United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Vacancy Announcement

Emergency Nutritionist

Job By: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Source: Hahu Jobs

Job Overview

  • Job Title: Emergency Nutritionist
  • Location: Mekelle
  • Experience Level: Mid level (3 years)
  • Number of Position: 01
  • Employment Type:
  • Salary:
  • Deadline Date: February 27, 2023

Job Description

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Two years of conflict have driven people across Tigray region into massive and widespread population displacement with thousands fleeing to neighboring countries in search of safety and basic services. The conflict resulted into a humanitarian crisis characterized by high levels of food insecurity, gender-based violence, limited access to services, destruction of the local economy and the disruption of supply routes in and out of the Tigray region. Renewed conflict and escalation of insecurity in Tigray since August 2022, resulted to further disruption of nutrition and other services to vulnerable populations leading to deterioration of the situation and deeper food and nutrition insecurity. Women and children remain the most vulnerable with one in every three children under-five in Tigray region being wasted and in need of life-saving nutrition support. An Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) revealed a 29% proxy GAM rate in children under-five and 55% acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women, that pose an increased risk to poor pregnancy outcomes, low-birth weight, stunting, and maternal death.

With the peace agreement signed recently between the warring parties in the northern part of the country, we expect the flow of humanitarian assistance including nutrition services to improve. The high levels of malnutrition indicate an urgent need for scale up of both treatment and preventive programme to reduce the risk of mortality and morbidity among the most vulnerable groups; children under 5 years, pregnant and lactating women. WFP is currently supporting the implementation of life saving nutrition services, mainly targeted supplementary feeding (TSFP) coupled with Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) around maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in partnership with 11 cooperating partners and in collaboration with key stakeholders to treat and prevent malnutrition in children under five and pregnant and lactating women. The Emergency Nutritionist will technically support the implementation of the nutrition programme in Tigray and related activities to contribute to meeting the nutritional needs of WFP beneficiaries, engage with a cross section of WFP partners and collaborators and directly supervise specific staff in the nutrition team.

Key Responsibilities

  • Identify partnerships for nutrition including initiating discussions with potential partners, undertaking the technical review of nutrition proposals, and participating in local project review committees as required.
  • Maintain an updated nutrition partnerships mapping matrix showing FLA duration, areas of operations, etc. for the entire Tigray nutrition response.
  • Participate in regular meetings with WFP nutrition partners to review implementation progress and identify challenges and possible solutions.
  • Conduct regular supportive supervision visits to assure quality of program implementation and identify capacity gaps that require addressing
  • Provide support to strengthen the capacity of WFP staff, key partners, HEWs, and healthcare workers involved in the nutrition response to ensure quality program implementation as needed.
  • Participate in development and/ or finalization of project documentation and relevant guidance and tools on the Tigray nutrition response.
  • Support the planning for nutrition resource requirements – mapping of beneficiary figures and specialized nutritious supplies requirements in consultation with the emergency nutritionist.
  • Support the timely reporting of nutrition program data, including the regular production of Tigray nutrition response dashboard depicting progress against the plan and programme performance indicators.
  • Identify and recommend opportunities for improvement of the WFP nutrition response based on convergent analyses with partners and programmatic results e.g., new programme areas, beneficial program synergies, potential partnerships, etc. and make recommendations to the Nutrition coordination team in Mekelle.
  • Participate in nutrition cluster coordination meetings, and represent WFP in nutrition cluster initiatives, including technical working groups, as needed.

Job Requirements

Qualification and Experience:

Education:

  • Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and health related areas. A master’s degree in nutrition or Public Health will be an added advantage.

Experience:  

  • A minimum of 3 years of relevant field experience with nutrition/health/food security or related field, 2 of which must have been in nutrition emergencies.
  • Familiarity with nutrition interventions (IMAM/CMAM, prevention programming).
  • Experience working with the UN or an international NGO will be an added advantage
  • Knowledge and Skills:
  • Knowledge of global nutrition and global humanitarian architecture including the cluster approach.
  • Demonstrated ability to strategically engage with Government and partners to develop and implement multi-sectoral programmes.
  • Strong skills in coordination, and capacity strengthening, and the ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders, including NGO partners and the Ministry of Health.
  • Conceptual knowledge of nutrition in emergencies.
  • Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills and demonstrated ability to work effectively in multicultural settings and teams.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • Microsoft Office proficiency
  • Capacity to plan and organize own work, and work with minimum supervision.
  • Able to work and achieve results under challenging circumstances
  • Languages: Fluency (level C) in English language.

How to Apply

Register using the following LINK

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