Health & Nutrition Coordinator 4 views0 applications

TEAM/PROGRAMME:  Programme Operations

LOCATION: Sekota

GRADE: 3B

CONTRACT LENGTH: Up to March 31, 2027

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3:  the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Risk and Compliance:

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Fraud, Bribery, and Corruption policy and code of conduct. The key responsibilities include understanding and complying with the SCI policies and procedures, not committing any act of fraud, bribery, or corruption, understanding risks in their area/role, and implementing mitigation measures, report any suspected fraud, bribery, or corruption immediately, declare conflicts of interest in accordance with internal procedures and complete mandatory training related to ethics and anti-fraud measures

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will provide overall technical leadership, coordination, and oversight for the implementation of health and nutrition interventions under the ECHO-funded Area-Based Approach (ABA) Programme in Wag himra. The position will ensure the effective planning, integration, quality delivery, and monitoring of health and nutrition activities within the broader multisectoral ABA framework, contributing to improved access to lifesaving and resilience-building services for vulnerable populations.

The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will lead the operationalization of integrated health and nutrition programming by strengthening coordination among consortium partners, government health structures, humanitarian actors, and community stakeholders. The role will support evidence-based decision-making, joint needs analysis, service mapping, referral pathways, and adaptive programming to ensure that health and nutrition interventions are responsive to evolving humanitarian needs and aligned with national and international standards.

The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will serve as the central technical focal point for:

• Coordination and oversight of health and nutrition interventions across the project area;
• Integration of health and nutrition services within the ABA multisectoral response;
• Technical support, capacity building, and quality assurance for implementing partners and frontline staff;
• Service mapping, referral systems, and continuity of care for vulnerable populations;
• Health and nutrition needs assessment, surveillance, and analysis;
• Monitoring, reporting, learning, and adaptive management of programme activities;
• Strengthening collaboration with government health offices, health facilities, and humanitarian coordination mechanisms.

The role will ensure that programme implementation is:

• Technically sound and evidence-based;
• Community-centered and accountable to affected populations;
• Conflict-sensitive and responsive to local contexts;
• Operationally coherent and well-coordinated across sectors and partners;
• Aligned with ECHO requirements, national health and nutrition strategies, and humanitarian standards.

The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will work closely with consortium partners, local health authorities, community structures, and other humanitarian actors to enhance the quality, coverage, and effectiveness of health and nutrition services, strengthen referral and surveillance systems, promote community engagement, and contribute to sustainable local ownership of the response.

SCOPE OF ROLE

Reports to: Health, Nutrition and WASH Program Manager

Staff reporting to this post: None

Budget Responsibilities: None

Role Dimensions:

The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will oversee the day-to-day field-level operationalization the health and nutrition component in the Lense of ABA framework across targeted locations in Wag himra. The role requires close collaboration with consortium partners, government structures, humanitarian coordination mechanisms, and local actors to ensure integrated and geographically coherent implementation.

The position will support:

• multisectoral coordination,
• service functionality analysis,
• operational prioritization,
• referral pathway strengthening,
• and adaptive humanitarian response management.
• The Health and Nutrition Coordinator will also support operational preparedness, emergency escalation, and integration of accountability and MEAL systems within the broader ABA framework.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Health & Nutrition Programme Coordination and Leadership

• Lead the planning, coordination, implementation, and monitoring of all health and nutrition activities under the ECHO-funded ABA project in target woredas.
• Ensure timely and quality delivery of project activities in line with project objectives, donor requirements, national guidelines, and humanitarian standards.
• Coordinate integrated health and nutrition interventions within the broader Area-Based Approach (ABA) framework and promote multisectoral collaboration with WASH, Protection, Food Security and Livelihoods, and other sectors.
• Facilitate effective coordination among consortium partners, local authorities, health facilities, and community structures to ensure complementary and harmonized service delivery.
• Develop and monitor work plans, implementation schedules, and activity tracking mechanisms to ensure achievement of project targets and indicators.
• Support operational problem-solving related to access constraints, service gaps, referrals, commodity shortages, and implementation bottlenecks.
• Represent the project in relevant health, nutrition, and ABA coordination forums at zonal and woreda levels.
• Community-Based Nutrition and CMAM Strengthening
• Lead Family MUAC training for Health Extension Workers (HEWs), community volunteers, and caregivers to strengthen community-based screening, early identification, and referral of acute malnutrition cases.
• Coordinate the establishment and strengthening of Mother-to-Mother Support Groups to promote optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices and improve nutrition awareness at community level.
• Organize and facilitate CMAM and SAM management gap-filling trainings for health professionals and HEWs.
• Strengthen community nutrition surveillance, case detection, referral, and follow-up systems.
• Ensure effective implementation of CMAM services, including OTP, TSFP, and linkage with Stabilization Centers.
• Support nutrition screening and referral integration within community outreach and primary health care services.

Health Service Delivery and System Strengthening

• Coordinate integrated primary health care services through static, outreach, and mobile service delivery approaches.
• Lead integrated outreach campaigns targeting hard-to-reach, underserved, and crisis-affected communities.
• Coordinate deployment, supervision, and performance monitoring of Service Delivery Support Teams (SDSTs).
• Strengthen quality service provision at health centers, hospitals, and community health service delivery points.
• Coordinate equipping of OTP sites, Stabilization Centers, and supported health facilities with essential supplies and equipment.
• Facilitate capacity strengthening initiatives on IMNCI, BEmONC, NICU, Clinical Management of Rape (CMR), and GBV clinical care.
• Provide regular supportive supervision, coaching, mentoring, and on-site technical support to health workers and health facilities.
• Coordinate minor rehabilitation and improvement of health facilities, including WASH and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) infrastructure.

