VAC-7808 Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE) Senior officer

Afghanistan past decades war and faces natural disaster in the world. Households in Afghanistan face natural disasters, often compelling them to flee their homes at moment’s notice and drought. Which lead to food in security and malnutrition Underlying malnutrition of population continues to intensify humanitarian needs.

In Afghanistan Nutrition Cluster Approach was activated in 2008 due to Emergencies. The aim of the cluster is to safeguard and improve the nutritional status of children and vulnerable emergency-affected population to ensure an appropriate response. Presently the Nutrition cluster comprises of 5 UN agencies, MoPH/PND, 21 INGOs, 17 LNGOs, 2 observers, 5 donors and MoPH-PND. Through this cluster all Nutrition emergencies are coordinated. In 2015 Afghanistan has undergone a process of humanitarian architecture review and as a result the following benchmarks were set up for transition of NiE response coordination from cluster to government.

i)The leadership of all coordination meetings are fully managed by all government focal points

Nutrition Cluster Coordination meeting at national level happen on monthly basis, however they are chaired by the NCC from UNICEF. Government focal points participate regularly and presents the outcome of the TWGs and NPCC in the cluster meeting. The other coordination mechanisms like NPCC and 5 technical working groups and specific taskforces are chaired by Public Nutrition Department.

ii)The NPCC has been expanded to discuss nutrition programmes needs

The NPCC conducts biannually to discuss broad development and emergency issues, however further strengthening of coordination arrangements is needed.

iii) All working groups are meeting regularly and will clear participation, minutes, work plans

While a meeting schedule for the whole year was developed for all working groups, the meetings are still not happening on the regular basis as when the PND chair is not available, they are being postponed for the next month. There is a suggestion that instead of once a month the meetings should be held within once in two months. But in-between the TWG group meeting normally there are few taskforces (smaller sub-groups of the TWG) meet to sort out specific agenda and complete few tasks which emerge in the TWGs.  Participation in the WGs of partners varies with sometimes being as low as about 30% of partners and sometimes high. The meeting minutes are regularly prepared and shared.

iv) Nutrition supplies, equipment procurement and distributions well as capacity building is fully integrated into SEHATMANDI project

UNICEF has negotiated to include RUTF supplies for routine SAM treatment without complications under the SEHAT from Q3 and Q4 of 2017. The additional emergency-related supplies are still to be procured under the emergency funding. Other supplies procured by UNICEF and all supplies procured by WFP are still not included in the SEHAT. In addition, no capacity building activities are included under SEHAT and is still considered to be Cluster/different agencies responsibility. To improve capacities and quality services recruitment of one Nutrition counselor for every health facility under BPHS has been incorporated in SEHAT.  Therefore, all BPHS service providers has responsibility to recruit one nutrition counselor in each HF.

• Attend monthly nutrition cluster and sector coordination meetings and follow up the action points. Support NCC in chairing Nutrition Cluster Meeting as required.

• Chair/co-chair, when needed and required, cluster working groups and task forces, prepare agenda for the meetings, organize meetings and follow up the action points.

• Contribute to preparation, collect, compile, analyze and disseminate NiE reports and bulletins to partners (monthly, quarterly and annually)

• In collaboration with partners review performance of all NiE programs in the country and support partners to improve performance.

• Support PNOs in drafting Monitoring and supervision plans to ensure that NiE-related activities are a part of their monitoring and supervision.

• Conduct regular monitoring and supportive supervision of NiE activities/programs  based on approved PND plan

• Provide technical support for the implementation of NiE programs

• Build the capacity of response stakeholders in the design and delivery of NiE programs, focusing particularly on an intensive community outreach component.

• In collaboration with Nutrition Cluster and CDWG, identify training needs of provincial health and nutrition staff in terms of NiE. Develop plans for capacity reinforcement, facilitate and coordinate the implementation of these plans. Supervise delivery and/or organize and/or deliver NiE trainings as per capacity gaps identified and provide on the job training where required.

• Assess and monitor trends in the NiE programs, and identify core advocacy concerns. Provide technical support for the functioning of the nutrition monitoring system and nutritional surveillance related to the NiE.

• Coordinate with PND, UNICEF, WFP staff for the provision of supply and non-supply NiE assistance to partners.

• Ensure the alignment of emergency interventions with the existing community-based nutrition programmer as a critical transition from response to community resilience.

• Assist or support in the documenting and sharing of NiE best practices and lessons learnt.

• Perform any other work as requested by PND.

Selected Key Deliverable:

• The officer will be required to submit brief monthly reports of progress against all above tasks; the following are selected key deliverables, with estimated due dates:

• Monthly report of Nutrition Program Coordination Committee meetings (NPCC)

• Bi-annual report of National Nutrition Coordination workshop

• Compiled monthly report on provincial updates on nutrition activities/ challenges prepared by PNOs

• Update list of all development partners with their financial contribution to specific nutrition activities (annual)

• Update list of all implementing partners with their activities and geographic coverage (biannual)

• Report on number of health staff trained on nutrition by implementing partners, PND, or any other entities, especially on the BPHS SOP (monthly)

• Develop community nutrition training materials and SOP

• Report of capacity building activities of partners discussed on the technical working groups

• Report of monitoring and supervision activities conducted from the field (quarterly)

• Report on any training manuals, guideline or protocols updated or need to be updated based on new scientific developments or field monitoring experiences (monthly)

N/A     

QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED, EXPERIENCE AND ADDITIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• An understanding and previous experience in nutrition in emergencies

• Previous engagement and understanding the work of the nutrition cluster

• Strong coordination and management skills

• Able to meet tight deadlines, performs quality work and excellent report writing skills

• Strong team working  and networking capacity

• Willing to travel to the field and provide technical support to implementing partners and service providers regularly

• Willing to work in remote areas including weekends.

N/A

• Skills and competence: 

  General skills:

  ·Ability to prepare various operational plans of the organization or project.

  ·Having specific skills in the related technical field.

  ·Having experience and ability of team management and leadership.

  ·Field work experience

  ·Background/familiarity with Emergency with coordination and capacity building focus

  Minimum requirements:

  Bachelor’s degree in medicines with 4 years related experience or 8 years working experience in other Health programs.

   Language Proficiency:

  Fluency in English is essential

  Computer: Be able to work in Microsoft Word, Excel, Power point, outlook and internet browsers