Nutrition cluster coordinator (12-040)

Background

The global Nutrition cluster strategy reflects agreed priorities between the cluster partners and the cluster lead agency (CLA). The RRT member would play a key role in the advancement of, and support to, progress in these areas, including capacity building and promotion of the tools and approaches adopted by the Global Nutrition Cluster members. The allocation of specific roles and tasks among the RRT will seek to match the person’s interests and skills with project requirements and will be agreed upon with the Global Nutrition Cluster Coordinator. As an active partner of the Global Nutrition Cluster, through this partnership and secondment arrangement, IMC intends to effectively contribute to improving the timely response of the nutrition cluster at country level, while the cluster coordinator will also contribute to IMCs effort of maintaining the cluster approach within its own organizations.

Deployment

Approximately 50% of the time will be spent on emergency deployment. The length of deployment will be limited to 2 months, however during non-mission period RRT members will equally divide their time at base between specific tasks allocated from the Global Nutrition Cluster, including supporting emergency preparedness missions in the regions and assisting in building International Medical Corps’s internal capacity for emergency nutrition response and internal cluster-based capacity building. The Rapid Response Team (RRT) member will be deployed within 72 hours in an emergency to support the nutrition sector response in the very first days of any emergency response for which additional surge capacity is required. Emergency field deployments will normally be up to 6-8 weeks duration. Coordinator will support the response in the areas of:

a) Nutrition Cluster Coordination at national or sub-national levels
b) Development of nutrition sector emergency response strategy
c) Technical support (in the areas of CMAM, Nutrition surveys, IFE and emergency component of micronutrient deficiencies prevention and control activities)
d) Needs assessment and Information analysis

Up to 25 % of the post holder’s time will be engaged in supporting International Medical Corps’s cluster based capacity building strategy for national and international staff. This will include contributing to the refinement of internal procedures and tools to incorporate outputs from the Global Nutrition Cluster strategy and work plan, as they become available. It will also require the participation in training and providing technical support to International Medical Corps.

Responsibilites

• Within 72 hours of a joint UNICEF/International Medical Corps decision to respond to an emergency, deploy to the location appropriate to the emergency and, under the direction of the Head of Office of UNICEF, establish and or support the Nutrition Cluster initiative as appropriate.

1.Coordinate the Nutrition Cluster agencies in formulating an effective coordinated sector response, including; contact Nutrition Cluster participants;
2.Establish and promote links with national/local authorities;
3.Coordinate initial rapid assessments;
4.Analyze and prioritise needs;
5.Develop appropriate nutrition strategies and action plans that compliment national norms/ policies/approaches and address and incorporate all cross-cutting issues as appropriate;
6.Coordinate collective efforts of cluster agencies and foster and support communication between cluster agencies, other clusters and national/local authorities;
7.Contribute to Nutrition Cluster advocacy position on key issues such as access and funding;
8.Promote and ensure inter-cluster coordination and synergy;

• Monitor continuing development and changing circumstances of the emergency and recommend changes to implementation approaches of the Nutrition Cluster agencies. Formulate collaborative and cohesive inter-agency and inter-sectoral contingency plans to address changing circumstances;
• Maintain records, ensure and maintain documentation of all collective decisions and recommendations, provide cluster based update to the CLA as required;
• Support the recruitment of the incoming Nutrition Cluster Coordinator, prepare comprehensive handover notes and fully brief successor;
• Facilitate evaluation of the collective Nutrition cluster response and functionality of the coordination forum, including information management and analysis.
• Undertake tasks associated with the global Nutrition cluster strategy as assigned by the Global Nutrition Cluster coordinator;
• Contribute to International Medical Corps’s technical capacity in the Nutrition sector through promotion of cluster based tools, guidance and resources, enhancing internal agency standards, systems, procedures, and tools and agreed upon best practice for emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction and emergency response, including SPHERE and other recognized sectoral humanitarian standards, and the Red Cross and NGO Code of Conduct;
• Participate in the training and ongoing technical support of International Medical Corps staff in humanitarian nutrition;
• Liaise closely with the other RRT members and UNICEF to ensure complementarities and standardisation of approach and share learning in order to enhance the effectiveness of the emergency deployments;
• Perform other duties as assigned. The duties and responsibilities listed above are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and are not necessarily inclusive.

Qualifications

• At least eight years of experience in the nutrition sector, humanitarian preparedness, response, and poverty reduction and a well developed understanding of the challenges and opportunities for community participation in emergency response.
• Experience with natural and complex emergencies in diverse cultural and climatic settings.
• Experience in program design, management, monitoring and evaluation, including application of SPHERE standards, donor relations, security and protection considerations
• 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.
• High level of writing and communication skills.
• Candidates must be physically capable and medically fit to work and travel to remote areas. Candidates should be able to demonstrate experience in all of the following and should be highly proficient in at least two of the four team competencies:

1. Nutrition Cluster co-ordination support (capacity for national or hub level)
2.Development of response strategies, flash appeals/proposals, etc., with the Nutrition Cluster agencies to support sector advocacy, coherence and fund raising efforts.
3.Technical support in the areas of CMAM, Nutrition surveys, IFE and emergency component of micronutrient deficiencies prevention and control activities as well as leading Nutrition Cluster technical working groups or identifying partners agencies who could lead such a technical working group and coordinating the outputs of such working groups.
4.Rapid needs assessment.

Key Capabilities

• Team building
• Networking
• Leadership skills and conflict management
• Self awareness
• Interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Resilience, stress tolerance and ability to cope with change
• Community orientation
• Data analysis for planning and monitoring
• Proactive problem solving
• Operational decision-making
• Strong organisational skills and capacity to self-manage

Education

• Master’s degree or Bachelor’s degree and eight years experience in nutrition or associated disciplines, such as public health.

Languages

• English fluency and a second relevant language (i.e. French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese)