UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, Answer the call
On behalf of the IASC Humanitarian Coordinator and UNICEF (Under the supervision of the Nutrition Manager and under the guidance of the Chief of Child Survival Section) as the lead agency for the IASC Nutrition Cluster and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Nutrition Cluster Coordinator will facilitate a timely and effective nutrition response and ensure that the capacity of national and local institutions is strengthened to respond to and coordinate emergency nutrition interventions that demonstrate results and impact achieved. Since January 2014, the country is undergoing a transition towards government-led coordination of nutrition actors and programmatic response.
Nevertheless, national capacities on coordination and cluster leadership are still inadequate to ensure an effective transition to government-led nutrition emergency response. This transition has presented many challenges and the Cluster Coordinator will be charged with ensuring strong collaboration with the government to avoid parallel systems and to overshadowing existing governmental mechanisms.
How can you make a difference?
1. Identification of key partners (10%):
- Identify key humanitarian partners for the Nutrition Cluster response, respecting their respective mandates and program priorities
- Identify other key partners including local and national authorities, peacekeeping forces, etc.
- Carry out and regularly update capacity mapping of all current and potential actors – government, national and international humanitarian organizations as well as national institutions, the private sector and donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government and other stakeholders on the nutrition programme needs and services.
2. Establishment and maintenance of appropriate humanitarian coordination and planning mechanisms (20%):
- Ensure appropriate coordination between all Nutrition humanitarian partners (including national and international NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, IOM and other international organizations active in the sector) as well as national authorities and local structures
- Ensure the establishment/maintenance of appropriate sector coordination mechanisms including working groups at both national and regional level: (i) collaborate with the Ministry of Health (MoH)/Nutrition Division in order to promote and facilitate the Nutrition Thematic Group/GTN; (ii) facilitate the activities of the five-national nutrition technical groups; and (iii) ensure the information sharing and regular meetings of the sub-national clusters.
- Ensure full integration of the IACS’s agreed priority cross-cutting issues, namely human rights, HIV/AIDS, age, gender and environment, utilization participatory and community-based approaches. In line with this, promote gender equality by ensuring that the needs, contributions, and capacities of women and girls, as well as men and boys, are addressed;
- Secure commitments from cluster participants in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the cluster, with clearly defined focal points for specific issues where necessary;
- Promote emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns;
- Ensure effective links with other clusters (with OCHA support), especially Health & Nutrition, WASH, Agriculture and Livelihoods and Education;
- Represent the interests of the Nutrition Cluster in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator as well as donors on prioritization, resource mobilization, and advocacy;
- Act as a focal point for inquiries on the Nutrition Cluster’s response plans and operations.
3. Planning and strategy development (20%):
Ensure predictable action within the cluster for the following;
- Needs assessment and analysis; development of standard assessment formats for use within the sector;
- Identification of gaps;
- Developing/updating agreed response strategies and action plans for the Nutrition Cluster and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in the overall country strategies, such as the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) an integral component of the Country or Context Strategy (SRP) process and the SRP document itself, including mid-year reviews.
- Drawing lessons learned from past activities and revising strategies and action plans accordingly;
- Develop a transition strategy to provide technical support to the MOH/Nutrition Division to take over the tasks and responsibilities of the Cluster.
4. Monitoring and reporting (15%):
- Support the Government of Mali MoH Nutrition Division in reinforcing the timely collect and analysis of screening and weekly and monthly admissions data for nutrition treatment programmes;
- Collect and analyze data on screening and admissions from non-governmental partners;
- Keep up-to-date the database for Severe Acute Malnutrition(SAM) management from non-governmental partners;
- Ensure an analytical analysis of best available information to benchmark the progress of the emergency response over time. That is – monitoring indicators (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity, and cost) of service delivery which are derived from working towards meeting standards;
- Act as an information manager for the cluster by ensuring regular reporting against the Nutrition Cluster indicators of service delivery (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity, and cost) supports analysis of the Nutrition Cluster in closing gaps and measuring impact of interventions.
5. Advocacy and resource mobilization (10%):
- Identify core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the Humanitarian Coordinators and other actors;
- Advocate to facilitate the transition phase towards a government-led nutrition coordination and nutrition emergency response;
- Advocate for donors to fund cluster participants to carry out priority activities in the sector concerned, while at the same time encouraging cluster participants to mobilize resources for their activities through the usual channels.
- Act as the focal point for reviewing and ensuring quality control for all the Nutrition Cluster project submitted for Flash Appeal, Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and other funding mechanisms
- As agreed by the IASC Principals, ensure that the Nutrition Cluster lead agency is responsible for acting as the provider of last resort to meet agreed priority needs and will be supported by the HC in their resource mobilization efforts in this regard. Under the principle of the “Provider of last resort”, the Nutrition Cluster Coordinator will liaise with the Cluster Lead Agency UNICEF to ensure that gaps are filled
6. Training and capacity building of national/local authorities and civil society (25%):
- Promote and support the training of the Nutrition Cluster partners personnel and build the capacity of all the Nutrition partners based on the mapping and understanding of available capacity;
- Support efforts to strengthen the capacity of the national/local authorities and civil society;
- Build capacities at the national level to ensure the transition towards government-led nutrition coordination (to strengthen capacities on IM, coordination skills, data management, data analysis, and data recording, as well as to organize, conduct and facilitate meetings).
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- Advanced university degree in Health, in Human Nutrition preferably with the corresponding degree in Public Health, Food Security, Medicine or another related field.
- A minimum of five years of professional experience in a developing country in one or more of the following areas is required: nutrition, public health, nutrition planning, and management, or maternal, infant and child health/nutrition care.
- Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development and management in a UN system agency or organization is an asset
- Recent experience in Nutrition in Emergency programmes including, but not limited to Malnutrition, Micronutrients, Supplementation, and SMART survey methodology.
- Knowledge of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the cluster approach either through training or practical experience.
- Experience in emergency response and programme coordination
- Experience working with government agencies, local authorities, international organizations, NGOs and communities in the field of Nutrition in an emergency context
- Fieldwork experience is desired.
- Fluency in French and English required. Knowledge of the local working language of the duty station is an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
The competencies required for this post are;
Critical Competencies (as per Unicef rules and regulations):
- Leading and Supervising
- Formulating Strategies and Concepts
- Analyzing
- Relating and Networking
- Persuading and Influencing
- Creating and Innovating
View our competency framework at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
Remarks:
*Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
* The successful candidate for this emergency recruitment MUST be available to commence work within 31 days of receiving an offer.
* Please note that is a non-family duty station.
Employment is conditional upon receipt of medical clearance, any clearance required, the grant of a visa, and completion of any other pre-employment criteria that UNICEF may establish. Candidates may not be further considered or offer of employment may be withdrawn if these conditions are unlikely to be met before the date for commencement of service
More Information
- Job City Bamako
