Afar Regional Health Bureau, Semera,
FHI360 - Alive & Thrive Ethiopia
PROJECT SUMMARY Alive & Thrive (A&T) is an initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development of infants and young children. Good nutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception to two years of age, is critical to enable all children to lead healthier and more productive lives. A&T is scaling up improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) and maternal nutrition through large-scale programs in several countries in Africa and Asia through strategic technical support and the dissemination of innovations, tools, and lessons worldwide.   Alive & Thrive Ethiopia 3.0 is a five-year investment funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to strengthen the institutional and human capacities required to achieve the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE) ambitions for nutrition. Since 2009, A&T is working in Ethiopia within the context of the National Nutrition Program (NNP) and the National Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Strategy (NNSAS) to promote maternal, adolescent, infant and young child nutrition (MAIYCN) across multiple sectors at the federal, regional, woreda, and community levels. The A&T Ethiopia 3.0 investment will build upon successes and lessons learned from previous IYCF efforts to significantly improve MAIYCN practices. In this new grant, A&T will provide greater analytical, technical, and systems-building support to bolster the capacity of federal and regional authorities to develop, deliver, monitor, and evaluate quality MAIYCN services.   A&T Ethiopia 3.0 will work in partnership with the GOE and others to achieve the following three outcomes: 1) Sustained capacity at national level and among regional health bureaus to support woredas in planning, budgeting, implementing and using data to achieve MAIYCN targets in the NNP II; 2) Sustained capacity at national level and among regional agriculture bureaus to improve women’s and children’s dietary diversity, and access to safe, affordable and nutritious foods; and 3) Knowledge and learning generated and tools and lessons learned disseminated in priority technical areas for improved MAIYCN at scale.  Alive & Thrive is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of Canada and Ireland. The initiative is managed by FHI 360.  POSITION SUMMARY The overarching objective of the position is to be responsible for supporting the day-to-day activities of the Nutrition Case Team under the Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Core Process or the relevant reporting structure of the six respective Regional Health Bureaus in the areas of MAIYCN interventions planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to achieve outcomes 1 and 3 indicated above, and ensure delivery of results with the agreed time frame and resources, cohesion across all MAIYCN related activities and efficient cooperation of the different stakeholders involved in the region, with special attention to the regional nutrition case team members for better MAIYCN outcomes.  The Regional Nutrition Advisor for MAIYCN support will be based in the respective RHBs and work under the guidance of the Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Core Process Owner/relevant respective structure based on the region’s context, and the Nutrition Officer with functional responsibility to the Deputy Programs Director of Alive and Thrive Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa. S/he will also work closely with the respective Regional Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) Advisor seconded at the six Regional Agriculture & Livestock Bureaus, and the Regional Program Delivery Units (PDUs) of the Seqota Declaration. S/he will support the coordination of the work on a daily basis in collaboration with other BMGF investment advisors such as JSI-L10K, JSI-EDUP, and other implementing partners.  The Regional Nutrition Advisor for MAIYCN support will provide hands-on technical support and coaching to the nutrition case team members in the RHB and in zonal offices, to support woreda officials to effectively plan, budget for, and implement MAIYCN services. S/he will support forming a high-functioning regional nutrition project management team comprised of nutrition focal person and technical advisors, health information statisticians, and health extension program staff; work closely with these teams to plan project activities for MAIYCN service delivery, and to develop costed work plans including training, quality assurance measures that use nutrition data to strengthen MAIYCN service delivery, and supervision and coordination mechanisms.  The Regional Nutrition Advisor is envisioned to be a Senior Nutrition Expert who understands how public service in Ethiopia works, has sufficient program management experience with a results-oriented mindset, and has expertise in one or several areas related to MAIYCN and multi-sectoral nutrition coordination and linkages.   ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS/ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Summary of key functions: The Regional Nutrition Advisor is responsible for the day-to-day planning, implementation and monitoring of MAIYCN and overall NNP Implementation Plan in the regions. Specifically, s/he will focus on achievement of the following key results: 1.       