Nutrition, Gender and Wash Advisor job at Self Help Africa

About the Organization

At Self Help Africa, our mission is to alleviate hunger, poverty, social inequality and the impact of climate change. We achieve this through community-led, market-based and enterprise focused approaches to agricultural development, ensuring that people with have access to: 

Nutritious food
Decent incomes and employment 
Clean water and basic services
All while sustaining natural resources. 
Our aim is to transition communities out of long-term poverty through work that gives them greater control over their futures and provides a better quality of life.  The main focus of our work is in sub-Saharan Africa, where global hunger and poverty is most acute, but we also work in Bangladesh and Brazil.  We believe that equitable economic development is key to ending poverty. 

Our core areas of focus are: 

Sustainable landscapes, resilient food systems and healthy communities.
Sustainable businesses, decent employment and thriving economies.
Crisis response and resilience.
System strengthening and an enabling policy environment.

Job Description

Hunger and malnutrition remains a major issue worldwide and is of particular concern within the SHA (Self Help Africa) countries of operation. Nutrition in the past has been placed within the healthcare sector services, however, there is a recognition that the food and agriculture sector has a major role to play in ensuring improved food and nutrition security. Nutrition is a key theme across SHA’s programming: we aim to ensure that increased and diversified production translates to improved nutrition at household level so it is essential that all of our programmes have a strong nutrition focus.
Equally, SHA recognises the importance of gender equity to ensure progress in reducing poverty. Working with smallholder farmers and recognising that women contribute to the bulk of labour on family farms, there is a need to ensure our programmes have a strong gender element to improve cohesion within the household with better resources and power sharing. Development goals cannot be achieved without explicit consideration being given to all, which includes: women, men, boys and girls and understanding their different needs and contributions.
At the heart of everything we do is our belief that when people have their basic water and sanitation needs met, they have the opportunity to succeed.
This position will be the resource person for Nutrition, Gender and WASH within the SHA Uganda programme. The role will involve working with the team throughout project cycle management – from supporting the development of concept notes to ensuring a strong nutrition and gender element, proposal development, programme delivery, supporting M&E and evaluation of projects or programmes.
This role is key in the organisation’s drive to build technical excellence, improve programme quality across the organisation and lead in innovative development practice. Promoting nutrition sensitive agriculture will involve ensuring that all of SHA programmes and projects progressively integrate explicit nutrition objectives and indicators into project/programme design. It also ensures that gender is mainstreamed within all programmes.
Advise, mentor, train and support programme or partner staff to effectively integrate nutrition sensitive agriculture and mainstream gender into programmes and projects including setting objectives and measuring results.
The job holder will be required to support the Head of Programmes (HOP) and business Coordinator in the management of existing grant contracts and proposal development for new grants. He/she will support projects management and proposal development for the organisation.
The duties and responsibilities as set out below are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of her / his level of skills and experience.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the Head of Programmes in planning and designing programmes; ensuring that nutrition, WASH and gender are specifically addressed with effective implementation strategies in line with SHA Uganda’s programme strategy
Support SHA staff and partners in developing nutrition, WASH and gender components of projects/ programmes through establishing knowledge gaps and conducting capacity building or training and conducting project/programme monitoring visits
Support the SHA programme team or technical staff/partner staff in the implementation of project interventions to ensure that the project/ programme interventions are gender transformative and wash and nutrition sensitive
Support the development and implementation of waste management strategies that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Promote best practices in solid waste management, including waste reduction, recycling, and safe disposal
Develop and carry out reviews of SHA nutrition and gender policies/guidelines and strategies that provide strategic direction keeping abreast of resources already available in country or regionally/internationally
Together with the SHA Monitoring and Evaluation Officer be responsible for designing, collecting, processing, analysing nutrition and gender data within SHA programmes
h. Identify and support the development of tools for programme and partner staff, such as IEC material, to use for gender, nutrition and WASH throughout SHA programmes/projects
Contribute and share knowledge, information, best practices and lessons learnt on gender, WASH and nutrition to ensure high quality programming throughout SHA programmes/projects for internal and external use
Liaise regularly with the Nutrition, WASH and Social Inclusion Advisor sat head office for support and share learning with other SHA country programmes and head office
Guide processes of identifying and participating in nutrition and/or gender research as required
Strengthen strategic partnerships with civil society organizations and the private sector to influence nutrition, gender and WASH responsive policies and laws
Keep updated on technical aspects of nutrition and gender with specific focus on vulnerable groups
Support the inclusion of WASH to address needs across sectors nutrition, food security and gender.
Oversees WASH implementation activities to ensure high quality, timely delivery of programme activities, for example, monitoring against log frames.
Develop WASH learning needs assessment and capacity building plans, linking capacity building initiatives to wider opportunities identified via coordination and networks.
Oversee development of technical training material that will support the implementation of interventions
Programme Operational Management: Provide managerial, technical, administrative and programmatic support to the project managers and senior programme staff in the CO.
Support the preparation of project periodic (weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual as appropriate) work plans and reports as required by SHA and donors and ensure that these are followed by project teams.
Produce or review ToR for consultants for Nutrition, Gender and WASH activities
Facilitate and assist the timely submission of regular reports (quarterly, semi-annual and annual) or special reports as deemed necessary

