Technical Advisor II, Nutrition

NOTE: This is a global telecommuter position; CRS will give preference to candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices. CRS does not sponsor visas for telecommuting employees.

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, health and nutrition, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary:

As part of a three-person Global nutrition technical advisory team, the Technical Advisor will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to nutrition programs across the CRS world and will act as nutrition lead for the countries in the CRS’ East Africa Region, (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda). In the first year of the job, full focus is expected to be on activities within the CRS East Africa Region.

Nutrition projects in the East Africa region focus on both chronic and acute malnutrition and, among others, include short term nutrition programming funded by UNICEF and WFP in Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan, large integrated development projects such as the Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) and Nutrition in ASALs within integrated resilient institutions (Nawiri), integrated health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene service delivery programming in Somalia and Sudan and an emergency food assistance program, the Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) in Ethiopia, all funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).

The technical advisor’s responsibilities will focus at country program, East Africa Region and Global levels with a main focus on supporting nutrition strategy roll out, ensuring program design and implementation are in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices and providing technical support to country teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. His/her technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to effective, adaptive, and innovative nutrition programming in the region.

In the role of nutrition point person for East Africa, he/she will work closely with the counterpart East Africa Regional Office (EARO) Technical Advisors (TAs) in other sectors, to ensure cross-sectoral integration of activities and to jointly advance EARO’s strategic priorities.

He/she will possess strong expertise and experience in nutrition programming, knowledge of industry standards and best practices, and strong capacity in technical writing in English for products such as proposals and technical studies.

Responsibilities

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership and strategic assistance to country programs in the design, implementation, and monitoring of nutrition strategies and activities to ensure alignment with regional and Agency strategic priorities.
• Provide technical solutions to regional and CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and ensure the application of Agency and industry best practices and standards.
• Facilitate learning for evidence-based nutrition programming. Contribute to knowledge management and learning through collecting and analyzing program data, evaluating strategic projects, assisting with measuring program impact, capturing, and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and contributing to research and internal reports.
• As a member of the East Africa Regional Office technical team contribute to Regional Office strategies, plans, activities and cross learning including leading any regional or country program nutrition focused communities of practice or working groups as requested.
• Act as the technical lead for the EARO office in the field of nutrition and its intersections with other sectors including but not restricted to food aid and vouchers, agriculture and livelihoods, WASH, ICT4D and early childhood development.
• Conduct technical visits to country programs to support effective implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and documentation of ongoing project learning.
• Share guidance in the use of relevant agency policies and key conceptual frameworks in the development of regional and country level nutrition programs and project proposals.
• Engage in project start-up, monitoring, analysis, course-corrections, and evaluations to ensure high quality, impactful program implementation.
• Support funding acquisition by providing technical/design leadership, leveraging existing learning, identifying, and cultivating strategic opportunities, and assisting country teams in the development of winning proposals.
• Participate in the analysis of growth opportunities to ensure strategic alignment and capacity to implement excellent nutrition programs. Provide technical direction and content to project proposals, and assist in writing proposals in nutrition, liaising with other nutrition, health, and social service technical advisors, as appropriate.
• Lead or participate in design workshops for large and/or complex proposals, as appropriate, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Review both integrated and standalone nutrition proposals to ensure application of agency and international standards and best practices.
• Contribute to global, regional and CP efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities in nutrition. Lead or contribute to the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including defining appropriate monitoring systems and indicators. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities, and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives in nutrition programming for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching to CP staff. Mentor staff working in nutrition, including facilitating community of practice exchanges; advising on staff development plans; participating in recruitment of country program health staff; supporting onboarding; and identifying, organizing, and/or facilitating relevant trainings.
• Establish and maintain relationships with donors, peer organizations, research, and other institutions. Participate in forums in nutrition to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
• Liaise with CRS Regional Health and Nutrition Technical Advisors from other regions and Technical Advisors in the Headquarters’ Program Impact & Quality Assurance (PIQA) department through virtual and in-person meetings to ensure high impact programming.
• Be familiar with and advise on integrating relevant donor strategies (e.g., USAID and relevant US agencies, Global Fund, UNITAID, WHO, World Bank, CDC, Catholic Donors, and other potential donors) and their technical approaches.
• Linking with PIQA and EARO colleagues, provide leadership on EARO’s roll out of the Agency Nutrition Strategy and co-leadership on the roll out of the Agency Strategy Vision 2030 Goal Area 4 (All children reach their full health and development potential in Safe and Nurturing Families). Taking a quality assurance and improvement lens, support CPs to strengthen nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive program approaches through a structured review of current programming and guidance in development of quality assurance and improvement tools where needed.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in nutrition that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Actively implement and support implementation of CRS’ Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Gender and Safeguarding policies and strategies.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in nutrition, public health, behavior change or health-related field.
• Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in international health and nutrition development either as a technical advisor or nutrition program manager, preferably in Africa.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in nutrition programming. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in business development, project design and proposal development in nutrition including technical writing.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation, and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Required Language – English.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 35 %.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful and results oriented.

Supervisory Responsibilities: none

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: Technical Director for Health, STAs for Nutrition, Deputy Regional Director for Program Quality, PIQA health team; Humanitarian Response Department colleagues, Health, and Nutrition RTAs from other regions. Collaborate with the CRS East Africa Regional Director, CRS Country Representatives, CRS Heads of Programming, country Health Program Managers and other country staff; and EARO technical advisors for agriculture, WASH, and MEAL amongst others.
• External: Collaborate with host country government health ministries, other national and international NGOs, UN Agencies especially UNICEF (regional and country levels), USAID and EU missions, local bilateral institutions, other funding agencies, WHO, local and US Catholic agencies.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Note: All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.

CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer