Deadline: 11 February, 2022

Location: Niamey, Niger

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is seeking to fill the role of Nutrition Specialist.

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

Responsibilities

• Support the Nutrition Directorate of the Ministry of Health and the HC3N to maintain and expand partnerships among nutrition stakeholders, ensuring a functional coordination mechanism for nutrition through notably facilitation of technical working group meetings, knowledge and information management and sharing
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts and national stakeholders
• Identify additional key partners for the nutrition sector programming and emergency response, taking into account their respective mandates and programme priorities
• Carry out and maintain up-to-date capacity-mapping of all current and potential actors including government, national and international humanitarian and development organisations as well as national institutions, private sector, etc
• Provide relevant information in order to adequately communicate with donors, NGOs, government and other stakeholders on the nutrition programme needs and services
• Invigorate sector coordination mechanisms at national and sub-national levels including working groups
• Ensure appropriate coordination between all nutrition partners working both on treatment and prevention of undernutrition, as well as national authorities and local structures
• Ensure effective links with other sectors, especially health, WASH, agriculture and livelihoods, social protection and education
• Represent the interests of the nutrition sector in discussions with the humanitarian coordinator as well as donors on prioritisation, resource mobilisation and advocacy
• Act as focal point for enquiries on the nutrition’s response plans and operations
• Establish a regular communication with decentralised coordination bodies and multisectoral platforms and ensure that their needs are adequately taken into account
• Secure commitments from nutrition stakeholders in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the sector
• Promote emergency and life-saving response actions in times of stress while at the same time strengthening the integration of nutrition into the health system
• By collaborating with the nutrition monitoring and evaluation specialist, contribute to situation and gap analysis and monitor the nutrition situation
• Ensure timely reporting and liquidation of resources by UNICEF’s partners
• Prepare regular and mandated programme/project reports for management, donors and partners
• Ensure that nutrition sector participants are aware of and up-to-date with relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and relevant commitments that the government/concerned authorities have undertaken under international human rights law and recognised sectoral technical guidance
• Ensure that the nutrition sector programming is in line with existing policy guidance, technical standards, and relevant government human rights legal obligations
• Identify core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements for UNICEF and nutrition partners, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the humanitarian coordinators and other actors

Requirements

• Advanced university degree in Nutrition, Public Health, Nutritional Epidemiology, Global/international Health and Nutrition, Health/Nutrition Research, Policy and/or Management, Health Sciences, Nutritional epidemiology, or a health-related field
• Five years, minimum, of professional experience in a developing country in nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care
• Experience in coordinating partners in emergency (nutrition cluster) and non-emergency (nutrition sector) settings
• Experience in technical assistance for enhanced nutrition national governance
• Experience in resource mobilisation (proposal development, donor reporting)
• Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organisation will be a plus
• Fluency in French and Spanish and a working knowledge of English

To apply and for more information, click here.

Photo source: UNICEF