Senior Technical Specialist (Social Inclusion - Nutrition)

Organizational context

Duty station will be the regional IFAD office in East and Southern Africa. The location of the regional office (such as Addis Ababa and Nairobi) will be confirmed soon.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and  advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

Post's organizational accountability

The Strategy and Knowledge Department (SKD) provides expert guidance on IFAD's strategic direction, thematic priorities and technical quality of IFAD’s operations. It plays a critical role in providing technical expertise to operational teams to enhance development effectiveness, by generating and disseminating IFAD’s development knowledge and evidence on strategic themes, and encouraging innovative application of cutting-edge global knowledge and evidence in IFAD investments to support countries tackles their most complex development challenges in fostering inclusive and sustainable rural  transformation. SKD is composed of the (i) Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion Division (ECG); the (ii) Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division (PMI); and the (iii) Research and Impact Assessment Division (RIA).

ECG takes the lead in mainstreaming cross-cutting themes of environment and climate, nutrition, gender, youth, and indigenous peoples and all related aspects of social inclusion into IFAD's portfolio, to strengthen the quality of IFAD’s operations and achieve improved impacts in these areas in an integrated manner. It is pursuing a new transformation agenda that seeks to integrate IFAD’s four critical themes (gender, youth, nutrition and environment and climate) for enhanced results. ECG contributes to the generation of evidence and knowledge on these cross-cutting themes, and facilitates their use in IFAD projects and activities. In addition, it provides guidance and support to ensure nutrition aspects are well addressed and the inclusion of marginalized groups, particularly women, indigenous peoples and rural youth, benefit from IFAD operations.

The Social Inclusion Cluster in ECG spearheads IFAD's implementation of its social inclusion and nutrition agenda including, poverty analysis and targeting, gender equity, youth, nutrition and indigenous peoples. It works in close collaboration with other teams in ECG, other divisions within SKD, the Programme Management Department and the External Relations and Governance Department.

The Senior Technical Specialist, Nutrition and Social Inclusion reports to the Lead Technical Specialist Nutrition and Social Inclusion  with overall strategic, policy and management guidance, and supervision of the division Director. S/He works collaboratively with respective ECG technical specialists (both Environment/Climate and Social Inclusion), PMI thematic Technical Specialists, and other staff to ensure consistency, cohesion and synergy in the application of technical advice and provision of programme development support facilitating knowledge flows and building of communities of practices. While the Senior Technical Specialist, Nutrition and Social Inclusion will contribute to the Fund’s corporate objectives and promote learning across all the Regional Divisions, s/he will devote a substantial portion of time supporting operations in the East and Southern Africa Region. Inclusion of women, youth, indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities and nutrition are inseparable from IFAD's mission to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty. Gender, youth are systematically emphasized in all aspects of IFAD operations. They are critical to IFAD’s success in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. The accountabilities/key results expected are:

•      Senior-level Technical Advice

•      Country Programme Development

•      Knowledge Management and Capacity Development

•      Partnership Building and Resource Mobilization

•      Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

•      Managerial Functions

Key results expected / Major functional activities

1. Senior-level Technical Advice

On the basis of senior level technical knowledge and analysis of current thematic conditions, emerging development challenges and the state of rural poverty regionally and globally, the Senior Technical Specialist provides technically authoritative advice to improve the capacity of IFAD to address rural poverty, to enhance national government policies and programmes and to ensure IFAD is regarded as a trusted and valued partner facilitating  mainstreaming and providing the technical advice on cross-cutting themes within her/his area of technical expertise.   

Accountabilities may include:

1. Providing senior technical advice on key aspects of nutrition and social inclusion (poverty targeting, gender, youth and Indigenous Peoples);
2. Providing IFAD staff and partners with up-to-date professional advice on policy, institutional and nutrition technical issues.
3. Provide technical inputs towards the implementation of the IFADs Nutrition Action Plan, Global and Regional advocacy agenda on nutrition.

