Deadline: 21 January, 2022

Location: Maiduguri, Nigeria

United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has opened applications for the role of Nutrition Sector Coordinator.

Across 190 countries and territories, UNICEF works for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a coordination mechanism that facilitates the effective achievement of the sector functions and the requirements of the humanitarian project cycle and which builds on pre-existing coordination structures
• Ensure effective communication, reporting, engagement and coordination between different levels in each of the three states (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe), to enable alignment of work and priorities
• Supervise and manage the sector coordination team
• Build partnerships with all relevant sector stakeholders, including government counterparts and national authorities, local, national and international organisations, affected populations and other AoRs/sectors
• Build complementarity of partner actions within the sector, proactively negotiating with partners to avoid and resolve duplication and gaps and harmonise actions and accountability
• Represent the sector with stakeholders across all sectors, including the humanitarian coordinator on prioritisation, resource mobilisation and advocacy and through inter-sector coordination forums, develop cross-sectoral relationships as appropriate
• Promote emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns
• Lead the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including representing the sector in multisectoral needs assessments and joint analysis of needs
• Analyse needs assessment data and work collaboratively with the sector partners to create analytical products based on evidence
• Synthesise evidence and provide near realtime information to stakeholders to strengthen planning and implementation
• Develop standard assessment formats for use within the sector including for rapid response mechanism
• Lead and coordinate strategic planning, response prioritisation and the development of a context-specific gender-transformative-sectoral-response plan across the triple nexus
• Lead early warning, contingency planning, and emergency preparedness efforts for the sector, ensuring adequate sector participation in inter-sector early warning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities
• Draw lessons learnt and adapt strategies and action plans on a regular basis in response to the evolving situation
• Establish indicators by which performance of the cluster can be measured
• Develop an exit, or transition, strategy for the sector and in partnership with the government
• Ensure all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services) are given equal consideration in the strategic response planning and establish and implement systematic measures for supporting their consideration and use
• Provide technical expertise and advice to sector partners to ensure activities are relevant, appropriate and in line with context priorities and communities’ needs
• Engage with OCHA and other AoRs/sectors to contribute to the development of the HNO/HRP, and collaborate with UNICEF on the HAC, advocating for a response that reflects and addresses the concerns of the sector

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or higher) in Nutrition, Public Health, Nutritional Epidemiology, Global/International Health and Nutrition, Health/Nutrition Research, Policy and/or Management, Health Sciences, or a related field
• Eight years, minimum, of professional experience in nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care
• Relevant experience in health/nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organisation is considered an asset
• Experience in a similar role with two years, minimum, of nutrition cluster/sector coordination experience (highly desirable)
• Experience working in emergency/humanitarian contexts away from country of residence is essential
• Experience of demonstrating analytical and persuasive writing and reporting skills, editing skills, and the ability to convey complex information in a clear manner to a diverse audience
• Ability to multitask and deliver against work plan and tight deadlines
• Fluency in English
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset

To apply and for more information, click here.

Photo source: UNICEF