Nutrition Specialist, Emergency - Nairobi (UNICEF)

[Admin]

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Children's Fund
Closing date: 02 Jul 2010
Location: Kenya - Nairobi

Purpose of the Position

Under the general guidance of the Regional Nutrition Advisor, you will be responsible for supporting the development of policy and strategies governing action on nutrition, in particular for the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition, Nutrition Information Systems and Nutrition in Emergencies, including in the context of HIV/AIDS. You will also be responsible for overall support to country offices on programme development for Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition, Nutrition Information Systems and Nutrition in Emergencies, the development of tools and guidelines for implementing strategies in these areas and generating evidence on effectiveness of nutrition responses, particularly in the identified areas of nutrition programming, in order to advocate for better programming and increased resources to this area.

As the Regional Office Focal Point for Nutrition in Emergencies you will support Country Offices in achieving an operational and sustained level of preparedness and response capacity to potential crisis situations (emergency preparedness and response plan - EPRP); establishing coordination mechanisms between UNICEF and key humanitarian partners at regional and country levels; in ensuring that key staff and key humanitarian partners have the appropriate knowledge and skills to assume an effective leadership role on the Cluster Approach and are adequately prepared to effectively respond to emergencies; in establishing effective monitoring system and real time evaluation (RTE) mechanism and in sharing lessons learned and good practices with and from other countries and regions.

Key Expected Results

Technical Assistance Support
1.You will provide technical support to the Regional and Country Offices to mainstream actions related to the integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM), Nutrition Information Systems (NIS) and Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE).

2. You will assist key emergency Country Offices in undertaking effective Nutrition Cluster Leadership and coordination role through enhancing existing coordination mechanisms among partners involved in Nutrition sector to increase coverage and effectiveness of humanitarian response in Nutrition.

Quality Assurance
3. You will work closely with other sectors (health, nutrition, protection and education) to ensure more integrated response within the context of ACSD.

4. You will support Regional emergency officers and HR in the development of regional Nutrition rosters (internal, external candidates) for UNICEF’s IMAM, NIS and NIE responses.

Leveraging Resources.
5. You will develop active links, and networking opportunities with other UN agencies, regional bodies, NGO’s, Donors and coordination mechanisms related to IMAM, NIS and NiE to ensure appropriate attention, and resources are given to IMAM, NIS and NiE in the region.

Knowledge Management
6. You will keep up to date with changing knowledge environment, synthesise new research findings on IMAM, NIS and NiE and guide countries based on the findings.

7. You will provide technical support to UNICEF supported studies and projects, assessments, and evaluations to generate evidence of effectiveness of and best practices for IMAM, NIS and NiE

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Advanced university degree in Public Health Nutrition, with orientation to nutrition in developing countries.
Eight years of field experience in management and technical assistance to Nutrition programmes in developing countries, including in emergency.
Solid technical background, leadership, coordination and managerial skills to ensure Cluster Leadership
Fluency in English and another UN language. Working knowledge of French and/or Portuguese an asset.
Competencies of Successful Candidate
Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
Sets high standards for quality of work and consistently achieves project goals.
Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
Analyzes and integrates diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources.
Quickly builds rapport with individuals and groups; maintains an effective network of individuals across organizational departments.
Identifies urgent and potentially difficult decisions and acts on them promptly; initiates and generates team- and department-wide activities.
Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and gender equality in its workplace. Women and nationals of developing countries are strongly encouraged to apply.
How to apply
If you want a challenging career while improving the lives of children around the world UNICEF, the leading children's rights organization, would like to hear from you.

Visit us at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ to register in our new e-Recruitment system and apply to this and other vacancies, quoting E-VN-2010-001375. Applications must be received by 02 July 2010.

Please note that only candidates who are under serious consideration will be contacted.

In the selection of its staff, UNICEF is committed to gender balance and diversity without distinction as to race, sex or religion, and without discrimination of persons with disabilities: well qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Reference Code: RW_86QJFG-53