Job: Regional Adviser Nutrition

Location: Dakar, Senegal
Deadline: Monday, 18 November 2013

Purpose of the Position

Under the overall guidance of the Principal Adviser, Child Survival and development, the Regional Nutrition Adviser is responsible for leadership, representation and partnership, technical support, program oversight and quality assurance, knowledge management in the field of nutrition programming including humanitarian response and resilience building.

Key Expected Results

1. Leadership, representation and partnerships:

- Ensure UNICEF`s leadership role in

1) Nutrition programming areas (maternal nutrition, infant and young child nutrition, resilience, micronutrient) and

2) Nutrition in emergency at regional and global for a. Coordinate nutrition regional platforms. Ensure timely and effective coordination and build strong partnerships with UN, West African Health Organisation (WAHO) and other technical agencies of ECOWAS and NGO regional offices active in nutrition security. Ensure timely and quality coordination and information sharing with financial partners such as ECHO/EU, USAID/OFDA, DFID, World Bank, ADB, Gates Foundation, CIDA, and others.

2. Technical support:

- Provides technical support, orientation and guidance to country program and partners in four key areas:

1) Infant and Young Child feeding;

2) Micronutrient;

3) Maternal Nutrition and

4) Emergency Nutrition and Resilience partners. Ensures appropriate technical and institutional capacity-building measures, to achieve programme goals and expand coverage of services.

3. Knowledge management and advocacy:

• Ensures the conceptualisation, development and dissemination of regional technical analyses, technical updates, evaluation and other reports and publications.
• In coordination and collaboration with other professional colleagues, establishes and develops effective information and reporting systems to monitor and evaluate the impact of the programme and achievement of targeted goals.
• Ensures the development of effective communication materials and strategies to support advocacy and social mobilization efforts.

4. Synergy with other sectors:

• Ensures the integration of the sectoral programme with other sectors in all stages of the programming process, (i.e., the Situation Analysis, ROMP, planning, monitoring and evaluation) and courses of action for achievement of programme objectives.
• Ensures inter-sectoral coordination with relevant sections in WCARO particularly WASH, Social Protection, C4D and Emergency in order to achieve organizational objectives (ie. Stunting; humanitarian action; resilience).

5. Regional office management:

• Ensure timely and supportive supervision of five staff.
• Monitors the overall planning and disbursement of programme funds for the (sector), ensuring they are properly administered, and utilized in accordance with the Plan of Action and the programme budget allotment.
• Prepares and submits timely progress/status reports for management, Board, donors, budget reviews, programme monitoring and evaluation, annual reports, etc.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• Advanced university degree in Public Health or Biomedical Sciences with Postgraduate Degree (PhD/DrPH) in Public Nutrition.
• Twelve years of relevant professional work experience at the national and international levels in policy analysis, policy formulation, programme planning and management, research, monitoring and evaluation and advocacy in Public Nutrition and Emergency Nutrition. Professional experience in sub-Saharan Africa an asset.
• Fluency in French and English (oral and written) required.
• A first level university degree with a relevant combination of academic qualifications and experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Has highest-level communication skills, including engaging and informative formal public speaking.
• Consistently achieves high-level results, managing and delivering projects on-time and on-budget.
• Creates and encourages a climate of team-working and collaboration in a multi-cultural environment.
• Has high-level leadership and supervisory skills; provides others with a clear direction; motivates and empowers others; recruits staff of a high caliber; provides staff with development opportunities and coaching.
• Sets, develops and revises organizational strategy and develops clear visions of the organization's future potential.
• Analyzes and integrates diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.
• Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups. Actively nurtures good relationships with people across all organizational levels and boundaries, and with government leaders and stakeholders.
• Identifies urgent and potentially risky decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates organization-wide activities.
• Negotiates effectively by exploring a range of possibilities.

Remarks

This is a re-advertisement.Candidates who applied previously will be considered and need not re-apply.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

More Info and Application