Nutrition Officer at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

The holder will be responsible for implementing better health and nutrition among communities through nutrition education , surveillance and supporting the MOH in increasing uptake of MIYCN (Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition), IMAM surge approach scale up, Promote community led complimentary feeding and Roll out community/mother led MUAC screening. In close liaison with MEAL, support in collection, processing and verification of reports/forms and maintains programme/projects databases.

Key Areas of Accountability

• Nutrition Education trainings
• Participate in the development of training curriculum and tools and facilitate/co-facilitate all nutrition education trainings
• Provide technical, logistical and any other support for the trainings in the various divisions.
• Liaise with relevant ministries and partner agencies in selecting participants for trainings while ensuring that priority is given to the staff working in the key agreed areas
• Liaise with the ministry and other partners in ensuring that nutrition education are comprehensively done following set guidelines
• Maintain a data base of the trained and active nutrition educators in the community
• Identify needs for and participate in refresher training sessions
• Identify a number of community leaders who will work closely with the program at the village
• Participate in evaluation of the outcomes of the trainings
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Participate in the design, development and implementation of an M&E framework for all nutrition related activities.
• Write reports to document the process of implementation, lessons learnt and good practice and ensure information is widely disseminated
• Prepare monthly activity reports as well as quarterly donor reports.
• Take lead in all nutrition monitoring and evaluation activities e.g. Coverage assessments, SMART surveys
• Supervision
• Develop a comprehensive plan for supervision of all the field nutrition activities
• Assist the community health extension workers (CHEWs) implementing nutrition activities to develop monthly work plans.
• Mentor the Sub county nutritionists to ensure that they support and supervise the community health extension workers in their areas of coverage as required
• Ensure regular meetings with the Sub County nutritionists and community health extension workers
• Document and share lessons learnt in a comprehensive and detailed manner to enable track trends on changes on a timely basis
• Development of nutrition education training and counselling materials
• Participate in the design/adaptation of appropriate nutrition education and promotion methods and tools, and pre- testing them with the team and community members.
• Liaise with the health education department at the Ministry of health to adapt and produce appropriate nutrition education materials
• Participate fully in reviewing the community training guides and counselling cards
• Identify and document locally available foods and develop recipes
• Oversee and guide staff in providing on-site cooking demonstrations and workshops
• Network and coordinate with the relevant sectors and agencies in implementing nutrition activities at national and community level
• Identify areas of synergy in the field with the Ministry of Health and other implementing agencies working with communities.
• Come up with a comprehensive plan of activities within the identified areas of synergy with the actors named above.
• Actively participate in coordination meeting
• Implement Community Mobilization Activities
• Carry out community based nutritional promotional activities targeting community groups. Activities to mainly include MIYCN sessions, community feedback meetings and social mobilization
• Liaise and establish strong links with existing community structures including mother-to-mother support groups, community units, youth groups, village elders and religious leaders.
• Implement the development and maintenance of a referral system
• Work with Nutrition workers to develop and maintain a referral system at community level in which community health workers refer malnourished children and mothers needing special attention to the health facilities.

Nationality: Kenya Nationals only.

Contract Duration: 9 Months (Renewable subject to availability of fund and performance)

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Essential
• Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Food & Nutrition or equivalent
• At least two (2) years’ work experience in community nutrition work and implementation of nutrition education programmes, including monitoring and evaluation
• Understanding of community management of acute malnutrition
• Excellent understanding of SQUAEC, SMART methodologies
• Experience of and commitment to utilizing participatory approaches.
• Proven capacity to supervise, train and coach local staff and community workers.
• Excellent communication skills and a willingness to be respectful, kind, sensitive and empathise with children and their carers
• Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult and frustrating working conditions
• Prepared to live and work in an uncertain security environment
• Ability and willingness to frequently travel and stay at the field
• Strong research and data analysis skills
• Strong report writing and computer skills
• Fluent in written and spoken English, Kiswahili and local languages
• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles.

Desirable

• Qualified nutritionist with nutrition education/MIYCN experience
• Experience in implementing promotion of community led complimentary feeding
• Experience in rolling out community/mother led MUAC screening.

Please apply in English saving your CV and covering letter as a single document, including your salary expectations for this role. To see a full a job description, please visit our website at www.savethechildren.net/jobs

We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. Employment is subject to our Child protection standards including background checks and adherence to our Child Safeguarding Policy.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best-qualified talent.

Disclaimer:

Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted