Technical Advisor II – Nutrition

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on larger projects in the area of nutrition in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ nutrition programming is across the globe.

This position is open for international telecommuting and nationals from Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

  • Act as the technical lead for the East Africa Regional Office (EARO) office in the field of nutrition and its intersections with other sectors including but not restricted to food aid and vouchers, agriculture and livelihoods, WASH, ICT4D, gender, protection mainstreaming and early childhood development.
  • Linking with Program Impact & Quality Assurance Dept. (PIQA) and EARO colleagues, provide leadership on EARO’s roll out of the Agency Nutrition Strategy and co-leadership on the roll out of the Agency Strategy Vision 2030 Goal Area 4 (All children reach their full health and development potential in Safe and Nurturing Families)
  • Facilitate CP access to emerging learning and adjustments to Global Guidance due to COVID-19 and other global shocks and lead a COP for nutrition in the region
  • Taking a quality assurance and improvement lens, support CPs to strengthen nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive program approaches through a structured review of current programming and guidance in development of quality assurance and improvement tools where needed.
  • Strengthen capacity of CP staff to represent CRS in global, regional and national nutrition forums including technical working groups and cluster forums.
  • As an active member of CRS’ Global Nutrition Technical team strengthen EARO CP staff access to best and promising practices as well as evolving thinking, in particular as it relates to core nutrition objectives and activities within the CRS EARO portfolio.
  • In coordination with HRD colleagues, strengthen the integration of nutrition activities within CRS humanitarian response programming within the region, ensuring that programs are in line with all humanitarian and SPHERE standards.
  • Determine which approaches are necessary to strengthen nutrition programs and the impact of programs intended to improve nutrition; including but not limited identifying the appropriate resources and technical assistance to strengthening SBC and systems strengthening aspects of nutrition programming across the EARO portfolio
  • Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide, regional and CP-specific strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in nutrition that effectively engage partners, donors and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach including integrating gender, early childhood development, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
  • Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation.
  • Contribute to regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in nutrition. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
  • Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in nutrition programming for staff and partner through recruitment support, helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, facilitating access to PIQA’s Senior Technical Advisors, external consultants, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff.
  • Strengthen technical quality of reports, proposal and other documents for external audiences, through review, mentoring, training and coaching of CP staff.
  • Contribute to knowledge management and learning through supporting innovation and the adaptation and application of innovations from other CPs, regions and organizations, collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects, assisting with measuring program impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports.
  • Establish and maintain relationships with key donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions (i.e. UNICEF, WFP, private sector stakeholders). Participate in forums in the area of health and social services to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

  • Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
  • Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
  • Strong written and oral communication skills
  • Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
  • Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

Required Languages – Fluency in English

Travel – 40% travel (within the East Africa region – Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia)

 Key Working Relationships:

Internal:

  • Collaborate with the DRD/PQ, RD, RFO and DRD/MQ and technical advisors at the regional and global level across the various sectors
  • Collaborate with the Country Representatives, the Heads of Programming, and the country Health and Nutrition Program Managers and other country staff.
  • Collaborate with members of the Global Health and Social Services Technical Team, in particular Technical Advisors based in the Program Impact and Quality Assurance Department.

External:

  • Collaborate with church partners, donors, other NGOs, UN Agencies and local government on health matters.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

  • Master’s Degree in in public health, nutrition or health-related field required.
  • Minimum of 5 years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in nutrition
  • Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding.
  • Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in nutrition in both humanitarian and development program contexts and including nutrition sensitive as well as nutrition specific interventions.
  • General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
  • Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in health and social services, including technical writing.
  • Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
  • Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, data presentation and data use for decision making.
  • Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
  • Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

  • Integrity
  • Continuous Improvement & Innovation
  • Builds Relationships
  • Develops Talent
  • Strategic Mindset
  • Accountability & Stewardship

Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Disclaimer:  This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Note:  All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.

For all details and application: https://crs.taleo.net/careersection/ex_crs/jobdetail.ftl?job=200000OV&lang=en&rb

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