Spend significant time on wash, gender and nutrition sites (field visit) to monitor activities and provide practical and technical guidance to the team

Programme development: Assist and work with the CD in new programme development; drawing up plans, concept papers, proposals, and budgets for new projects and extensions of projects

Design new initiatives and projects in the CO, as well as subsequent phases of existing projects; draft content for concept papers and proposals as required by SHA and donors.
Leads the fundraising efforts for Nutrition, Gender and WASH sector, contribute to the development of high quality concept notes and proposals, and donors reports.
Actively seek and identify new grants and contract opportunities based on CO strategy and government and/or donor plans.
Encourage and ensure a healthy level of participation from sector and field staff in all programme development activities.
Coordinate programme visits by donors, SHA HQ and other SHA international and local visitors.
Represent SHA with donors, local and national governments, and other parties
Work closely with programme support functions (finance, procurement, HR, transport, etc.) to ensure proper coordination exists for efficient programme implementation

Organize and facilitate workshops/training

Qualification, Experiences and Competencies

Minimum of bachelor’s degree in relevant fields, nutrition, Public Health
At least 5 years of experience in designing and implementing nutrition, gender, and WASH programs.
Strong technical knowledge of nutrition, gender equality, WASH, and waste management.
Extensive knowledge and experience of sector thinking on nutrition with a wide range of partners from civil society, public and private sectors
A good understanding of project cycle management approaches and tools including knowledge of M&E principles
Experience in facilitation of learning process and networking
Experience in data analysis, research and report writing
Excellent training and capacity-building skills
Excellent level of spoken and written English
Very good working knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and general IT skills
Commitment to working with a value-based organisation
Self-motivated with good interpersonal and communication skills
Familiarity with relevant international guidelines and best practices.
Ability to work under pressure
Experience in team management and coordination
Willingness to travel in country and overseas to support nutrition, gender and WASH activities in other SHA country programmes

Desirable:

Experience in gender and social inclusion in previous work environment
Demonstrated experience in integrating/mainstreaming gender in development and humanitarian projects focused on food, nutrition, and livelihoods sectors
Ability to communicate effectively in more than one national language.

Critical Proficiencies:

Excellent communication skills
Ability to work as part of team across different cultures.
Ability to work with minimum supervision and take initiative
Ability to solve problems and take corrective action.

Key relationships

Internal

Country Director
Head of Programmes and Business Development Coordinator
Other SHA in-country Technical Advisers
SHA Project/Programme Managers in Country
Partner Organisation Staff
Head Office Technical Advisers
Other SHA Country Nutrition, Gender and WASH Advisers

External

Key Ministry Stakeholders (Ministry of Health, Gender and Agriculture as relevant)
UN agencies, in particular; UNICEF, WHO, FAO and UNFPA
Relevant National Food and Nutrition Organizations
Research institutions and Universities as relevant