SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVISOR, SUAAHARA INTEGRATED NUTRITION PROGRAM – NEPAL

Helen Keller International
JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Senior Technical Advisor, Suaahara - Integrated Nutrition Program (INP)(Kathmandu, Nepal)

Established in 1915 with Helen Keller as a founding trustee, Helen Keller International (HKI) is dedicated to saving the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.  Headquartered in New York City, HKI currently conducts programs in 21 countries in Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States.  Renowned for its reliability, efficiency and high level of technical expertise, HKI promotes the development of sustainable, large-scale programs that deliver effective preventative and curative services for nutrition, eye health and neglected tropical diseases.  The hallmark of the organization’s work is its proven success in developing, testing and scaling-up health interventions, and integrating them within government and community structures to support and build local capacity and sustainable solutions.

Scope of Work:

The Senior Technical Advisor will function as the key person responsible for the technical quality of the consortium of Save the Children and Helen Keller International to provide high quality technical guidance and support on key activities under a 5 year USAID-funded cooperative agreement for an integrated nutrition program “Suaahara” in Nepal. He/she will have a solid public health background and will be able to provide high level technical expertise across the full scope of Suaahara’s programs. The Senior Technical Advisor will also identify priority operational research issues and will provide the technical leadership to undertake this work. The focus of the program is to improve the nutritional status of women and children under two years of age through an integrated Nutrition, Family Planning, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (FP/MNCH) and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs. The project is designed and implemented to fully support the Government of Nepal in line with Nepal Health Sector Plan II. 

The Senior Technical Advisor will report to HKI’s Country Director - Nepal and Suaahara Chief of Party.

Responsibilities:

• Provide up-to-date, evidence-based technical nutritional guidance and support to the Nepal INP Management Team in country as it pertains to the focus of this program;
• Provide technical guidance to the development of annual workplans, in line with the Suaahara strategies, to ensure nutrition is integrated with FP/MNCH as well as WASH activities and that they are operating at scale in all target districts;
• Ensure the technical quality of program interventions across all areas of nutrition, FP/MNCH, and WASH by coaching and building the technical capacity of the field teams to implement the Suaahara activities effectively and efficiently;
• Work closely with government counterparts in the Ministry of Health and Population and other relevant ministries and provide technical support to facilitate alignment of the public health nutrition (PHN) strategies with current government policy and the National Health Sector Plan II and III. This includes providing input to the NuTech, the national nutrition technical body of stakeholders in Nepal;
• Identify, and/or research opportunities for capacity building for local partners and contribute to the development of the project’s strategic plan, annual work plans, and country plans and ensure that project documents and reports incorporate the latest technical approaches and interventions in PHN;
• Provide technical input on Suaahara program’s midterm performance review and end line survey as well as other identified research and studies;
• Oversee the process of producing quality donor and other reports in a timely fashion – in close coordination with project team;
• In coordination with technical leads and partners, ensure efficient planning and implementation of quality integrated nutrition program activities including selection of appropriate short-term technical assistance and identification and support to operations research opportunities;
• Promote program learning through sharing of technical information among the staff so that state-of-the-art approaches are applied consistently across all project interventions;
• Represent the Suaahara activities to the public health community through the participation in and/or organization of conferences, workshops, and seminars, and through a range of technical reports, briefs, publications, and presentations;
• Participate in and present on behalf of the project in appropriate technical meetings and conferences;
• Keep the senior program management team informed about all key issues on a timely basis.

Qualifications:

• At least a Master’s or Doctoral degree in Nutrition, Public Health or similar field plus at least 10 years of national and international experience in the field of public health, working on programs of similar scope and complexity or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in nutrition and other relevant technical areas that include public health, FP/MNCH, water/sanitation/hygiene, household food production, behavior change communications, capacity building, applied research, strengthening public sector service delivery systems, technical and program innovations, monitoring and evaluation as well as multi-sector approaches.

• Demonstrated success in delivering technical assistance, and in working in collaboration with host country governments and partner organizations.
• Creative and analytical abilities and strong operations research skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, and substantial experience in monitoring and evaluation are also required.

To Apply:

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume tohkihr@hki.org noting the job title in the subject line.  Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.