2. Country Programme Development

The Senior Technical Specialist ensures appropriate and up-to-date authoritative technical advice to country programme and project design, development, implementation and monitoring to optimize positive programme results and contribute to regional programme enhancements for nutrition, social inclusion and other cross-cutting themes into IFAD country programmes and operations.

Accountabilities may include:

1. Assisting in the programming of new sources of funding for nutrition and social inclusion cluster;
2. Providing technical support to staff, consultants, field missions and national programmes, Country Strategic Opportunity Programmes (COSOPs) preparation, grants and at all stages of the project cycle, including design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation inputs and undertaking supervision and implementation support missions;
3. Capacity building of staff and consultants on nutrition sensitive agriculture and food systems and social inclusion for quality support to operations;
4. In coordination with the Country Directors (CD) and other thematic specialists, strengthen IFAD’s country-level programmes and projects through the Project Delivery Teams process of Results-Based Country Strategic Opportunities Programmes (RB-COSOPs)/programmes/projects.
5. Contributing to IFAD's medium term commitments and targets relating to improved nutritional and social inclusion impact including:
   1. 1. Social and nutrition situation assessment and SECAP preparation for COSOP's strategic objectives;
      2. Development of explicit nutrition objectives, actions and indicators for new projects; and
      3. Technical support at implementation of IFAD’s investments

3. Knowledge Management and Capacity Development

The Senior Technical Specialist, Nutrition and Social Inclusion enhances the development of viable and sustainable policy and project development at the country-level in his/her area of specialisation and supports country, regional and global thematic input through authoritative technical knowledge sharing. S/He will ensure country-level access to the latest sources of knowledge and innovation, strengthen national technical capacity and establish new knowledge and advisory partnerships. She/he captures and uses more systematically IFAD’s field experience to better link impact evaluation to corporate and regional M&E work and integrates impact assessments, M&E and good practice findings into corporate learning opportunities to allow for cross-regional learning.

Accountabilities may include:

1. Supporting the development of new knowledge management products and operational tools, as well as documentation of best practices from field operations  within the thematic area’;
2. Continuously updates knowledge content and learning tools within specialty/thematic area making it available to staff through the intranet and other knowledge sharing platforms;
3. Sharing knowledge and experiences generated through activities such as analytical studies, operational research and grants with colleagues in the country programme as well as regional divisions;
4. Coordinating relevant knowledge development and dissemination  of knowledge and lessons learned with partners and stakeholders through publication of Occasional Papers, journal articles, seminars and workshops and electronic media;
5. Participating in IFAD-wide thematic discussions and developing appropriate technical and operation approaches of relevance to the country/regional divisional strategies and programmes.

4. Partnership Building and Resource Mobilization

The Senior Technical Specialist, Nutrition and Social Inclusion develops and maintains a network of peer contacts inside and outside IFAD to keep up-to-date on activities at the country and regional levels, to support joint advocacy and for knowledge sharing to enhance the Fund’s profile as a highly competent and viable partner in development and mainstreaming cross-cutting themes into IFAD country programmes and operations

Accountabilities may include:

1. Building partnerships with complementary technical organizations, UN, NGOs, and specialized departments of other development agencies as potential operational and strategic partners at global, regional and country levels;
2. Strengthening IFAD’s representation and communication in policy and technical dialogue/processes and strategy issues (including representing IFAD at international, regional, inter-agency meetings, seminars, conferences etc.); and
3. Mobilising additional resources for IFAD, through partnerships and outreach activities.

5. Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

The Senior Technical Specialist supports the Director/Lead Technical Specialist in knowledge management and other monitoring and reporting activities to enhance country level programme and funding decisions.

6. Managerial Functions

The Senior Technical Specialist is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the management of IFAD resources. This includes:

1. People Management through coaching and mentoring of new and/or more junior staff, supervision and evaluation of performance of consultants and staff under his/her purview.

