PROJECT SUMMARY
Alive & Thrive (A&T) is an initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development of infants and young children. Good nutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception to two years of age, is critical to enable all children to lead healthier and more productive lives. A&T is scaling up improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) and maternal nutrition through large-scale programs in several countries in Africa and Asia through strategic technical support and the dissemination of innovations, tools, and lessons worldwide.
Alive & Thrive Ethiopia 3.0 is a five-year investment funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to strengthen the institutional and human capacities required to achieve the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE) ambitions for nutrition. Since 2009, A&T is working in Ethiopia within the context of the National Nutrition Program (NNP) and the National Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Strategy (NNSAS) to promote maternal, adolescent, infant and young child nutrition (MAIYCN) across multiple sectors at the federal, regional, woreda, and community levels. The A&T Ethiopia 3.0 investment will build upon successes and lessons learned from previous IYCF efforts to significantly improve MAIYCN practices. In this new grant, A&T will provide greater analytical, technical, and systems-building support to bolster the capacity of federal and regional authorities to develop, deliver, monitor, and evaluate quality MAIYCN services.
A&T Ethiopia 3.0 will work in partnership with the GOE and others to achieve the following three outcomes: 1) Sustained capacity at national level and among regional health bureaus to support woredas in planning, budgeting, implementing and using data to achieve MAIYCN targets in the NNP II; 2) Sustained capacity at national level and among regional agriculture bureaus to improve women’s and children’s dietary diversity, and access to safe, affordable and nutritious foods; and 3) Knowledge and learning generated and tools and lessons learned disseminated in priority technical areas for improved MAIYCN at scale.
Alive & Thrive is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of Canada and Ireland. The initiative is managed by FHI 360.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Regional NSA Advisor will be based in the Somali Regional Bureau of Agriculture & Livestock (RBoA&L) to work under the guidance of the Extension and Communication Directorate Director or a relevant structure in the Regional Bureau which is responsible for the nutrition sensitive agriculture agenda (based on the region’s context). S/he will have functional responsibility to the Federal NSA Advisor seconded at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock, and the Senior Technical Advisor for NSA at A&T Ethiopia Office based in Addis Ababa.
The Regional NSA Advisor will also work closely with the respective Regional Nutrition Advisor for MAIYCN seconded at the Afar Regional Health Bureau, the Regional Program Delivery Unit of the Seqota Declaration, other BMGF investment advisors, regional focal persons of GOE initiatives, and other implementing partners working on NSA in region.
The Regional NSA Advisor will provide hands-on technical support and coaching to members of the Regional Extension and Communication Directorate Director and relevant nutrition focal persons in the Bureau to effectively plan, budget for, and implement NSA. S/he will help the bureau to identify low-performing zones and woredas and provide them with on-the-job technical support they need to strengthen NSA in their catchment areas. This could include strengthening their competencies, support systems or work environment.
Essential Job Functions/Roles and Responsibilities:
Provide technical assistance for nutrition-sensitive agriculture policies and programs
Support in assessments and planning
Support in capacity building and institutional development
Support in strategic use of data
Functional Competencies – Technical Expertise:
Functional Competencies – Knowledge Management and Learning:
Functional Competencies – Development and Operational Effectiveness:
Functional Competencies – program management and teamwork:
Corporate Competencies:
Reports to Extension and Communication Directorate Director or a relevant structure in the Somali Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Livestock
Number of positions: 1 (one)
Location: Somali Regional Bureau of Agriculture & Livestock, Jigjiga
Duration of Position: One year, will be renewed annually
PERSON SPECIFICATION
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