Nutrition Officer -ICSP at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

The Nutrition Officer will be responsible for day-to-day implementation of nutrition intervention in the ICSP programme. He/She will play a critical role in promoting integrated service delivery across the continuum of care through the health system, particularly the integration of nutrition into the health system. ICSP aims to ensure that children under 5 in Turkana North sub county and Mathare slum in Kenya survive and thrive. This 3-year project will apply a WHO-approved integrated approach to ensure that children under 5 recover from common childhood diseases; that malnourished children under 5 are successfully treated; that families have enough resources and knowledge to feed their children; that children under 5 have access to safe drinking water and good hygiene and sanitary conditions and that children under 5 have better access to heal th, nutrition and WASH services through accessing early childhood development (ECD) centres. The will position holder will coordinate with the county health department to strengthen health system support for improved quality of care at health facilities and in the community.

Work Location: Nairobi/Turkana (Two positions)

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

• Programme Implementation
• Organize trainings for Ministry of Health staff and community health volunteers on nutrition system strengthening including Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition, IMAM Surge, and Nutrition Supplies Management.
• Coordinate nutrition messaging to mother-to-mother support groups and VSLA groups during set up of livelihood initiatives such as kitchen gardens.
• Promote infant and young child feeding practices through community campaigns and other channels.
• Ensure availability and distribution of IEC materials, nutrition protocols and supplies, reporting tools etc. at health facility and Community Level.
• Support Ministry of Health to scale up Micronutrient supplementation program (VAS, IFAS, Deworming and Zinc supplementation in treatment of diarrhoea) in hard to reach areas at a distance of more than 15 kilometres from health facilities through ECD centres and community health volunteers.
• Develop and implement Health System Strengthening training needs, assist in defining training needs, develop strategies to achieve targets and coordinate training activities.
• Coordinate and maintain strong partnerships with other actors in health and nutrition at county, sub-county and community levels.
• In Coordination with health, colleagues organize mobile integrated mobile clinics.
• Promote integration of nutrition in FSL and Education.
• Provide technical support to county government in nutrition surveillance. Support the MoH to conduct annual SMART, SQUEC and any other surveys follow up implementation of recommendations.
• Support MoH to develop and periodically update nutrition contingency and response plans, integrate into NDMA contingency plan and activation when triggered
• Coordinate ECD teachers and Day care centre training on nutrition.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL)
• Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) team and other project staff in monitoring and evaluation of project activities including preparation of monitoring reports, documents and lessons learned.
• Share case studies, human-interest stories, documentaries and other related materials with MEAL Unit
• Carry out regular health facility monitoring visits and attend facility review meetings to provide support.
• Participate in milestone meetings for monitoring of the progress of the programme such as mid-term reviews, strategy meetings, previews and reviews and annual reviews.
• Ensure exchange and sharing of experience, lessons learnt, best practices and new methods to county officials, programme staff, other SCI partners as well as within the organization in collaboration with the health and nutrition teams.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Degree in health sciences / health systems (Nutrition, Nursing, Public health).
• Minimum 3 years of relevant professional work experience in Nutrition Programming.
• Intense understanding of the MOH and county health departments, particularly integration of donor funded programmes into county plans.
• Effective working relationships with stakeholders from government agencies, international organisations, donors, academics and opinion-leaders.
• Experience in training and capacity building.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills. Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide array of organizations
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Good knowledge of the nutrition and health field.
• Good presentation and persuasion skills.

Commitment to SCI Values.

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, nor request for medical examination or records and does not act through recruitment agents whatsoever.