Job Title: Technical Advisor for Nutrition (3 Vacancies)

Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organization affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University. For 40 years and in over 155 countries, Jhpiego has worked to prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. Jhpiego works with health experts, governments and community leaders to provide high-quality health care for their people. Jhpiego develops strategies to help countries care for themselves by training competent health care workers, strengthening health systems and improving delivery of care.

 Job Summary:

The Technical Advisor will offer technical and program oversight and direction in the areas of nutrition for up to three upcoming USAID regional integrated health programs (HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, nutrition, family planning, and maternal, neonatal and child health care) in Uganda. Jhpiego is recruiting for up to three nutrition advisors one each to be based in Eastern Region, East-Central Region, and/or South Western Region in Uganda. This program aims to increase utilization of health services by strengthening systems and improve quality of integrated health services. The project will operate over a five-year period. Responsibilities include providing leadership and technical guidance in the development and implementation of nutrition activities under the leadership of the Chief of Party and in coordination with other Jhpiego Technical Advisors, and utilizing and contributing to cross-cutting approaches, such as performance improvement, as well as, annual phasing in of activities This position will ensure the technical and methodological soundness of activities and, in collaboration with the project team and partners, support the design of service delivery strategies, based on sound and current scientific evidence.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Offer technical oversight, strategic direction and ensure appropriate support for the implementation of program activities in clinical and preventive nutrition
• Offer guidance in the integration of nutrition with maternal, newborn and child health services, FP/RH, HIV and TB, and Malaria
• Refine evidence-based clinical training materials, job aids, and curricula, supervisory systems and other training materials needed for implementation of clinical and preventive nutrition to meet the needs of USAID and the Government of Uganda
• Give mentoring and capacity building at the individual and organizational level in clinical and preventive nutrition including but not limited to:
• Give leadership and nutritional expertise to support activities related to essential nutrition actions, such as exclusive breastfeeding, continued breastfeeding to two years, timely and appropriate complementary feeding, Vitamin A supplementation, continued feeding during illnesses, and early detection and management of malnutrition at the community level
• Provide technical expertise in developing and strengthening clinical and preventive nutrition interventions for women and children at community and referral level
• Work in coordination with donor, government and non-government agencies to coordinate clinical and preventive nutrition programs with food security programs at facility and community levels
• Lead “train the trainer” sessions, site strengthening, in-service and/or pre-service education, follow-up and supportive supervision to project-supported health facilities, as required by program activities
• Work with colleagues to develop a cadre of nutrition champions who will facilitate links to other community-level health programs/services
• Coordinate assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites as required by program activities
• Take lead the formulation of approaches for scale up of clinical and preventive nutrition , including accessing hard-to-reach populations and integration of services
• Actively participate in all Technical Advisory Group Meetings, and represent Jhpiego in professional forums by participating and presenting in pertinent meetings and conferences, as well as technical working groups
• Analyze potential clinical and preventive nutrition strategies within the context of the program and explain these, as necessary, to policymakers, funding agencies, and/or program staff
• Work with health care providers, local authorities, community members and program team members to identify clinical, community-based service delivery issues that impede access to care
• Identify appropriate facility- and community-based strategies to address nutrition service delivery gaps
• Identify clinical training needs and assist in the design and implementation of measures to address those needs
• Formulate and test sustainable solutions to service delivery gaps, utilizing cross-cutting approaches such as performance and quality improvement and in-service training/pre-service education
• Advocate with national, regional and community-level health institutions to raise awareness about their role in improving health outcomes in clinical and preventive nutrition
• Guide Ministry of Health, professional associations, other national stakeholders in the revision/development of evidenced-based standards for competency in clinical and preventive nutrition
• Mobilize international level clinical/technical expertise to resolve clinical issues that shape or effect local public policy or program design
• Collaborate with all local stakeholders and implementing partners, especially the Ministry of Health and other implementing partners, to ensure that all activities conform to the requirements and regulations
• Carry out regular reporting to the Chief of Party, and program and technical staff, of successes, challenges and lessons learned in implementation related to areas of technical expertise
• Document and maintain an inventory of successful tools and approaches for clinical and preventive nutrition
• Author and co-author abstracts and presentations for journals and conference
• Supervise technical staff
• Manage technical contributions of subgrantees, including providing scopes of work
• Maintain excellent relationships with USAID and in-country stakeholders and develop rapid responses to USAID/DC and Mission requests
• Work closely with the Chief of Party and/or Country Director on setting program priorities and directions, and responding to requests for support from local counterparts.
• Work with M&E staff to design, implement a plan to track data/results related to clinical and preventive nutrition
• Provide technical leadership to the development the project strategic plan, work plan, and program monitoring, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health, USAID and other stakeholders
• Ensure timely implementation of all program inputs related to clinical and preventive nutrition, including planning and implementing assessments, site strengthening, follow-up and supervision, advocacy, demand creation, policy support, capacity-building and M&E across program sites, in close coordination and collaboration with USAID, relevant ministries of health
• Assist in the preparation of donor reports and project reports
• Oversee data collection, analysis and development of conclusions and recommendations to further strengthen program implementation
• Ensure availability of resources/facilitate the procurement of equipment and supplies required for project implementation
• Coordinate and monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of short-term consultants as required

Qualifications, Skills and Experience: 

• The Technical Advisor for Nutrition should possess a medical degree (doctor or nursing) or Master’s in Public Health

·         A minimum of seven years’ experience applying clinical and preventive nutrition;

·         At least 5 years’ experience in managing $10M per year in donor-funded projects and in the design and implementation of overseas health projects; preferably in the East and Southern Africa;

·         Qualification as a “master trainer”; experience training health workers on clinical aspects related to clinical and preventive nutrition

·         Experience building capacity at individual and organizational levels

·         Skill in at least two or more of the following technical areas: strengthening service delivery programs, training, pre-service education, performance and quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation

·         Prior experience with a mix of practical technical skills in clinical and preventive nutrition necessary for strengthening integrated service delivery at the regional, national, clinical and community-level

·         The ability to liaise with senior MOH officials and dignitaries, executives of NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, the for-profit business community, and senior members of the donor community;

·         Demonstrated in-depth understanding of Ugandan healthcare system, particularly the public health system, experience living and working in Uganda preferred

·         Strong oral and written communication and presentations skills in English

·         Strong skills in word processing and Excel spread sheets

·         Familiarity with USAID or other USG administrative, management and reporting procedures and systems

·         Proven track record managing a project team composed of several technical experts and fostering team work

·         Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in national programs and technical staff in the areas

·         Excellent written, presentation, communication and organizational skills in English

·         Ability to travel up to 50% time

• Ugandan nationals are strongly encouraged to apply

How to apply for a job:
If you feel you can serve Jhpiego in its USAID Projects as one of the Technical Advisors for Nutrition, please feel free to visit the web link below to express your further review full job requirements on recruitment website and Apply. https://jobs-jhpiego.icims.com

  job, JOBS, USAID