Nutrition Officer

SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation that applies practical know-how to make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty. We use our extensive and long-term in-country presence to apply and adapt our top-notch expertise in agriculture, energy and WASH to local contexts. SNV has over 1250 staff in more than 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We are proud to be a not-for-profit organisation that uses project financing to implement our mission. This requires us to work efficiently and to invest in operational excellence.

Project background:

Uganda and Zambia are countries with high rates of malnutrition, despite their recent economic growth, scoring 19.2 (serious) and 24.1 (alarming), respectively, on the Global Hunger Index[1]. Both countries have recognised their nutrition problems and responded to them positively by joining the Scaling Up Nutrition network[2] (Zambia in 2010 and Uganda in 2011).

In Zambia, the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC) is the designated convening body to coordinate action on nutrition in Zambia. A National Food and Nutrition Strategic (NFNS) Plan covering the period 2018-2021 was developed by key government officers in key cross-sector ministries and departments, international partners, representatives of non-government organizations, civil society, academicians, and the business community. However, despite these plans, Zambia has the highest rates of stunting in the world. 40% of Zambian children aged 6 -59 months are stunted with 17% being severely stunted. 5% of children under the age of 5 are wasted and 15% of the children of this age are underweight[3].  Factors leading to this include, among others, low frequency of consumption of nutritious food as well as with the quality and diversity of such foods; poor health, bad hygiene and lack of sanitation.

In order to address these, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), KIT – the Royal Tropical Institute and the Centre for Development of Wageningen UR (CDI) have developed an innovative Sustainable Nutrition for All (SN4A) project to be implemented in Zambia and Uganda. The goal of the project is to improve nutrition outcomes through adoption of agro-biodiversity and improve dietary diversity at the intra household level.

[1] IFPRI, 2013. Global Hunger Index. The Challenge of Hunger: Building Resilience to Achieve Food and Nutrition Security. IFPRI, Washington DC, USA.

[2] SNV is a member of the Civil Society Organisation sections of SUN in both countries, as well as globally

[3] ZDHS 2014

Purpose of the job:

The Nutrition Officer is expected to work with existing networks of local and national service providers from public health, agriculture, education community development and sanitation to which the project is already connected; to trigger and maintain demand and using all to reach all, while improving supply of nutrient rich vegetables through smallholder farmers based on the agriculture pathways to improving nutrition namely production, income and women empowerment pathways. The Nutrition Officer is also expected to induce behavioral change through understanding of broad range of factors playing into improved nutrition with special focus on intra-household gender relations; intra-household food distribution, food availability, access and diversity and increase national , provincial and district level governance

Main Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Trigger Demand and maintenance.; the Nutritional Officer will be tasked to build local capacity for implementation of triggering communities to become aware of their own nutritional status, and become agents of their own change through identification of their problems, identify doable actions, develop their own work plan, act within their context and track their own work and change; and create momentum for change by promoting district wide coverage
• Establishment of District Nutritional Teams –Lead the process in working with District Nutrition Coordinating Committees in the target districts to build their capacity for implementation of project activities as well as for upscaling of activities and establishment of nutritional standards and certification.

• Induce Behavioral Change Campaigns  – Working with the local level nutritional teams (Hub Nutrition Coordinating committees(HNCC) and Nutritional Action groups (NAG) at village level) and SN4A partners, lead the process of developing behavioral change communication methodologies that will be anchored and linked to local planning and context.
• Coordination of project activities with SUN and district, provincial and national structures – gather lessons emerging from the project on early adaptors and results and ensure these are shared and reviewed at national, provincial and district level meetings; engage with other stakeholders for learning, harmonization and building on quick wins.

Duties and Responsibilities include:

• Work with project partners to undertake community and household mapping study and  behavioural motivator research study
• Organize and steer triggering activities and undertake post triggering activities
• Provide follow up technical support to district facilitators and Nutrition Champions on triggering activities
• Implementation of nutritional interventions and trainings
• Facilitate the development of materials and tools for BCC and support the dissemination of developed tools
• Development of local fruits and vegetables calendars for the target districts
• Establishing of district nutritional teams and nutritional hubs and continued capacity development through on site coaching and mentoring
• Work with partners to facilitate development and support implementation of innovation platforms in the target districts.
• Data collection and analysis for monitoring and evaluation and review meetings for evidence based programming that responds to the data.
• Documentation and share results and lessons learnt from the project.
• Submission of timely activity reports, monthly highlights and work plans and project reports according to schedule

Competencies, Capabilities and Attributes: (Skills/behavioral (Special Training or Competence) :

• Demonstrated creativity, willingness to innovate, think systemically and work independently
• High-level interpersonal skills
• Strong background and experience implementing a range of food and nutrition interventions in maternal, infant and young child nutrition, scaling up nutrition interventions and familiarity with the first 1000 most critical programme in the country.
•  Strong background in gender integration and women empowerment desirable.
• Team player
• Relationship builder
• Ability to work with a wide range of actors from different backgrounds (smallholder farmers, private sector companies, government, and NGOs)

Academic & professional qualifications, Knowledge and Experience:

1. A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition, social work, public health or other relevant discipline (Master’s degree in a relevant field will be an added advantage.) or Diploma with 10 years of progressive work experience.
2. Minimum of 5 years of experience in nutrition programming and coordination, with experience in behavioral change campaigns, gender or market-led approaches, multi-sectoral coordination, programming and planning, community level engagement and knowledge in the agriculture pathways for nutrition improvement will be an added advantage.
3. Demonstrated Knowledge on how to improve food and dietary diversity at intra-household level.
4. Demonstrated success in implementing programs with a measurement for results framework.
5. Demonstrated experience in providing capacity development services at different operational levels
6. Demonstrated experience in collaborating across projects.
7. Interested to undertake extensive field work

If you believe that your credentials meet the outlined profile, we invite you to apply by uploading your CV in English on or before the 25th October,2020. 

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