Thematic Lead – Nutrition and Health 502 views

The Organization

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

ROLE PURPOSE

The position will assume responsibility for directing the humanitarian response at the country level, specifically with regards to the Health and Nutrition sector. This includes determining the strategic direction for quality program development, as well as managing technical projects and mobilizing resources. These sectors are crucial components of the humanitarian response, as they serve to alleviate the suffering of both children and mothers during times of crisis. It should be noted that Plan International, a leading global organization focused on children and adolescent girls, places great emphasis on this area as a core organizational value.

ACCOOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

Plan has a performance management and accountability matrix SOP. Every position holder is expected to adhere to the SOP and review and review her/his responsibility against the accountability matrix.

Strategic Program/project management/assessment, proposal development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (30%)

• Participate actively in the initial rapid and in-depth assessment of the existing situation using the Inter-agency, mainly nutrition and health clusters tools and Plan International global Rapid Needs Assessment Tools. Ensure that these assessment outcomes are appropriately documented and shared for donors and internal staff.
• Ensure Plan International’s guidelines and the inter-agency Minimum Standards for Health and Nutrition in Humanitarian Action while leading the technical proposal development which would be a realistic and evidence‐based health and nutrition program plan with interventions based on the outcomes of assessments and the context.
• Provide technical support for concerned staff on developing the sector response strategy and make sure the health and nutrition thematic area are presented in light of the sector’s concern for children & adolescent girls in the Plan operation area and linked to the global strategic roadmap.
• Ensure that effective planning, implementation, and coordination of inclusive health and nutrition programming addresses the key health and nutrition needs and barriers identified as well as health and nutrition mainstreaming.
• Work closely with and supervise/guide the Coordinators to ensure that implementation of relevant activities is planned and implemented in a phased and prioritized manner in full consultation and coordination with all relevant agencies both governmental and non-governmental.
• Put in place appropriate monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems for health and nutrition interventions in collaboration with the MEAL team of the humanitarian unit and ensure collection of quantitative and qualitative data and document key learning from the sector response. Ensure the implementation of accountability and feedback mechanisms through active engagement of the affected population and other relevant stakeholders.

Resources mobilizations and donor relationship management (20%)

• Through the provision of technical support ensures that the rapid needs assessment and sectorial technical humanitarian standards for health and nutrition had been incorporated in proposal development and submission process by business development team. Further support should be provided to business development team to prepare and submit FADs to the National Organization of Plan International.
• Provide technical support to the country business development department team to find appropriate partners by identifying and assessing partners and develop working relationships with them.
• Increases effectiveness of resourcing and resource mobilization efforts through technical inputs to proposal writing team and business development unit and by addressing donor’s compliances and reporting timely and required quality.

Coordination and representation (20%)

• Liaising with government ministries offices and bureaus at federal and regional levels and also with UN agencies, NGOs, and other civic organizations to ensure active involvement in the regional and national coordination forums, including field-level assessment participation and information sharing.
• Represent and take an active role in representing &build the profile of PIE in the technical working group and health and nutrition cluster and maintain adequate accountability and transparency in the work of PIE. And maintain constructive working relationships on these specific sectors of health and nutrition with other technical working groups and clusters such as the Health-Nutrition-WASH Technical working group, Nutrition information TWG, ECSC-SUN, and WASH Cluster, NGO, UN agencies, host government, bilateral and multilateral donors, and other principal stakeholders.
• Ensure the representation and participation of Plan International Ethiopia in humanitarian coordination meetings, Emergency Operation Centre(EOC),  taskforces, clusters, and technical working groups that are related to health and nutrition in emergency and recovery/resilience building at the regional and zonal level by PIE field/project and/or program area staff.

Provide strategic leadership for effective Communication and information management (15%)

• Ensure effective communication & information sharing about the health and nutrition issues mainly the serious concern of adolescent girls in crisis and protection program impact & best practice from the health and nutrition program response that will help for our influencing purpose.
• Inform the head of Disaster preparedness, response, and resilience, the humanitarian director, and another technical team at CO& PA about assessment progress, emergency response implementation, strategies, project plans, progress reports, budget, and other significant developments in the specific department.
• Shares lessons and insights from experiences and evaluation of program and project effectiveness, feeding these into local, regional and global networks

Provide effective leadership in Human resources and financial management and administration under the Health & Nutrition thematic sector portfolio (15%)

• Provide technical guidance and support for the human resources unit and program area on the recruitment of competent technical staff including designing their Job description
• Ensures effective delivery of project outputs, quality, and timely reporting of financial and human resource management for the health and nutrition humanitarian responses.
• Ensure compliance with organizational and statutory policies and laws on People and Culture legality matters and also has the responsibility to ensure compliance with the design and implementation of emergency/recovery and resilience-focused health nutrition responses in line with applicable government policies, guidelines, and procedures.
• Provide technical guidance and direction to ensure effective planning, implementation, and monitoring of agreed health and nutrition and youth Programme plans and develop capacity-building plans and provide training, support, and mentorship to health and nutrition and youth programming staff and partners.
• Promote a productive work environment respectful of the Code of Conduct with zero tolerance for verbal and physical abuse or discrimination against children. 

Safeguarding Children and Young People (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI)

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.
• Ensures that all staff signed safeguarding policies;
• Implement Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in day to day work.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications/ Experience Essential:

• Bachelor’s degree or preferably master’s in human applied nutrition, public health or related field of study with a combination of relevant experiences on health and nutrition humanitarian response
• At least 7 years of progressive experience in similar organizations as emergency nutrition and/or emergency health program/project specialist/coordinator or manager, including line staff management.
• Extensive and documented experience in managing emergency nutrition and health-related projects with a focus on operational aspects, including management of budget and logistics.
• Experience in managing projects for major donors and experience of working with international NGOs, UN, or donor agencies, including proposal development, report writing, donor compliance, and participation in national and regional clusters and platforms.
• Knowledge of existing policies and technical understanding of the Gender Equality approach, child safeguarding, and other plan priority sectors in humanitarian settings.

Qualification Desirable:

• Knowledge of development issues, trends, challenges and opportunities and implications to community development.
• Demonstrable experience on development and humanitarian nexus will be highly desirable

Languages Required:

• English and other Ethiopian national languages

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organisation by being open, honest and transparent. We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.

We strive for lasting impact

We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls. We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.

We work well together

We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organisation, including our sponsors and donors. We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals. We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.

We are inclusive and empowering

We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programmes and our workplace. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.