Nutrition MEAL Advisor

Background/IRC Summary:  The International Rescue Committee serves refugees and communities affected by oppression or violent conflict worldwide. Founded in 1933, the IRC is committed to freedom, human dignity, and self-reliance. This commitment is expressed in emergency relief, protection of human rights, post conflict development, resettlement assistance, and advocacy.

The IRC is delivering healthcare services in humanitarian settings around the world, including conflict-affected countries and refugee settings. The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence Unit (TE) provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice. The TE Unit is comprised of six technical Units, all of which have deep expertise in their respective sectors: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Gender Equality, Governance, Health, Violence Prevention and Response. These technical units work closely with the Research and Innovation Unit.

The health technical unit is organized in three sectors; Health (comprehensive primary healthcare including sexual and reproductive health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, MHPSS and child health), environmental health and nutrition. The nutrition priorities seek to ensure women and children are well-nourished by protecting them from all forms of undernutrition. Our role is to advance program quality in nutrition through evidence, data, and delivery models to drive performance. We also invest in systems, structures and support to improve the scale, efficiency and impact of nutrition programs globally. We increase access to, and continuity of, treatment and prevention of undernutrition. We’re simplifying diagnosis and treatment, bringing care closer to home and at scale.

Job Overview/Summary: The Nutrition MEAL Advisor will lead the Health Unit’s work to create tools, systems and processes that support country programs to have better access to quality data about their programs, and use that data to monitor and evaluate projects.  The Nutrition MEAL Advisor will lead the development of a global nutrition data toolkit using CommCare and PowerBi and development of data collection tools and guidance for nutrition core indicators.  The Advisor will also support the annual statistics process, collection and reporting on quarterly indicators to report on organizational Impact at Scale targets and provide support to country program surveys and assessments.  The specific responsibilities include:

Global Support

-          Lead the development of the Nutrition data toolkit in CommCare/ PowerBi to ensure alignment with core indicators and tools, and reporting through the Program Indicator Dashboard and reporting scale metrics.

-          Lead the development of nutrition data collection tools and guidance for nutrition core indicators

-          Lead the review of nutrition annual statistics data

-          Lead the collection and reporting of Impact at Scale quarterly scale metrics from eleven countries

-          Collaborate with members of the Health Unit and country programs to analyze M&E data, and to identify and document lessons learned related to nutrition programs

-          Contribute towards development of MEAL plans for country and global proposals

-          Provide capacity strengthening of Health Unit staff about nutrition MEAL

-          Support data needs for nutrition focused advocacy and communication

Country support

-          Provide support to country program surveys and assessments:

o   Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) population-based surveys

o   Coverage surveys (scale countries will assess coverage of malnutrition treatment) Development of IMPACT tools and support to conduct assessments (e.g., nutrition-sensitive gender assessment)

o   Other assessments as needed (e.g. cost of diet, participatory action research, TIPS, etc.)

-          Provide capacity strengthening of country program staff about nutrition MEAL

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Management in Partnership with the Senior Technical Advisor for Health MEAL (New York) and the Senior Technical Advisor for Nutrition (New York)

Position directly supervises: Typically, has no direct supervision of staff.

Internal: Regular relationships with the nutrition, health and country technical counterparts. Interacts with IRC internal departments across CRRD and other technical units

External: May participate in outside meetings and academic forums with donors, other non-governmental organizations and inter-agency groups as needed.

Job Qualifications:

Education: University degree in related field plus Master’s degree in Public Health, Public Health Nutrition or Global Nutrition is required.

Skills: Ability to work optimally and respectfully on diverse teams and across diverse contexts. Good technical acuity, takes initiative and produces results, ability to accept feedback and integrate it, strong communication and presentation skills and a dedication to contribute to a positive work environment. Strong data analytical skills and understanding of Nutrition monitoring and evaluation in low resource contexts is required; Committed to upholding diversity, equality and inclusion principles. Good level interpersonal skills with a high level of English oral and written skills. Ability to proficiently communicate and write in French is highly desirable, but not required. Experience working with digital technology for health platforms (CommCare, PowerBi) is desirable.

Work Experience: A minimum of 6-8 professional experience with a min of 3 years of international experience is required leading nutrition responses in humanitarian settings and/ or leading M&E of nutrition programs. Expertise and experience working on the monitoring and evaluation of community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) and on prevention to undernutrition is required. Experience in M&E software and nutrition assessment methodologies (e.g. SQUEAC, IYCF, TIPS and cost-of diet) is required.

Working Environment: Based in the New York, London, Dakar or Nairobi office. Ability to travel up to 30% is required. Must be willing to travel to IRC country offices and field sites, sometimes in very difficult conditions

Language Skills: Fluency in English is required, and French is highly desirable.  

Only candidates who meet the required work experience will be considered.

COVID-19: All IRC staff travelling must adhere to the IRC’s core COVID-19 measures, as well as guidance outlined within the IRC’s guidance on mitigating COVID-19 travel related risks. Adherence to these measures is intended to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure whilst travelling, as well as limit the likelihood and impact of transmitting COVID-19 infection during travel and whilst in-country.

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The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Equality, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.