Nutrition Officer, (NO-B), Lilongwe, Malawi #103347 (Open to Malawian Nationals Only)

The Malawi Country Office offers an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for you to join our dynamic EADP team where you will be responsible for the school-aged adolescent nutrition programme.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child,  education…

UNICEF Malawi Country Programme (2019-2023) is aligned with the Government of Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy (MDGS III) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). The programme supports the Government of Malawi to meet its commitment to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights in line with international conventions and standards. The country programme is guided by the principles of children’s rights, equity, gender equality, inclusion, and resilience, and supports evidence-based, integrative, and innovative programming. The vision is that ‘all girls and boys in Malawi, especially the most disadvantaged and deprived, realize their rights’.  The programme focuses on: early childhood development (parenting, high-impact social services, early stimulation and learning), middle childhood and adolescence (learning, multi-sectoral services, active citizenship), communities (decentralized services and systems, community ownership, social norms), programme effectiveness (design, monitoring, evaluation, and  innovation), and system strengthening.  The programme is based on ‘leaving no child behind’, realizing ‘rights for all children in Malawi’.

 The Education and Adolescents Development & Participation (EADP) Programme in Malawi aims to ensure that school-aged girls and boys, especially early adolescents (aged 10-14), acquire essential learning outcomes and practice skills for life, are safe from exploitation, harmful practices and violence, and benefit from integrated social services (including in emergencies). Schools, as well as alternative and non-formal learning settings, provide an ideal platform upon which to facilitate children’s and adolescents’ access to social services such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), child protection, community engagement as well as provision of nutrition services. As a Nutrition Officer within the EADP team, you will be at the forefront of ensuring that adolescent learners of school age, especially girls (both in and out of school) are healthy and their nutrition needs as pertains to prevention of anemia and other forms of malnutrition , are addressed as this is one of the important steps towards breaking the vicious cycle of inter-generational malnutrition, chronic diseases and poverty.

How can you make a difference?

The Malawi Country Office offers an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for you to join our dynamic EADP team where you will be responsible for the school-aged adolescent nutrition programme. In this role, you will provide professional, technical and administrative assistance throughout programming process for adolescent nutrition programmes within the UNICEF Malawi Country Programme, from development planning to delivery of results for school-aged children and adolescents in context of primary, secondary and out of school platforms, including out-of-school adolescents. In doing so, you will implement a variety of programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, progress monitoring, evaluation and reporting of results.

In your role, you will operate in a matrix management structure, where you will directly and functionally report to the Adolescent Development Specialist in EADP section with an indirect reporting line to Nutrition Specialist in the Nutrition Section for technical support and enhance collaboration between the EADP  and Nutrition section.

In your role, you will work in the Integrated Services Unit in the EADP Section. The unit comprises of other officers who also support delivery of services using the school as the platform of delivery such as: Child Protection, Education, Health and Nutrition, Participation, WASH, and Social Behavioral Change Communication. You will be expected to collaborate with the different components to ensure synergy and a sustained transformative agenda for Malawi primary school-aged adolescents. In your role, you will work closely with the Department of School Health and Nutrition, the Directorate of Basic Education in Ministry of Education, and the Departments of Nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and Reproductive Health Unit in Ministry of Health.

 This job presents a unique and significant opportunity for a qualified, vibrant, motivated and committed person to contribute to building on an intersectoral experience and establish partnerships to promote innovative approaches to address immediate and underlying determinants of adolescent nutrition, recognizing that education, health and nutrition outcomes are not the results of actions in the health and nutrition sectors alone. You will contribute to the overall achievement of transformative results for children by delivering on the following key responsibility areas, but not limited to: - you are however encouraged to read the attached and detailed job description   Classified Job Description_103347 NOB Nutrition Officer (Adolescents).pdf in order to  view the full role and its requirements:

1. Oversee the adolescent nutrition program for school aged children for both in and out of school adolescents
2. Facilitating the training of frontline workers on Iodine and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation program
3. Facilitating the provision of comprehensive adolescent nutrition package (dietary diversification, promotion of consumption of fortified foods and supplementation) at district level.
4. Supporting quality implementation IFA supplementation including IFA compliance tracking and monthly reporting as well as deworming), interface review meetings, supervision, and monitoring.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

• A university degree in one of the following fields is required: nutrition, public health, nutritional epidemiology, global/international health and nutrition, health/nutrition research, policy and/or management, health sciences, nutritional epidemiology, or another health-related science field.

Experience:

• A minimum of two years of professional experience in a developing country in one or more of the following areas is required: adolescent nutrition, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care.
• Experience in health/nutrition program/project development for Adolescents in a UN system agency or organization is an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English and a local working language of the duty station, both strong verbal and written skills, is essential.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Core Competencies

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

Functional Competencies

• Analyzing (2)
• Applying Technical Expertise (2)
• Learning and Researching (2)
• Planning and Organizing (2)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

The position is not considered an elevated risk role. However, UNICEF reserves the right to conduct further vetting/assessment within the scope of child safeguarding as appropriate.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The vacancy announcement is open to all candidates – both internal and external candidates.