Job: Nutrition Support Officer (NSO)

Location: Tana River County, Kenya 
Deadline: Wednesday, 23 October 2013 

Description

Vacancy code VA/2013/B5303/3959 Position title Nutrition Support Officer (NSO) Level ICS-8 Department/office AFO, KEOH, Kenya Duty station Tana River, Kenya Contract type Local ICA Specialist Contract level LICA Specialist-5 Duration 9 months (renewable subject to performance and availability of funds) Application period 10-Oct-2013 to 24-Oct-2013 Print

United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity

Background Information - UNOPS

' UNOPS plays a critical role in providing management services for our life-saving, peace-building, humanitarian and development operations. I have seen many examples of how these activities help suffering people in troubled parts of the world.'

'Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary' General

In December2010, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed UNOPS mandate 'as a central resource for the United Nations systems in procurement and contracts management as well as in civil works and physical infrastructure development,including the related capacity development activities.'

UNOPS mission is to expand the capacity of the UN system and its partners to implement peace building,humanitarian and development operations that matter for people in need.

Working in some of the world'smost challenging environments, UNOPS vision is to always satisfy partners with management services that meet world-class standards of quality, speed and costeffectiveness.

UNOPS employs around 3,500personnel annually and on behalf of its partners creates thousands more work opportunities in local communities. With its headquarters in Copenhagen,Denmark, a network of five regional offices and a further 20 hubs, operations and project centres, UNOPS oversees activities in more than 80 countries.

Background Information - Kenya

The UNOPS Nairobi Operational Hub (NAOH) plays a critical role in providing management services-for its life-saving peace-building, humanitarian and development operations;supporting projects on behalf of a range of partners and creating real results that matter for people in need. UNICEF in Kenya is a key partner of UNOPS NAOH and the recruitment of Nutrition Support Officers is on behalf of UNICEF to provide sub- national/ county level technical support to the Ministry of Health.

Background Information - Job-specific

Nutrition Support Officers (NSOs) are based in selected ASAL and other priority counties of Kenya to support the provision and scale up of nutrition services.

The ‘NSO project' commenced in May 2010 and since then the nutrition situation has improved significantly in many of the ASAL counties targeted by the NSO project. NSOs have played a significant role in the positive developments seen in nutrition indicators, systems and processes. These efforts have been documented in the May 2013 NSO Evaluation report.

With the support of the UNICEF Nutrition Section, the Nutrition Support Officer will be responsible for supporting the county health management teams in particular the county nutrition coordinators,in the realization of the county nutrition action plan objectives and priorities. The role will be internalized, capacity embedded to support effective leadership and commitment of the County Health Management Team with an aim of sustaining a strengthened county systems .This post will be based in Tana River county.

Functional Responsibilities

1. Planning, budgeting and strategy development:

• Provide technical support to MOH and partners to develop sectoral plans, effectively, monitor and implement nutrition interventions in order to reach planned targets.
• Support county level budgetary process which includes costing and tracking investment to nutrition. Further assist in development and implementation of resource mobilization strategies at the county level.
• Support county level development of concepts and strategies that aim to address causes of malnutrition and effective and sustainable means to address them.

2. Coordination mechanisms:

• Facilitate establishment and maintenance of appropriate coordination mechanisms including, steering committees and working groups to coordinate and guide the nutrition sector response plans , operations and related activities at county level
• Support County Nutrition Officer to secure commitments from partners for collective sector work, ensuring the complementarity of the various stake holder's actions in responding to nutrition priorities

3. Technical expertise /Capacity building

• Provide technical leadership and capacity support to Ministry of Health, partners and other key stakeholders in the modelling and delivery of nutrition services in line with the County Nutrition Action Plan.
• Support the application/ implementation and adherence to existing policies, strategies, standards and guidelines and ensure their availability and understanding at the county level.
• Support county level capacity development efforts including capacity and skills mapping for human resources. Where possible, support streamlined capacity development and system strengthening strategies at the county level.
• Support implementation of community health strategy in collaboration with the CHMT, in order to ensure stronger linkage between facility and community level nutrition activities for improved uptake of nutrition services.

4. Advocacy and communication:

• Support the county nutrition sector to identify and develop nutrition related advocacy and communication strategies and messages for the purposes of increasing the profile of nutrition amongst all stakeholders.

5. Supplies and logistic:

• Support strengthening of the integrated nutrition supply chain system.
• Ensure partners support and use the integrated supply chain systems in order to improve the efficiency in forecasting, ordering, distribution, monitoring and reporting of essential nutrition supplies

6. Information management and Evaluation:

• Strengthen County and sub county information management and surveillance systems.
• Support collation, review, validation and analysis of nutrition related information including from other sectors to inform better programming,implementation and monitoring.
• Assist in writing concept-notes, documenting lessons learns/good practices and other relevant reports for better programming

7. Emergency preparedness and response

• Support the County nutrition sector contingency planning/preparedness process
• Support county capacity to respond to nutrition emergencies

8. Monitoring and quality assurance

• In line with UNICEF risk management policies and procedures, monitor partners' support to nutrition related interventions,including programs performance, monitoring of funds, supply and non-supply assistance.

Competencies

(Proficiency Level: B=Basic; M=Mastery; E=Expert) i) Foundational Competencies (Required)

• Diversity [M]
• Inclusion [M]
• Commitment [M]
• Communication [M]
• Working with People [M]
• Drive for Results [M]

ii) Functional Competencies (Required)

• Applying Technical Expertise[M]
• Learning and Researching[M]
• Planning and Organizing[M]
• Formulating Strategies and Concept [B]
• Analyzing[M]

iii) Technical Knowledge Knowledge of humanitarian reform principles, international humanitarian law, inter-connectedness and reform pillars & reform updates

Education/Experience/Language requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) with background in Public Health, Nutrition or relevant areas. Additional years experience with Bachelor's degree in relevant academic qualifications may be accepted in lieu of a Master degree.

• Minimum of three years relevant nutrition experience with proven experience in supporting systems with at least two years' experience in emergency nutrition and familiarity with latest developments in nutrition.

Contract type, level and durationContract type: Local ICA (Individual Contractor Agreement) Contract level: LICA 5 Contract duration: 9 months (renewable subject to performance and availability of funds) For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link: http://www.unops.org/ENGLISH/WHOWENEED/CONTRACT-TYPES/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements-ICAs.aspx

Additional Considerations

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time (CET)
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• For staff positions UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

More Info and Application