National Project Personnel - National Coordinator - Nutrition

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and malnutrition. As nutrition starts with what we eat, the products of the food and agriculture sector; transforming our food systems, on the way we produce, collect, store, transport, transform and distribute foods can improve our diets.

FAO collaborates with Governments to strengthen food systems for healthier diets, to improve nutrition, health and our impact on natural resources. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. FAO is working with the Government of Zambia on a Technical Assistance to the Scaling Up Nutrition Programme in Zambia project under the SUN Phase II program. The program is a jointly funded by UK-AID/FDCO, SIDA, KfW and the EU in 17 districts of Zambia through UNICEF. Leveraging complementary technical assistance from other UN agencies, UNICEF has a UN-to-UN cooperation agreement with FAO.

The SUN phase II FAO programme component will contribute to the reduction of malnutrition in pregnant and breast-feeding women and children under 2 years of age through improvements in dietary diversity and quality. FAO’s project outcome is a Sustained demand, utilization and consumption of agriculture and forest foods.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative, Technical supervision of the National Technical Coordinator and of the technical Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and relevant technical units in FAO and in close collaboration with the National Project Coordinator (NPC) of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Nutrition Specialist will perform the following tasks:

Technical Focus

The incumbent will coordinate operational support to implementation of the Nutrition education, nutrition sensitive agriculture and food systems, behaviour change communications, food security and food safety under the SUNII project.

More specifically, the project is structured around the delivery of four interconnected outputs:

• Output 1: Access to diversified, nutritious food improved
• Output 2: Sustainable production, processing, value addition and marketing of non-wood forest products for dietary diversity and income generation
• Output 3: Food safety and diet quality enhanced
• Output 4: Generation of nutrition information to monitor, prioritize and adapt interventions

Tasks and responsibilities

The incumbent, through his/her work, will contribute to implementation of the project activities among which include:

• on behalf of FAO Representative, provide overall leadership, management, oversight and accountability for the overall delivery of the project: “FAO Technical Assistance to the Scaling-up Nutrition Programme in Zambia”;
• as the FAO country focal person for the project provide overall coordination and act as a link between communities, beneficiaries and a liaison between the NPC, and the LTO and other FAO technical and project team;
• working with the NPC, prepare annual work plan and ensure implementation of project activities is on track and the delivery of four project outputs. (1): Access to diversified, nutritious food improved. (2): Sustainable production, value addition and marketing of non-wood forest products (NWFP) and foods for dietary diversity and income generation; (3) Food safety and diet quality enhanced; and (4) Generation of nutrition information to monitor, prioritize and adapt interventions;
• in addition to providing oversight to the whole project, directly and specifically responsible for the delivery of outputs 1 and 4;
• provide technical orientation and backstopping to the project. Prepare/adapt training and education materials, build capacity and conduct training on nutrition and food safety for government counterparts, NGO implementation partner and FAO staff supporting the implementation of the project;
• coordinate with the relevant technical experts supporting the project to provide technical back stopping to the project, to prepare training materials and conduct training in areas of agriculture and food production (fruits and vegetables, crops, fish, livestock), Non-Forest Wood Products (NWFP);
• monitor and supervise the implementation of training and skills building activities by the government and NGO partner and ensure normative standards are met;
• document and share project outputs, outcomes, human life stories of changed lives for project beneficiaries and impacts covering various aspects of the projects to promote the visibility of FAO’s work on quarterly basis;
• promote synergies and strengthen linkages with other interventions within the SUN Phase II project, in particular with UNICEF, WFP and WHO as well as with other FAO programmes at national, district and community levels;
• collaborate in undertaking relevant research to establish the effectiveness of agriculture-nutrition linkages for improved nutrition status. Collect and document baseline, midline and end line monitoring and evaluation results;
• produce six monthly, annual and terminal reports and facilitate wide dissemination of project results and the promotion activities through newspaper, radio and TV;
• Any other tasks required to optimize the impact of the programme;
• Any other nutrition related duties assigned by the FAOR.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• An undergraduate degree in Nutrition, Food Security and/or related subjects together (a Master’s degree is an added advantage);
• At least five (5) relevant progressive experience working in planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes related to improve nutrition, at community level;
• Experience in Nutrition education, social behaviour change communication (SBCC) methodology, nutrition sensitive agriculture, food safety, gender, will be an added advantage.
• National of Zambia.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in supporting, advising and guiding the implementation of complex, multi-stakeholder projects;
• Ability to develop plans for the implementation and coordination of project operations in developing countries, in partnership with UN agencies, NGOs and other concerned actors;
• Extent and relevance of experience in programme/project formulation, analysis, planning and implementation
• Understanding of FAO policies and programmes is considered a strong asset;
• Extent of experience in formulation, implementation and monitoring of projects;
• Familiarity with UN administrative, operational and financial procedures is an asset.