis, quality standards and technical excellence among Missions in the region;
-Promoting ACF brand and added-value within ACF and to external stakeholders (UN, NGOs, Governments) in order to position ACF as a key actor in the fight against undernutrition in the region, to influence decision-making and public policies in the region and to attract funds & new partnerships:
  • By building our knowledge, expertise and presence in the region in correspondence with the strategic orientations outlined here above;
  • By providing and sharing evidence of sustainable, cost-efficient and impact-oriented solutions at regional level within multilateral for a and in bilateral networking with key stakeholders;
  • By consolidating evidence on what works, where and when and in which conditions, to promote good practices within ACF across the region but also to external stakeholders
  • By being involved in regional processes, bodies and meetings where key policies are being devised, and influencing agendas to ensure appropriate action is taken to tackle the immediate, underlying and basic causes of under
  • By exchanging actively with donors and partners involved in nutrition in the West Africa region;
  • And by increasing the exposure of the needs from across the region to key stakeholders.

2. POST DESCRIPTION
Purpose and objectives
Under the general guidance of the Regional Programme Coordinator, the Regional Nutrition and public health specialist is responsible for
1)Management of (i.e. Support to and Follow-up of) regional projects: methodological guidance (tools, guidelines, advises), M&E tools & systems harmonization, follow-up of projects' progress, support to scaling-up, backstopping, lesson-learning and the dissemination of good practices across countries
2)Strategic development: identification of funding opportunities, development of partnerships, support to / lead on the design of regional proposals, donor negotiations & representation
3)Advocacy and profile-raising: in the field of nutrition, participation to regional meetings & fora, donor representation, regional organizations’ representation, networking with UN/ NGOs/ academics & universities/ regional bodies, advocacy (in the field of nutrition and in collaboration with the advocacy officer).
Specific Duties
Management of (i.e. Support to and Follow-up of) regional projects
  • Is the project lead for multi-country nutrition-focused grants (SIDA, AFD); specific tasks are detailed here below:
  • Report on monthly basis about activity progress using country report data, ensure backstopping, undertake field visits for control & support; produce recommendations for any readjustment of projects if needed, (always in collaboration with HQ referents and countries)
  • Ensure compliance with donor procedures and commitments, timely and high-quality donor reporting; all of these tasks are performed in collaboration and coordination with the HQs and country missions
  • Provide methodological guidance (tools, guidelines, advises): M&E tools & systems harmonization (validation of tools, timing, formats, etc), follow-up of projects' progress, support to scaling-up, backstopping, lesson-learning and dissemination of good practices across countries for nutrition-focused grants (SIDA, AFD); contributes to ensuring the integration of nutrition with other sectors
  • Collaborate with the FSL WARO specialist for similar advises concerning nutrition activities that may be included in FSL-focused grants (DFID, ECHO);
  • Compileand analyse key programme data in the field of nutrition: treatment programmes’ performance indicators (SAM & MAM admissions, cured/death/defaulter rates, coverage), blanket feeding beneficiaries & programme results, etc.
  • Ensure appropriate exchange and flow of information & communication between the headquarters and missions, ensuring appropriate information & learning mechanisms between the HQ, the WARO and country missions
  • Interact with the HQs to learn, disseminate and harmonize ACF regional positioning and programming with ACF global policies, standards and technical positioning, briefing or guidance documents
Strategic development:
  • Monitor the Nutrition situation in West Africa: follow-up and analysis of key indicators & trends influencing nutritional vulnerability in the region
  • Learns lessons from ACF programmes and other actors’ programmes on what works best and what still needs to be done in the fields of malnutrition treatment and prevention; propose possible developments to HQs and country missions
  • Develops ACF Regional Nutrition portfolio: project proposal writing, donor contacts and potential partners, development of regional activity in Nutrition –activities include: animate proposal writing with country missions and HQs, reviseand editing document including executive summaries, conclusions and success stories if any, work with technical referents at HQs level to validate technical content for proposal section whenever it is deemed necessary (note: standard process is to have the concept note and detailed budget validated by the HQ; full proposal validation is no longer compulsory but optional only)
  • Extrapolate information from existing material and collect new information on existing and desirable partnerships; Identify and put the bases of partnerships with organisations, governmental and regional bodies, schools and universities in the region – this could include travels for working and meeting in several countries in West Africa.
  • Capitalize on best practices & lessons learned, producing memo, analysis and briefing/ discussion/ positioning papers
  • Assist Regional Representative (RR) in targeting new donors and identifying funding opportunities for the project.
Advocacy and profile-raising:
  • Technical Interlocution with donors, partners & regional stakeholders on: regional technical standards; best solutions for under nutrition prevention & treatment/ capitalization; alignment of country offices’ programmes (missions) based on good practices & best solutions identified; The post holder is expected to liaise and engage in debates with UN agencies (WFP, UNICEF, OCHA), donors (ECHO, USAID, SIDA, DFID), governments (inter-governmental regional organisations such as ECOWAS - RPCA and CILSS) at a senior level
  • Support to the Regional Representative for technical advise and networking within the regional for a: Nutrition Working Group, Food Security and Nutrition Working Group, IASC, CILSS, RPCA
  • Implementation of regional activities (training, advises)
  • Capitalization transmitting information to the headquarters and mission
  • Interact with the HQs to learn, disseminate and harmonize ACF regional positioning and programming with ACF global policies, standards and technical positioning, briefing or guidance documents

Skills and competencies
  • Ability to grasp complex concepts, process significant amount of information & synthetize it effectively and present solutions effectively in written and visual format
  • Demonstrated experience in high-level representation, networking and/or advocacy in the field of nutrition – with UN agencies (WFP, UNICEF), within cluster (or assimilated) systems, key competitors (INGOs/ NGOs), donors (ECHO, USAID, others), governments (MoH)
  • Demonstrated experience of complex proposal development (writing, revising, editing), additional asset: experience in multi-country proposal development
  • Knowledge of ACF strategy, programmes and positioning in the field of nutrition
  • Great communicator, excellent representation skills
  • Independent, hard-working and autonomous

3. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
Previous humanitarian experience: Yes, A minimum of 5 years’ experience is requiredlevel in nutrition programme planning, management, monitoring, and evaluation (both treatment and prevention).
Essential:
  • Advanced university degree in Nutrition and/orpublic health. A first level university degree with a relevant combination of academic qualifications and experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
  • Relevant professional work experience at national and international level in nutrition programme planning, management, monitoring, and evaluation (both treatment and prevention). A minimum of 5 years’ experience in this field is required
  • Very strong synthetic, analytical and writing skills for proposal development and capitalization purposes
  • Very strong communication and information management skills; track record of work with a wide range of stakeholders both externally and internally (the post-holder will be an interface between several headquarters and country missions)
  • Solid representation, communication and negotiation skills for donors’ negotiations and representation in high-level technical for a in the region
  • Fluency in French and English
  • Autonomous, iniative-taker, result-oriented and hardworking individual
Desirable:
  • Knowledge of West Africa is an asset

4. LANGUAGES
French : reading, writing, speaking fluently / English: reading, writing, speaking fluently

ToR Nutrition and Public Health Specialist – ACF WARO –March 2012Page 1