Position: Nutrition Coordinator
Programme: Merlin - Kenya Programme
Responsible To: Country Health Director
Location: Nairobi
Salary: Kshs 290,000 per month
Benefits: Insurance
cover, house allowance at 15% of basic salary, and annual leave
entitlement of 24 days per annum at the completion of 12 months of
continuous employment with Merlin.
About Merlin
Merlin is an international health charity, saving lives in the world’s toughest places.
Merlin’s global mission is to prevent the needless loss of life in fragile contexts caused by a lack of effective health care.
We deliver medical aid
and expertise with and we stay on to help revive and build lasting
health care through our work with governments and local communities.
Merlin has worked in
Kenya for over ten years, initially responding to disease outbreaks in
northern and western Kenya. Since then we have expanded to provide a
wide range of primary health care, reproductive health, nutrition and
disease prevention and control programmes in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health and other partners.
Merlin is currently operational in Kisii and Nyamira counties of western Kenya and in Turkana County in northern Kenya.
In addition to the country office in Nairobi, Merlin maintains offices in Kisii and Turkana counties.
In Turkana county Merlin
is supporting the implementation of an integrated high impact nutrition
intervention funded by UNICEF and OFDA
Main purpose of the role
The
Nutrition Coordinator is responsible for leading and providing
technical support to field teams for successful planning and
implementation of programme activities.
Under the supervision of
the Country Health Director, the Nutrition Coordinator works closely
with field teams in developing and supporting the implementation of the
nutrition component of the Merlin Kenya country strategy.
Overall Objective (scope)
This
position demands both the technical knowledge and the work experience,
needed to coordinate a nutrition programme. The Nutrition Coordinator
will be responsible for ensuring management of the nutrition programme
is executed in line with national and international humanitarian
standards and donor guidelines.
This position demands an ability
to manage, organize and support all aspects of Merlin’s nutrition
programme in Kenya in line with the nutrition sector priorities and in
collaboration with other partners in the sector and other related
sectors; including active participation in the nutrition sector
coordination fora, other agency liaison, training and supervising staff
using techniques and tools available and appropriate to Kenya.
Responsibilities
Programme
- Ensure that the implementation of the nutrition programmes conforms to internationally accepted standards and country guidelines
- Ensure nutrition
programme implementation is line with the nutrition sector’s partnership
framework and the Kenya national nutrition action plan (2012 – 2017).
- Provide support and supervision on nutrition activities to Merlin staff implementing health and nutrition programmes in Kenya.
- Provide guidance to
staff implementing nutrition programmes on the integration of a
nutrition component into the overall primary health care programmes and
curative services.
- To take a lead role in expansion of Merlin’s nutrition programming in Kenya.
- In collaboration with partners (MoH, WFP and UNICEF) support field sites with the organization of logistics of food commodities.
- Together with Project
Health Coordinators and Country Health Director, ensure proper
communication, coordination and harmonization of tools with the
different stakeholders involved in food/nutrition activities
- Provide technical leadership and support for conducting nutrition surveys and coverage assessments in all project sites
- Support the counties
where Merlin is operational with the roll out of the Scale Up Nutrition
framework in collaboration with the county health authorities.
- Together with Merlin health information officer maintain nutrition information data base
- Participate in the development of project proposals
Training and capacity building
- Support with the identification and recruitment of highly qualified nutrition staff.
- To assess the training needs of nutrition staff and develop a training programme to meet these needs.
- Together with MoH, ensure capacity building focusing on the High Impact Nutrition Interventions (HINI).
- Ensure the
establishment and strengthening or nutrition monitoring activities and
train health staff (Merlin and partners) in case detection and referral
mechanisms.
- Conduct and train health staff on surveys, causal analysis and other assessments of nutritional status of target groups.
Coordination
- To liaise, according
to Merlin distribution of responsibilities, with the Ministry of
Health’s division of nutrition, the Nutrition Sector Coordinator and
other agencies (UNICEF, OFDA and WFP) to ensure appropriate provision of
service and use of resources.
- To keep the field staff and the Nairobi based programme team informed of all activities and any difficulties that may arise.
- To report properly
and in a appropriate time all relevant nutritional information required
for the comprehensive development of the nutrition programmes
- Representing Merlin in the nutrition sector and working group meetings as well as other relevant nutrition related meetings.
- Prepare reports and generate discussion within the information working group for any issues which need to be addressed jointly.
Administration
- To assist in compiling the nutrition activities inputs to donor project reports, with assistance from the appropriate staff.
- Maintain proper systems of filing and ensure that the field office has all relevant technical material on site.
Security
- Full adherence to Merlin Kenya security procedures.
- Full adherence to
Merlin Kenya field communication protocols and standard operating
procedures, informing fellow team members and the Program Coordinator
immediately of any security incident.
- To behave at all
times in a manner which positively promotes Merlin and its work and
actively maintaining Merlin’s acceptance strategy in Merlin operational
areas.
Qualifications
- Degree level qualification in public health nutrition or related disciplines, with preference to a master’s degree.
- At least 4+ years of experience in managing nutrition treatment and prevention programs in underdeveloped/crisis contexts.
Skills and Experience
Essential
- Humanitarian field experience, preferably at a national coordination level.
- Minimum 3 years
experience as professional in international NGO context, with a sound
knowledge of the essential nutrition actions.
- Good knowledge of the SMART, SQUEAC and Rapid Nutrition Assessment methodologies.
- Confident and proficient in the use of MS Office
- Good budgeting and grant management skills
- Good anticipation, planning skills, especially in changing work contexts.
- Experience in communicating in different cultural work environments & with a wide diversity of culture.
- Good communicator: verbal and written. Diplomatic skills a plus.
- Highly organized, detail oriented and able to work under pressure.
- Experience in liaison
with a broad range of stakeholders, including international donors, UN
agencies and INGOs, national authorities, national/local partner
agencies and emergency-affected communities.
- Excellent training, coaching and mentoring skills.
Preferred
- Ability to multitask.
- Independent, can guide the nutrition team as well as ask for guidance and follow instructions.
To apply for this position
All applications including cover letter and cv should be sent to:
HR Department,
Merlin, Nairobi Office,
P.O Box 3350 – 00200,
Nairobi, Kenya
OR
Email to: recruitment@merlin-kenya.org
Application deadline is 5:00pm on Tuesday, 25th June 2013.
Please note that only short listed candidates will be contacted.
Data Protection
Please note that in
accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act, Merlin will hold and use
personal information that you have given for the purpose of recruitment
and employment. This information can be stored in manual and/or
electronic form. This information may also be disclosed to third parties
in accordance with the Data Protection Act. In cases where a job offer
is conditional on ensuring that potential employees’ names do not
appear on counter terrorism lists generated by the United Nations,
European Union or the United States due to donor funding requirements,
Merlin will use the information that you have given for checking that
your name does not appear on these lists.
