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International Consultant to support the National Nutrition Centre, Ministry of Health Lao PDR

Vientiane

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: Vientiane
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • Nutrition
    • Sexual and reproductive health
  • Closing Date: Closed

 

International Consultant to support the National Nutrition Centre, Ministry of Health Lao PDR. It is estimated that the consultant will work full time for a period of 11 months. The Consultant will work on a daily basis with the National Nutrition Centre staff on operational and technical issues and periodically seek managerial guidance from the leadership of the National Nutrition Committee Secretariat office, including from the Director and Deputy Director of DHHP. He/she will have weekly meetings with UNICEF Nutrition Specialist to ensure effective coordination of related UNICEF technical and financial support to the National Nutrition Centre and the Ministry of Health.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for a qualified International Consultant to support the National Nutrition Centre, Ministry of Health Lao PDR. It is estimated that the consultant will work full time for a period of 11 months. The Consultant will work on a daily basis with the National Nutrition Centre staff on operational and technical issues and periodically seek managerial guidance from the leadership of the National Nutrition Committee Secretariat office, including from the Director and Deputy Director of DHHP. He/she will have weekly meetings with UNICEF Nutrition Specialist to ensure effective coordination of related UNICEF technical and financial support to the National Nutrition Centre and the Ministry of Health.

Duties and responsibilities:

The consultant is expected to support the work of the National Nutrition Centre in the following areas and to undertake the following tasks:

Area 1. Provide technical advice and operational supporting the area of nutrition with focus on integrated approaches to nutrition service delivery with health services.

  • Assist the Nutrition Centre with identification of areas for priority actions to support the planning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the ten nutrition specific interventions from the National Plan of Action for Nutrition 2016-2020
  • Share global and regional practices to address key areas of concern and support the adaptation of proven approaches and models to Laos context in order to ensure effective implementation of nutrition specific interventions
  • Support the implementation of a capacity development plan for provincial and district levels with respect to nutrition specific interventions with focus on priority provinces and districts of the Government of Lao PDR
  • Support capacity building of Nutrition Centre staff in technical areas of nutrition; including but not limited to microplanning, nutrition supply and commodity management, guideline development and or revision. 

Area 2. Support development of annual and quarterly Nutrition Centre workplans, reports, budgets and fund requests.

  • Guide the formulation of the annual priorities and the workplan of the Nutrition Centre; assist with the budget formulation and resource mobilization
  • Advise on the development of monthly action plans, standing meeting plans and quarterly budgets to support the work of the Nutrition Centre with focus on UNICEF supported activities
  • Organize periodic reviews of the progress against the Nutrition Centre's workplan priorities and targets
  • Prepare quarterly updates on the work of the Nutrition Centre for the purposes of internal (within the Government) reporting, for sharing in joint Government – DPs forums and for SUN conference calls
  • Support process of preparation and organisation of the annual national nutrition forum and prepare documentation and reports on implementation status of nutrition specific interventions 

Area 3. Support effective communication and engagement of the Nutrition Centre with key line departments in the Ministry of Health, and with the Development Partners, including UN, donors and their cooperation development agencies, INGOs.

  • Assist the Nutrition Centre to engage with relevant line departments within Ministry of Health to foster an integrated service delivery approach
  • Maintain the list of key stakeholders with contact details to facilitate information sharing and organization of coordination meetings in the Government, with Development Partners and in the context of SUN movement;
  • Draft agendas, updates, background materials and communication for meetings related to the ten nutrition specific interventions; Strategic Objective Task Force meetings (SO5 and SO7) under the RMNCH Strategy, Code Task Force meetings, and other relevant meetings organized by the Nutrition Centre at the central level.
  • Support preparation for SUN conference calls; documentation and sharing of meeting agreements and follow-up actions
  • Development of agenda, updates, background materials and communication for subnational level consultation/planning, for joint field monitoring and supportive supervision visits to target provinces; documentation and sharing of the discussions, findings and follow-up actions   

 Area 4. Facilitate the process of identifying priority areas of action and support the Nutrition Centre to develop reports for the National Nutrition Committee on the content of the annual work-plans with key objectives/annual targets, detailed activities, responsibilities and budgets.

  • Assist with the preparation of the quarterly updates and the annual reports of the Nutrition Centre to the National Nutrition Committee on progress of implementation of the ten priority nutrition specific interventions
  • Guide the Nutrition Centre to develop reports for the National Nutrition Committee on progress against annual work plan targets and implementation of activities.  
  • Guide and support the organization of data collection, analysis and report writing for quarterly and annual reports of the Nutrition Centre to the national nutrition committee
  • Facilitate the development of plans, approaches and tools for joint (intergovernmental - - DPs) supportive supervision and monitoring visits to priority provinces and districts
  • Identify areas for documentation of good practice and lessons learned and support the Nutrition Centre with the documentation of up to 3 areas for national, regional and global sharing
  • Support the organization of knowledge sharing events at the national, provincial and district level with view of supporting the dissemination of good practices and lessons learned among provinces and districts
  • Support inputs to the annual mapping exercise of Nutrition actions and Nutrition stakeholders

 Qualifications and experience:

  • Master's degree in Nutrition, Public Health, or related fields
  • At least 8 years of professional experience in managing and/or coordinating nutrition programs involving the Government, UN, civil society, donors in the field of public health or nutrition
  • Strong management capacity and previous experience of managing complex programmes in the field of nutrition or public health
  • Previous experience with setting up monitoring and evaluation systems, preferably in the area of nutrition
  • Previous experience with capacity development programmes targeting the Government at the national and subnational level, preferably in the area of nutrition
  • Excellent interpersonal communications skills; ability to establish good working relationship with government officials at all levels including senior level decision-makers
  • Strong communication and facilitation skills
  • Good analytical and report writing skills
  • Fluency in English
  • Familiarity and previous experience of working with UN agencies and countries in South East Asia are an asset
This vacancy is now closed.
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