Provide technical assistance to MAIYCN implementation in the respective region: Support the RHB to develop nutrition specific action plans tailored to the findings of the comprehensive capacity assessment done for the regionIdentify and leverage experiences on MAIYCN within the region and at national levelProvide support to the region and zones to test approaches and platforms that will allow them to expand services with a streamlined set of tools to extend and boost coverage of MAIYCN servicesProvide capacity building support for deepening MAIYCN in the regionProvide technical assistance in the identification, design and preparation of activities that support deepening MAIYCN efforts and integration of high impact interventions with improved nutrition outcomesBuild regional and zonal capacity to ensure that woreda health officials budget for MAIYCN services in their decentralized annual work plans to track the contribution of woredas to MAIYCN programs each yearSupport enhancing competencies of nutrition managers through coaching, on-the-job training, mentoring of junior staff, and ensuring access to relevant information and other online help   2.       Provide technical assistance to strategic use of nutrition data in the respective region: Support the collection and analysis of evidence, data and management information to enable timely and effective decision-making and planningUse HMIS and other data to help regional nutrition case team identify low-performing zonal health offices and provide them with the technical support needed to strengthen MAIYCN service delivery in their woredasProvide technical support at the regional and zonal levels to set targets for MAIYCN service delivery and continuously monitor data collected on volume and coverage of MAIYCN servicesWork with the RHB and zones to ensure that woredas have correct estimates of target populations for MAIYCN and are updating this information on an annual basisConduct quarterly and bi-annual review meetings with regional and zonal authorities to track coverage of MAIYCN services, to understand bottlenecks in service delivery, and to introduce/strengthen quality improvement measures around MAIYCNConduct periodic qualitative assessments to assess whether the quality of HMIS nutrition data has improved 3.       Support the implementation of NNP in the respective region: Provide technical and advisory support for the implementation of NNP particularly MAIYCN activities according to the approved NNP-IIProvide coaching and mentoring support to the RHB Nutrition Case Team and woreda level nutrition focal persons who are engaged on the implementation of NNPSupport to ensure execution of the monitoring and evaluation system for the program, as well as regular monitoring and reporting of activitiesConduct regular reviews to monitor compliance with work plans, track program progress, prepare progress reports and other relevant program documentation, and highlight issues requiring corrective actions 4.       Support the multisectoral coordination of nutrition in the respective region: Spending up to 30% of the level of effort, support the regional PDU of the Seqota Declaration to ensure the review of processes and procedures in place to identify and implement improved ways of working multi-sectorally that increases operational effectiveness and efficiency in terms of nutrition outcomesSupport the RHB Nutrition Case Team to ensure that appropriate procedures and frameworks are in place to support the effective implementation, leveraging and scaling-up of multi-sectoral interventions with improved nutrition outcomes, ensuring their efficient and effective contribution to program outcomesSupport the coordination of key stakeholders in the region to achieve MYICN outcomesProvide on-going support and technical assistance to program activities that deepen MAIYCN through multi-sectoral coordination and linkages with nutrition sensitive interventions like the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and Agriculture Growth Program (AGP)Collaborate with BMGF’s Ethiopia Integrated Health Plan (EIHP) implementing partners at the regional and zonal levels by jointly developing detailed implementation plans and joint milestones, common progress reports and other documents   FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES Technical Expertise: Proven knowledge and experience in the areas of nutrition, public health and program managementTheoretical and practical knowledge of MAIYCN within NNPDiplomatic and conflict resolution skillsStrong understanding of political dynamics in government, civil society and implementing partners in the region   Knowledge Management and Learning: Ability to share knowledge and experienceAbility to provide top quality expertise on MAIYCNn-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues Development and Operational Effectiveness: Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reportingAbility to go beyond established procedures and models, propose new approaches, which expand the range of nutrition programsAbility to work with minimal supervisionNegotiation skills: capacity to work with diverse partners working in nutrition including the regional government, regional PDU members, development partners and civil society Program management and teamwork: Work with teams effectivelyWorks well with a diverse group of peopleFocuses on impact and results, and responds positively to critical feedbackEncourages risk-taking in the pursuit of creativity and innovationInteract with teams effectively and shows conflict resolution skills Reports to :-The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Core Process Owner at the RHB Number of Required:-6