Impact of Key results / Key performance indicators

Assignments require the provision of authoritative technical expertise in nutrition and social inclusion. The impact of work by the incumbent directly affects the overall country programme and contributes to regional and corporate policy and strategy.  Senior Technical Specialists design and contribute to the delivery of a country programme.  The impact on the overall IFAD country and regional programmes is significant in projecting the Fund’s role/capacity as a reliable, viable partner in development. Work is intricate in that it requires consideration of a wide range of technical factors and related data. national policies relevant for the economic policy concerns of the international organization. Senior Technical Specialists also monitor and guide the work of external consultants and participate as experts in field missions and in the servicing of intergovernmental and expert group meetings of a technical nature. 

Senior Technical Specialists thus exercise independence and initiative in assessing needs and advising governments when on field mission. Decisions are made on the research or analytical strategies to be followed in resolving problems of concern in the technical area.  Established methods and procedures are adapted as necessary in order to achieve desired results.   

Representation / Work relationships

The work relationships of Senior Technical Specialists involve the provision of authoritative technical advice and the negotiation and resolution of problems that arise in mission planning, technical project design and appraisal and in the preparation of studies and reports.  S/He serves as an expert in his/her field of specialization and works with full technical independence in the provision of technical expertise and methodological guidance at the country level, as well as regionally as required. Contacts are with counterparts and senior officials within other United Nations organizations having related programmes and with officials of governments, non¿governmental and intergovernmental organizations, research institutes and academia.

In servicing intergovernmental bodies, expert groups and other meetings, the Senior Technical Specialist provides technical expertise and recommendations for policy formulation and official conclusions in a consultative and advisory capacity; s/he also may provide information regarding the organization's policies, and act as the representative of the organization.  Contacts are maintained to identify and evaluate emerging developments.

Competencies

Organizational

• Strategic thinking and organizational development: Personal influence (Level 1)
• Demonstrating Leadership: Leads by example; initiates and supports change (Level 2)
• Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating: Challenges, innovates and contributes to a learning culture (Level 2)
• Focusing on clients: Contributes to a client-focused culture (Level 2)
• Problem solving and decision making: Solves complex problems and makes decisions that have wider corporate impact (Level 2)
• Managing time, resources and information: Coordinates wider use of time, information and/or resources (Level 2)
• Team Work: Fosters a cohesive team environment (Level 2)
• Communicating and negotiating: Acquires and uses a wide range of communication styles and skills (Level 2)
• Building relationships and partnerships: Builds and maintains strategic partnerships internally and externally (Level 2)
• Managing performance and developing staff: Manages staff and teams effectively (Level 1)

Technical/Functional

• Authoritative technical expertise at the country and regional level in nutrition and social inclusion (poverty targeting, gender, youth and Indigenous Peoples food systems).
• Skill in the design and coordination of technical research and identification of innovative solutions to emerging issues.
• Ability to share technical guidance/knowledge at the governmental and peer levels as well as to inspire more junior specialists and programme staff in the development of viable programme activities.

Minimum recruitment qualifications

Education: 

Advanced university degree from an accredited institution in in the field of specialization, e.g. Food and Nutrition, Agriculture, Rural Development, Natural Resource Management, Environment, Economics etc.

Experience: 

At least 8 years progressively responsible experience in, and demonstrated understanding of, development initiatives in the field of specialization of which at least 2 of the 8 years of experience should be   at the international level.  Experience in international policy frameworks related to global environment, natural resource management and rural development is an asset

Language requirements: 

Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. Working knowledge of French will be an added advantage. Working knowledge of another official language (Arabic or Spanish) is desirable.

Other information

Applicants should note that IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD. In accordance with IFAD's Human Resources Policy, staff members are subject to the authority of the President who can decide to assign them to any of the activities of the Fund. All International Professional staff members are required to be geographically mobile and positions in the professional category are subject to changes in location at any time in line with strategic priorities and reform initiatives in IFAD.    

In the interest of making most cost effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.