Health, Nutrition, and Early Child Development Specialist

Details

Mission and objectives

Guided by the 2030 Agenda principle of “leaving no one behind”, UNICEF Rwanda under the current country programme will contribute to five priorities under the social transformation pillar of the National Strategy for Transformation 2017–2024: (a) Ensuring access to quality health for all; (b) Reducing malnutrition; (c) Ensuring access to and improving the quality of education; (d) Moving towards a modern Rwandan household, and; (e) Enhancing graduation from poverty and promoting resilience. The country programme will be implemented as part of the United Nations Development Assistance Plan 2018–2023 (UNDAP II), specifically contributing to Strategic Result Area 2: Social Transformation.

Context

The Health, Nutrition, and Child Development Specialist reports to the UNICEF Health and Nutrition Social Behavior Change (SBC) Specialist for supervision and general guidance with support of the Nutrition Manager and the Section Chief. The Specialist provides evidence-based technical and operational support to the SBC Specialist and internal colleagues as an integral part of programme development, planning, implementation, monitoring and/or evaluating in support of health, nutrition, and ECD initiatives and activities requiring the application of technical and theoretical skills. Through communication and engagement, as well as the empowerment and participation of stakeholders, communities, children, civil society partners, and government counterparts, s/he promotes measurable behavioral and social change/mobilization. This subsequently contributes to the achievement of sustainable and concrete results in improving children’s rights, survival and wellbeing in the country.

Task description

Under the direct supervision and guidance of UNICEF Health and Nutrition Social Behavior Change (SBC) Specialist with support of the Nutrition Manager and the Chief of Health and Nutrition, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: Support to health, nutrition, and ECD program and planning. • Conduct and/or participate in comprehensive health, nutrition, and ECD situation analysis of so-cial, cultural, economic and political issues in the country/region, including through nation-al/subnational working groups or committees. Assess/synthesize qualitative and quantitative information, establishment of comprehensive and evidence-based data to support holistic policy and programme development, as well as coordinated planning, implementation, and monitoring of ECD within health and nutrition related programmes/projects. • Participate in the design, planning and review of integrated health, nutrition and ECD interventions including development and establishment of goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based activities through research, collection, analysis of ECD related information and data to contribute to discussions on the underlying and contextual issues to be addressed (e.g. policies, gender/children inequality, cultural/social behavior etc) to ensure the successful and sustainable delivery of pro-gramme results for health and nutrition. • Collaborate/consult with a wide range of partners and stakeholders to ensure synergy, integration, coherence, and harmonization of SBC activities including system development activities and iniatives at the CO level, including in humanitarian response. • Contribute to the design of integrated ECD interventions, including development and establishment of goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based activities through research, • collection, analysis of ECD related information and data. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results. • Conduct and/or participate in monitoring and evaluation for integrated interventions including health and nutrition programme previews, meetings and mid-term/annual reviews to assess/report on success of SBC on programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based activities • Manage and follow-up on the implementation of programme components related to ECD to ensure their progress in accordance with the established goals, plans and strategies. • Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to conduct programme monitoring visits and discuss programmatic operational and implementation issues, providing solutions, recommendations and/or alerts for higher-level intervention and decisions • Support rigorous assessment and evidence generation surrounding the effectiveness of interventions as they relate to key outputs and outcomes for children • Relevant professional experience in social development planning and management in health, nutrition, and/or ECD related areas is required. • Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset. • Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset. • Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset. Networking and partnership building • Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders across relevant sectors through active sharing of information and knowledge to facili-tate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on ECD related interventions. • Draft communication and information materials for the Country Office programme advocacy to promote awareness and support report writing • Strengthen partnership/alliances and support resource mobilization for health, nutrition, and ECD interventions. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building. • Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders • Support implementation of innovative practices, approaches and latest technology on multiple media and social/digital platforms and networks for SBC that are appropriate/available for the CO context and audience around health, nutrition, and ECD • Support evidence generation and institutionalization/share best practices and knowledge learned/products with global/local partners and stakeholders to build capacity of practitioners, and disseminate these products to key audiences including donors and partners around diverse models • Apply innovative approaches and promote good practice to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results. Horizontal cooperation and support within the Programme delivery, raising awareness and leveraging resources for children: • Work in a cross sectoral manner and ensure synergy between ECD with other programme components including health, nutrition and education. • Provide technical and operational support to other relevant Country program components – close cooperation with the Private partnership team to ensure that ECD is well understood and supported by the business partners, and close cooperation with the external communication team to ensure that ECD, health and nutrition are well promoted in the country and beyond.