Regional Humanitarian Nutrition Advisor – West and Central Africa

Dakar, Senegal, with frequent travel to Country Offices

11 month fixed term contract (with possibility of extension)

Save the Children UK is recruiting a French speaking humanitarian nutrition specialist for the role of Humanitarian Nutrition Advisor for West and Central Africa, based in Dakar, Senegal.

Working in more than 120 countries, we do whatever it takes to create breakthroughs in the way the world treats children. Our UK and Global Programmes department delivers humanitarian and development programmes, builds partnerships with institutional donors – including governments, multi-laterals and trusts – and drives lasting change. Together, we save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfil their potential.

As the Regional Humanitarian Nutrition Adviser you will be a member of the Regional Humanitarian team, the Save the Children Emergency Nutrition Working Group (ENWG) and will play an important role in coordinating and working closely with other SCI Member technical staff in Kenya and SCI Regional Office staff in East and Southern Africa.

This is a challenging role, responsible for the humanitarian nutrition portfolio that includes regional level advocacy and representation and country level support to priority countries including Mali, DRC, Central African Republic, Niger and Nigeria. You will join our global team of humanitarian nutrition specialists and will be a key member of Save the Children’s Emergency Nutrition Working Group, where you will contribute to global pieces of technical work. You will:

• Deploy to the field at short notice to set up new humanitarian nutrition programmes, and provide support to country level Nutrition Specialists for humanitarian response including advisory visits as needed
• Provide quality tools and guidelines to country programmes to ensure understanding of high quality programming, operations and advocacy in humanitarian nutrition programmes
• Support country programmes in the recruitment of humanitarian nutrition staff and ongoing mentoring to support staff development in humanitarian nutrition settings
• Identify opportunities for partnership with external tertiary level health and nutrition institutes in the region, and UN agencies, to increase humanitarian nutrition capacity in the region
• Represent SC in various technical and nutrition advocacy initiatives and partnerships and lead on specific areas of advocacy and representation directly related to humanitarian nutrition programming
• Liaise with the relevant external regional stakeholders including donors, learning institutes, UN and NGO representatives identifying opportunities, synergies and partnerships for SC’s humanitarian nutrition work.

To be successful you will be a nutrition professional with post graduate qualifications in nutrition or a relevant subject. You will have country level experience, preferably in West and Central Africa and in a diversity of humanitarian contexts. In addition to your strong technical skills, you have excellent problem solving capacities, experience in mentoring, delivering trainings, strategic planning, proposal development and fundraising. You will have progressive experience in the field as well as regional or head office level (preferably but not essential) in the implementation and management of humanitarian nutrition programmes. In addition you will have:

• The ability to travel, often to insecure and difficult locations
• Fluency in written and spoken English and French
• Field experience in several and diverse acute emergencies as well as protracted crisis settings
• Experience in reviewing proposals for major donors
• Demonstrated experience in supporting the development of emergency response strategies and technical guidance documents
• Experience of capacity building and mentoring
• Strong communications skills (both written and verbal) at a level appropriate for high level external representation (lobbying, presentations) and ability to tailor communications to different audiences.

At Save the Children our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. If you share our mission, are passionate about making it happen and strongly believe you can contribute then join us and we'll give you every opportunity to succeed. We look forward to hearing from you.

This is an 11 month role, with potential to extend. We are offering a competitive salary and a benefits package. This role must start as soon as possible, so we will be reviewing and contacting applicants as we receive, and will also consider applicants who do not meet all of the essential criteria for this post.

To apply please visit our website.

Closing date: 11 May 2016.