Wash/Nutrition Advisor at Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is recruiting a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)/Nutrition Advisor to ensure the delivery of high quality WASH and nutrition interventions for a five-year USAID-funded Feed the Future (FtF) Livestock Market Systems (LMS) Development Activity for northern Kenya.

This position will support the Strengthening Community Capacities for Resilience and Growth associate award. This project will support USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and specifically will improve households’ income, productive assets and resilience to drought and other shocks.

Specific areas of focus include: strengthened and sustained rangeland and water management; strengthened drought risk management; strengthened conflict management; improved and sustained health, nutrition, and hygiene practices; improved literacy, numeracy, and life skills; and collaborative action and learning for community empowerment.

Roles

Program Management

• Communicate a clear vision for WASH/nutrition activities and how they fit into the project’s overall objectives, ensure that the project strategy is clear, and communicated to team members, local beneficiaries, the government and other actors;
• Plan and implement the project’s nutrition Social and Behavior Change (SBC) strategy including designing compelling informational messages (edutainment), culturally sensitive Information Education
• Communication (IEC) materials and mass media outreach, as appropriate, to effectively influence behavior change at the individual and community level;
• Ensure SBC concepts and/or messages achieve project objectives, such as increasing knowledge, changing attitudes, enhancing motivation to change behaviors, and increasing the perceived benefits of new behaviors. Lead in the research design, pretesting, production and distribution of SBC/IEC materials;
• Based on the findings of the Barrier Analysis and other research findings, suggest new areas of SBC content for both the immediate causes of nutrition and underlying causes such maternal/child nutrition, household income, household decision making and design SBC through suggestions and advice from designated audience groups;
• Pursue other innovative ways to deliver compelling messages such as the use of schools and other culturally sensitive media/channels of communications to reach adolescent girls, women, Youths and Men;
• Develop and maintain harmonious relationship with partner organizations, line ministries and audience groups. This includes planning activities and coordinating closely with the greater LMS partners and Kenya Rapid;
• Monitor project implementation, document processes and achievements to ensure best practices are captured and disseminated;
• Regularly visit field activities to assess progress and provide formal and informal feedback.

Influence & Representation

• Represent Mercy Corps at government, donor, NGO and other relevant events, in close coordination with the Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party and country leadership;
• Coordinate activities with consortium partners, sub grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other Mercy Corps programs.

Security

• Work closely with the country team’s security focal point to develop and maintain systems that promote the safety and security of all team members;
• Ensure that programs are designed and implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security.

Job Requirements

• BA/S or equivalent in nutrition, communications, development, public health or Nutrition and Dietetics, other relevant field;
• A minimum of four years of relevant professional experience working on similar types of programming.
• Experience with behavior change communications is preferred;
• Previous experience working on USAID grants is preferred;
• Excellent and persuasive oral and written communication skills, including report writing, in English and Kiswahili is required. Fluency in Northern Kenyan regional dialects also are desirable;
• Previous working experience in Northern Kenya desirable;
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.