PROJECT SUMMARY
Alive & Thrive (A&T) is a global nutrition initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth of mothers and children. From 2009–2014, A&T demonstrated that rapid improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) are possible in settings as diverse as Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Viet Nam. In 2014, A&T began working in Burkina Faso, India, Nigeria, and throughout the Southeast Asia region, expanding its scope to include maternal and adolescent nutrition, and using agriculture and social protection programs as delivery mechanisms for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN). Currently, A&T is leveraging its robust network and knowledge base to strengthen systems and build capacity in these and other countries across Africa and Asia, and disseminate innovations, tools, and lessons worldwide. The Alive & Thrive initiative, managed by FHI 360, is currently funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Irish Aid, the Tanoto Foundation, and UNICEF.
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, infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN) 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 MIYCN 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 MIYCN 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 federal l level and among regional health bureaus to support woredas in planning, budgeting, implementing and using data to achieve MIYCN targets in the NNP II; 2) Sustained capacity at federal 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 MIYCN and NSA at scale. Alive & Thrive Ethiopia 3.0 is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The initiative is managed by FHI 360.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Senior NSA Advisor will be based in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (FMOA) to work under the guidance of the Food and Nutrition Coordination Office (FNCO) responsible for the NSA agenda in the Ministry. The Senior NSA Advisor will have functional responsibility to the Senior Technical Advisor for Agriculture, Alive & Thrive Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa. In a harmonized manner with the FNCO’s action plans, the Senior NSA Advisor will also work closely with the Senior MIYCN Advisor seconded at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH other BMGF investment advisors, focal persons of the government initiatives such as Sustainable Undernutrition Reduction in Ethiopia (SURE), Agriculture Transformation Agency (ATA), and other implementing partners working on NSA.
The Senior NSA Advisor will provide hands-on technical support and coaching to the members of the FNCO and relevant nutrition focal persons of the NSA in the Ministry to effectively plan, budget for, and implement NSA. The Senior NSA Advisor will help the Ministry to identify low-performing regions and provide them with on-the-job technical support they need to strengthen NSA in their regions. This could include strengthening their competencies, support systems or work environment. The Senior NSA Advisor will be working very closely with the respective Regional NSA Advisors seconded to the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Livestock in six regions: Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali and SNNPR.
Essential Job Functions/Roles and Responsibilities:
1. Provide technical assistance for nutrition-sensitive agriculture policies and programs
2. Support in assessments and planning
3. Support in capacity building and institutional development
4. 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:
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Education:
Experience:
Skills:
Additional Information: Works in a typical government office setting; working conditions include extensive travel to different regions, zones and sometimes woredas.