Nutrition Sector Coordinator, P4, Maiduguri, Nigeria, Fixed-Term post # 108819 (for non-Nigerian nationals)

UNICEF Nigeria country office is looking for a dynamic, experienced and results driven Nutrition Sector Coordinator to be part of a vibrant team in their largest field office in north-east Nigeria. Maiduguri is a non-family duty station with Rest and Reccuperation in every 6 weeks.

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, NUTRITION

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children's rights in partnership with government, civil society, children and families. UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally - click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria: https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/.

How can you make a difference?

As part of Unicef’s Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian action, the Nutrition Sector Coordinator is expected to provide leadership and support to the Nutrition coordination structure in the north-east Nigeria. On behalf of the  Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Nigeria and UNICEF as the lead agency for the IASC Nutrition Cluster and in collaboration with the State Authorities, the Nutrition Sector Coordinator will facilitate a timely and effective nutrition response in Nigeria and ensure that the capacity of national and local institutions is strengthened to respond to and coordinate emergency-development-peace building nutrition interventions that demonstrate results and achieve impact.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

The Nutrition Sector Coordinator’s major tasks and responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

Coordination, representation and leadership:

• Maintain a coordination mechanism that facilitates the effective achievement of the Sector functions and the requirements of the Humanitarian Project Cycle (Humanitarian Need Overview, Humanitarian Response Plan andCluster Coordination Performance Monitoring) and which builds on pre-existing coordination structures where appropriate and furthers the development of current or future national and subnational capacities.
• Ensure effective communication, reporting, engagement and co-ordination between different levels in each of the three States (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe), to enable alignment of work and priorities.
• Supervise and manage the Sector coordination team (i.e. Sector Co-coordinator, Yobe and Adamawa State Facilitators, Nutrition Information Management Officer, Strategic Advisory Group, ect..)
• Build partnerships with all relevant sector stakeholders including government counterparts and national authorities, local, national and international organizations, affected populations and other AoRs/Sectors especially UNICEF led (WASH, Child Protection and Education) and Health and Food Security and Livelihood.
• Build complementarity of partner actions within the Sector, proactively negotiating with partners to avoid and resolve duplication and gaps and harmonize actions and accountability
• Represent the Sector with stakeholders across all sectors, including the Humanitarian Coordinator on prioritization, resource  mobilization and advocacy and through inter-Sector coordination fora, develope cross-sectoral relationships as appropriate.
• Promote emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns.

Needs assessment and analysis:

• Lead the planning and implementation of needs assessment and analysis, including representing the Sector in multi-sectoral needs assessments and joint analysis of needs.
• Analyse needs assessment data and work collaboratively with the Sector partners to create analytical products (reports, powerpoints, briefs, etc.), based on evidence-generated.
• Synthesize evidence and provide near real-time information to stakeholders to strengthen planning and implementation
• Develop standard assessment formats for use within the sector including for Rapid Response Mechanism.

Strategic response planning:

• Lead and coordinate strategic planning, response prioritization and the development of a context specific-gender transformative sectoral response plan across the triple nexus.
• Lead early warning, contingency planning, and emergency preparedness efforts for the Sector, ensuring adequate Sector participation in inter-sector early warning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities.
• Draw lessons learned and adapt strategies and action plans on a regular basis in response to the evolving situation.
• Establish indicators by which performance of the cluster can be measured
• Develop an exit, or transition, strategy for the Sector and in-partnership with the government
• Ensure all programme delivery modalities (in-kind, cash, voucher and services) are given equal consideration in the strategic response planning and establish and implement systematic measures for supporting their consideration and use.
• Provide technical expertise and advice to Sector partners to ensure activities are relevant, appropriate and in line with context priorities and communities' needs.
• Engage with OCHA and other AoRs/Sectors to contribute to the development of the HNO/HRP, and collaborate with UNICEF on the HAC, advocating for a response that reflects and addresses the concerns of the Sector.

Resource mobilization and advocacy:

• Support and coordinate the mobilization of adequate resources to ensure the effective functioning of the Sector, its response and establishment of medium to long term capacities.
• Monitor, analyse and communicate information about the Sector’s financial situation and resource mobilization and identify appropriate actions to address gaps or constraints.
• Advocate for improved sectoral outcomes, by developing or supporting advocacy strategies, networking with advocacy allies, influencing stakeholders' decision-making.

Implementation, monitoring and evaluation:

• Monitor, evaluate and report regularly on the coverage, equity, quality and progress of the response against Sector strategy, priorities and agreed results.
• Plan and support gap and coverage analysis to identify spatial and temporal gaps, overlaps and coverage of the Sector response.
• Monitor Sector adherence to IASC cluster approach principles, relevant humanitarian and sectoral agreements, standards, initiatives and guidelines and support partners to make improvements.
• Lead the annual cluster coordination performance monitoring (CCPM) exercise and annual review and contribute to other sectoral and humanitarian evaluations as appropriate.

Training and capacity building of national/local authorities and civil society:

• Promote and support training of humanitarian personnel and capacity building of humanitarian partners, based on the mapping and understanding of available capacity.
• Support efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national/local authorities and civil society actors

Acting as “Provider of last resort”:

• As agreed by the IASC Principals, cluster leads are responsible for acting as the provider of last resort to meet agreed priority needs and will be supported by the HC in their resource mobilization efforts in this regard.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) 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, or another health-related science field.

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care is required with experience at international level.

• Relevant experience in health/nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization is considered an asset.

• Prior experience in a similar role with a minimum of two years of experience of Nutrition Cluster/ Sector coordination is highly desirable and considered an asset.

• Experience working in emergency/humanitarian contexts away from country of residence is essential.

• Experience of demonstrating analytical and persuasive writing and reporting skills, editing skills, and the ability to convey complex information in a clear manner to a diverse audience is required.

• Ability to multi-task and deliver against workplan and tight deadlines.

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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