Senior Health and Nutrition Technical Advisor

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: 

Level 3:  the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:                                                                                         

Save the Children Afghanistan is currently scaling up and consolidating its Health and Nutrition programme portfolio, to deliver a comprehensive primary health and nutrition services in support of maternal and child health outcomes, and to address the malnutrition crisis. The Country programme is also in the process of transitioning its integrated mobile health and nutrition teams (IMHNTs) to static facilities. 

Under the general direction and guidance of the Director of Program Development and Quality and Head of Technical Unit, the Health and Nutrition Technical Advisor will ensure all SCI Afghanistan Health and Nutrition programming is of excellent technical quality, attracts significant donor funding and contributes to national and global learning, advocacy and programme development.

The post holder is expected to provide technical advice and support to project staff to ensure Afghanistan programme objectives are successfully achieved. The post-holder shall also contribute to the development and review of the strategic direction and actively lead in the development of health and nutrition program policy and design, ensuring a more comprehensive package of health and nutrition services are available to children and their caregivers (including through mobile and static facilities support). 

To ensure cross-sectoral integration and program coherence, the Health and Nutrition Advisor will work closely with other technical advisors and MEAL Unit on building capacity and knowledge to achieve the Survive breakthrough.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Head of Technical Unit

Staff reporting to this post: Nutrition Specialist but strong working relationship with Health & Nutrition Programme Implementation team

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

SPECIFIC DUTIES

Thematic Area Leadership & Strategic Planning

• Leads on defining and revising the country office’s strategic plan with a focus on health and nutrition and ending childhood morbidity and mortality (including due to malnutrition), based on the evidence and ensuring integration of Save the Children’s Theory of Change, Breakthroughs, Common Approaches and best practises to guide current and future SC programming and Humanitarian Strategies.
• Support ownership and commitment to the Country Office strategy by all staff and departments through clear communication, regular feedback on progress and engagement of all functions in updates.
• Leads the development and review of country annual plans /TA plans for TE support including field visits and training for the OPs/IP team. 
• Regularly and pro-actively analyses the health and nutrition situation in the country and feeds this into the country office’s assessment and planning process upon which to design and improve programmes.
• Actively participates in global and regional discussions on Health and Nutrition programming, and working groups, ensuring that country office strategies are aligned with the global initiatives and best practises.
• Articulate a vision for addressing public health and malnutrition crisis through integration of health, nutrition and WASH
• Support research being conducted to inform programming, strategic direction, policy and advocacy with a technical lens and technical consistency. 
• Keep abreast of national and global debates in policy and advocacy around health in order to apply to programming or advocacy.

Programme Development and donor engagement 

• Work with Business Development Manager and Head of Technical Unit to secure funding to maintain or expand the country office’s Health and Nutrition programmes as per the country strategic plan and the needs with a level of foresight and consideration of sustainability
• Lead the design of innovative and high impact health and nutrition programmes/projects and proposals and technical budgets, coordinating with other technical and implementation staff in coordination with New Business Development colleagues to ensure high quality, evidence-based designs that draw on needs assessments, learning from past programs and child safeguarding principles.
• Ensuring all proposals meet SCI and sector standards and are in line with strategic goals and SCI approaches.
• Incorporate Common Approaches in new proposals and budgets to align with set priorities in CSP and HRP.  
• Actively communicate and coordinate with other technical advisors and Programme Implementation teams to ensure integrated approaches across themes especially WASH, FSL (incl. Cash), MHPSS, Child Protection, Education, Gender, and Disability Inclusion.
• Develop and maintain contacts with current and potential donors, partners and key technical agencies, in coordination with the Head of Technical Unit including supporting donor meetings and visits. 

Programme Quality and Effectiveness 

• Serve as the lead technical resource in quality, innovative, creative and sustainable programming on Health and Nutrition focusing on maternal and child health (including SHR), treatment and prevention of both chronic and acute malnutrition, disease outbreaks and control, and other health concerns specific to Afghanistan which impact children 
• Build the capacity, knowledge, understanding and confidence of programme teams and partners to achieve the required quality standards of the Health and Nutrition work by developing, adapting, and sharing relevant tools, designing training modules and supporting the implementation and understanding of quality benchmarks including on the job technical mentoring.
• Effectively manage Nutrition Specialist performance using principles of leadership agility and Save the Children’s performance management system by providing the necessary support and technical direction to ensure an integrated public health programming approach. 
• Ensure all health and nutrition programme staff receive the necessary and appropriate technical support including competencies in child rights programming, child safeguarding and Common Approaches. In consultation with staff and project managers agree on the range of advice, support, training and/or other assistance required from the role to facilitate high quality programming. This will involve regular visits to programme sites. 
• Lead on health and nutrition or multi-sectoral technical assessments, baselines, evaluations and surveys in coordination with other thematic areas and/or other external sector agencies.
• Work closely with the Research Evidence, Accountability, Learning, and Monitoring and Evaluation (REALM) team to ensure quality MEAL systems and frameworks for Health and Nutrition programme that monitors the impact of projects and progress towards strategic programme and advocacy objectives 
• Ensure accountability is considered throughout the design and implementation of the programmes especially in terms of child safeguarding as well as ensuring child participation in the design, implementation and monitoring of the programmes where possible.

Cluster representation and networking

• Represent SCI at the Health and Nutrition cluster, as well as other working groups such as RMNCAH, where appropriate; sharing ideas, updates and advocating for action where necessary
• Represent Save the Children at the Health Sector Technical Working Group and influence policies and decisions.  
• Develop and maintain appropriate coordination mechanisms 
• Participate in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars and related fora in the thematic area; and among donors, UN agencies, International NGOs, and national and sub-national government counterparts in coordination
• Represent Save the Children in a technical capacity for advocacy, communications or media purposes.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Education to master's level in Public Health, Nutrition, or a related subject
• At least 5 years' experience of working internationally in health and nutrition programmes including in a humanitarian context 
• Previous experience of providing technical support to Health and Nutrition teams in the areas of child and maternal health, IYCF-E, IMAM/CMAM, and Micronutrients.
• Proven ability of mentoring, coaching and training on health and nutrition subjects
• Experience of senior level representation
• Experience of developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors
• Ability to write clear and well-argued assessments, project reports, and proposals
• Excellent communication skills, politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• Proven ability to influence change at an operational and strategic level.
• A high level of written and spoken English
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Can work well in stressful situations; able to manage multiple competing tasks, prioritize deliverables and meet reasonable deadlines

Desirable

• Language skills in Dari / Pashto
• Experience or knowledge of working and living in Afghanistan
• Experience in promoting children’s participation in programme design, implementation and evaluation.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities 

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.