Nutrition Officer at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) – For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you.

We are recruiting to fill the vacant position below:

Job Title: Nutrition Officer, NO-B

Job Number: 519239
Location: Abuja
Work Type: Fixed Term Appointment

For every child, a future

The Nutrition Officer provides professional technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the nutrition programmes/projects within the Country Programme, from development planning to delivery of results.
In doing so, the incumbent implements a variety of technical and administrative programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, programme progress monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of results.

How can you make a difference?
Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

Support to Programme Development and Planning:

Conduct and update the situation analysis for the programme sector(s) for the development, design and management of nutrition related programmes/projects. Research and report on development trends (e.g. political social, economic, nutrition, health) for higher management use to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery of results.
Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning, through analysis of nutrition needs and areas for intervention; and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting.
Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes by executing and administering a variety of technical programme transactions; preparing materials and documentations, and complying with organizational processes and management systems, to support programme planning, results based planning (RBM), and monitoring and evaluation of results.
Prepare required documentations and materials to facilitate the programme review and approval process.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results:

Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues. Provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision-making. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with the government and other counterparts to assess programmes/projects and to report on required action and interventions at the higher level of programme management.
Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations/procedures, donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity. Report on issues identified to ensure timely resolution by management and stakeholders. Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure resolution.
Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.

Technical and operational support to programme implementation:

Conduct regular programme field visits and surveys, and exchange information with partners and stakeholders to assess progress and provide technical support. Take appropriate action to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for resolution. Report on critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems for timely action to achieve results.
Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on nutrition-related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results.

Networking and partnership building:

Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve programme goals on maternal and child rights as well as social justice and equity.
Draft communication and information materials for CO programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnership/alliances and support fund raising for nutrition programmes.
Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) meetings and events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners and colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of nutrition programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEFs position and strategies with the UNDAF development and planning process.
Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building:

Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
Apply innovative approaches and promote good practices to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.
Research, benchmark and report on best and cutting edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems.
Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

Recruitment Qualifications
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: nutrition, public health, nutrition planning and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care.
Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development in a UN system agency or organization is an asset

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Competencies required for this post are: