South Sudan: Nutrition Specialist – South Sudan Health Pooled Fund Programme

MONTROSE is an international development project management and consultancy company providing support to clients operating in the developing world. Specialised in the sectors of health, education, rural livelihoods and private sector development, our clients include bilateral and multilateral development agencies, the private sector, Non-Governmental Organisations and other development stakeholders.

Background

Montrose has been directly supporting the Government of South Sudan to improve health care across eight states since 2012. The South Sudan Health Pooled Fund is used to ensure the delivery of health care and hospital referral services in 8 out of South Sudan’s 10 states. The programme impact will be an improved health and nutrition status for the population that saves lives and reduces morbidity (including maternal, infant and under-5 mortality)

The Health Pooled Fund began its third phase (HPF3) in July 2018 and is supported to run until 2023 by the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Government of Canada, the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). HPF3 merges two previous health programmes - Health Pooled Fund 2 (HPF2), which provides healthcare at health facility level, and the Integrated Community Case Management 2 (ICCM2) programme, which provides healthcare to children under-five within more remote communities. HPF3 supports delivery of community level, essential primary health care, secondary health care and referral health services, stabilisation of local health systems, and procurement and supply chain management of essential medical commodities.

This job description outlines work to be covered during the third phase of HPF;

Purpose of the Position

The Nutrition Specialist will lead on the nutrition elements of HPF health systems stabilization activities. The primary objective of the position is to support MoH and Implementing Partners (IPs) to integrate nutrition into their health programmes at hospitals and health facilities and build their capacity. The Nutrition Specialist reports to the Health Systems Stabilization Manager. Please see the section on specific roles and responsibilities below for more information.

Specific Roles and Responsibilities

The Nutrition Specialist will:

• Lead in design/ review/update of HPF nutrition strategy
• Support the roll out of new technical guidelines (e.g. CMAM, IYCF, QAAP, ICCM, BHI, etc.)
• Provide oversight and technical support of all nutrition activities supported by the HPF through implementing partners regarding child health, school health and nutrition services
• Collaborate and coordinate with other partners (including UN agencies, NGOs and implementing partners in other States) and fund managers on nutrition issues.
• Provide support to the MoH on nutrition policy matters (e.g. contribution to technical working groups)
• Support in rolling out of MoH led trainings – CMAM, MIYCN, SC
• Support the review of work plans, log frame, Implementing partners’ quarterly targets achievement. Regularly review achievements of nutrition indicators against log-frame targets. Review nutrition related DHIS data on a monthly basis
• Work with MEAL team to review/update programme specific nutrition indicators
• Lead monitoring visits to HPF supported States to follow up progress on nutrition activities – GMP/SC/OTP/TSFP
• Support integration of nutrition in other program areas such as MNCH, WASH, and community level health service
• Organize a best practice workshop about integration of nutrition services into health facilities, in collaboration with the Implementing Partners
• Prepare best practices/lessons learnt/success stories about nutrition integrated services.
• Advise on best practices to improve the quality of nutrition services, capture stories, document and share lessons learned
• Represent HPF at the relevant technical meetings and donor meetings
• Support HPF report writing, work planning and budgeting as required
• Represent HPF in the Strategic Advisory Group meeting to support nutrition activities
• Support with the preparation of donor visits Work with the HPF M&E team to support IPs in effectively monitoring and reporting on nutrition interventions. This includes both quantitative and qualitative data generation. Review and provide feedback in the IP quarterly progress reports.
• Work with the MEL team to track, collect and analyse nutrition specific indicators and data in a monthly, quarterly and annual basis
• Regularly review achievements of nutrition indicators against log-frame targets. Review the nutrition related DHIS data on a monthly basis
• Work with the MEL and Operations Research team to identify subject areas for further study e.g. understanding the barriers to maternal, infant, and young child nutrition
• Use learning obtained during project implementation to recommend areas for review and update the nutrition strategy on an annual basis
• Work closely with the other health stabilisation team members; WASH, family planning, community engagement, GESI, HRH and MNCH specialists.
• Supervise the implementation of HPF activities in the allocated Lots.
• Any other tasks or responsibilities based on organizational or programming needs as assigned by the line manager

Essential Skills and Qualifications

• An advanced University degree in nutrition, Public health nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, international health and research, nutrition planning and management, maternal, new born and chid health /nutrition care
• Extensive relevant experience in supporting projects on nutrition in a Senior Management role
• At least 8 years’ experience of working in development/humanitarian setting
• At least 8 years’ experience of working on nutrition programmes
• Experience working with government and civil society partners to integrate nutrition in their policies, strategies and programmes
• Experience carrying out monitoring of nutrition programmes
• Experience managing and implementing multi-donor funded projects, with an understanding of various donor requirements
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with team and partner organizations to achieve results.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong report writing experience
• Excellent written and spoken English; strong report writing skills and experience
• Proven ability to work both individually and as part of a team

Desirable:

• Previous working experience in nutrition projects in South Sudan or other fragile state
• Understanding of nutrition issues in the South Sudan context.
• Experience working with Non-Governmental Organizations

If you meet the above qualifications and are interested in this opportunity, please submit your application Here by 21^stJuly 2019.

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