Emergency Preparedness, Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Response

• Strengthen Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) and Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) systems through training, mentoring, and supportive supervision.
• Facilitate Community-Based Event Surveillance (CEBS) orientation and capacity strengthening for community volunteers, HDAs, and frontline workers.
• Support preparedness planning, early warning systems, disease surveillance, and outbreak investigation activities.
• Coordinate rapid response activities during disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.
• Strengthen health facility preparedness and readiness for emergency response.
• Support deployment and coordination of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) as required.

Supply Chain and Referral System Strengthening

• Ensure timely procurement, distribution, and accountability of essential medicines, nutrition commodities, medical supplies, and equipment.
• Strengthen supply chain management and last-mile transportation systems to improve commodity availability at health facilities.
• Coordinate regular review and strengthening of referral pathways among health, nutrition, protection, and other sectors.
• Ensure referral mechanisms, SOPs, tracking systems, and focal points are functional and regularly monitored.
• Monitor referral completion rates and continuity of care for vulnerable populations.
• Support ambulance referral systems through monitoring of utilization, fuel allocation, maintenance, and referral efficiency.

Quality Assurance, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

• Ensure all project activities comply with organizational policies, donor requirements, national protocols, and humanitarian standards.
• Monitor implementation progress against project indicators, targets, and work plans and initiate corrective actions where necessary.
• Strengthen Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), nutrition information systems, data quality assurance, and reporting mechanisms.
• Conduct regular field monitoring visits, supportive supervision, and program quality assessments.
• Analyze program data and trends to support evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management.
• Prepare timely and high-quality weekly, monthly, quarterly, and donor reports.
• Document best practices, lessons learned, innovations, and operational challenges for continuous program improvement.
• Compile success stories and Most Significant Change (MSC) cases demonstrating project impact.

Accountability, Community Engagement and Social Behaviour Change

• Lead implementation of Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) assessments, strategies, and community awareness campaigns.
• Support development and dissemination of culturally appropriate health and nutrition education materials.
• Coordinate Community Score Card initiatives and strengthen accountability between communities and service providers.
• Ensure community feedback and complaints response mechanisms are functional, accessible, and effectively utilized.
• Promote meaningful participation of women, youth, internally displaced persons (IDPs), people with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups.
• Incorporate community feedback into program planning, implementation, and decision-making processes.

Coordination, Representation and Partnership Management

• Maintain strong working relationships with Regional, Zonal, and Woreda Health Offices and other relevant government departments.
• Represent the organization in Health Cluster, Nutrition Cluster, ABA coordination platforms, and other technical forums.
• Strengthen collaboration among consortium partners, local actors, community structures, and humanitarian agencies.
• Facilitate donor visits, monitoring missions, joint assessments, and review meetings.
• Contribute to strategic discussions and operational planning related to health and nutrition programming within the ABA framework.

Staff Management and Capacity Strengthening

• Provide day-to-day technical and managerial supervision to health and nutrition project staff.
• Conduct regular performance monitoring, coaching, mentoring, and capacity-building activities.
• Support staff understanding and application of ABA principles, integrated programming approaches, and referral systems.
• Facilitate technical trainings and on-the-job learning opportunities for project staff, health workers, HEWs, and community volunteers.
• Promote teamwork, accountability, safeguarding, and a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Other Duties

• Maintain proper documentation of project implementation processes, outputs, outcomes, lessons learned, and best practices, and share them with the line manager.
• Compile and submit timely progress reports, activity reports, and technical updates to the line manager.
• Contribute to project planning, budget monitoring, and donor reporting processes.

Carry out any other duties assigned by the line manager that are consistent with the role and project objectives.

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, Nursing, epidemiology, Nutrition, Health Sciences, or a related field.
• Master’s degree is an added advantage.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS

Essential

• Minimum of 5–7 years of experience in humanitarian programming, emergency response, or area-based programming.
• Proven experience coordinating multisectoral humanitarian programmes in complex emergency settings.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian coordination systems, cluster architecture, and area-based approaches.
• Experience facilitating operational coordination among multiple actors and sectors.
• Experience in service mapping, operational analysis, referral systems, or integrated programming.
• Strong understanding of Health, Nutrition, WASH, Protection,
• Experience working with government structures, local actors, and humanitarian coordination platforms.
• Strong planning, facilitation, coordination, and communication skills.
• Experience managing operational complexity and adaptive programming.
• Excellent report writing and analytical skills.
• Strong interpersonal and representation skills.
• Ability to work under pressure in insecure and rapidly changing environments.
• Commitment to humanitarian principles, accountability, and safeguarding.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• Commitment to Save the Children values.
• Flexibility, adaptability, and ability and willingness to operate independently in austere, remote and potentially hazardous environments for protracted periods, involving physical hardship and little comfort, and including possible extensive travel within the area of operation

Desirable

• Experience with ECHO-funded programmes.
• Previous experience with ABA/ABC or integrated humanitarian programming.
• Experience working in northern Ethiopia or similar conflict-affected settings.
• Familiarity with REACH/IM systems and humanitarian information management.
• Knowledge of localization and community-based approaches.

Additional Job Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.
• Takes initiative and encourages innovation and adaptive learning.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships with partners, government, communities, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Promotes coordination, integration, and collective problem-solving.
• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develop practical and context-appropriate operational solutions.
• Supports adaptive approaches in complex operational environments.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Demonstrates professionalism, neutrality, and commitment to humanitarian principles.
• Promotes transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and

Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.