Senior Technical Advisor – Health and Nutrition

The Opportunity

The Senior Technical Advisor: Health and Nutrition is responsible for leading Save the Children’s Health and Nutrition Programme in Malawi which includes programming to reduce the prevalence of teenage pregnancy; and improve access and quality of newborn, child, adolescent and maternal health & nutrition, and sexual reproductive health and rights. This includes developing multi-year thematic strategies and annual plans, designing and building programmes and securing funding, developing strong external relations, and producing and utilising high quality and well-articulated project evidence and research for learning, for advocacy and for the continued development of the Health and Nutrition portfolio.

The Senior Technical Advisor: Health and Nutrition is also responsible for promoting programme quality. S/he ensures cross functionality, coordination, standardization of program implementation in different projects, and that the quality of programs are of nationally/internationally accepted and following recommended standards. S/he represents Save the Children values and principles in interactions with staff and external audiences. These values and principles include commitment to the mission of Save the Children, team orientation, quality management and leadership development, introducing systems and procedures to strengthen staff motivation and productivity.

In the event of humanitarian emergencies, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly and provide leadership, technical delivery of humanitarian response and support government systems to respond and withstand the humanitarian situation in Malawi.

In order to be successful you will bring/have:

QUALIFICATIONS

• MSc/MPhil/MPH, Nursing, Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Global Health or any related discipline in Health or equivalent relevant subject or equivalent field management experience.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Minimum 7 years of progressive programme management experience working in development/emergency response contexts, with specific experience in Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health programming. Experience in Nutrition and Early Childhood Development programming in Malawi will be highly valued.
• Expertise in designing community, healthcare and/or social behavioural change strategies. Familiarity with technical approaches accepted by the Ministry of Health in Community Health strategy in Malawi.
• Expertise in Government of Malawi’s policies and strategy development (goal setting, analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and evaluation). This includes but not limited to the HSSP II, Child Health Strategy, Community Health Strategy, Malaria Strategy, Health Policy, HIV/AIDS, Safe motherhood, Kangaroo Mothercare, the Nutrition Policy, etc.
• Have well developed skills in developing feasible and effective monitoring approaches for maternal newborn and child health and other public health-focused interventions.
• Have well developed field supervision skills focusing on problem identification, troubleshooting, on the job training and mentorship to monitor the technical quality of interventions.
• Experience working with/on research with ability to prepare research papers, presentations and scientific articles based on primary research, secondary analysis or contributory analysis
• Expertise in Results Based Management, which includes performance-monitoring plans, target setting and focused implementation.
• Well-developed skills in participatory approaches to gender mainstreaming, health, poverty reduction, rural livelihoods and development.
• Have field experience on capacity building for community-based institutions (CBOs, NGOs, Youth groups, Women groups and Girl Initiatives in Education) in HIV/AIDS, MCH, malaria, nutrition, WASH and gender mainstreaming
• Have very good knowledge in working with vulnerable groups at community level.
• Have skills in donor funds management, liaison and grant application i.e. President Malaria Initiative (PMI), PEPFAR, The Global Fund, European Union, FCDO, USAID, The UN Agencies, etc.
• Excellent time management, organizational and interpersonal skills
• Experience in managing a team, and ability to lead, motivate and develop technical specialists
• Good experience in training, and capacity building of workforce and health and nutrition staff
• Experience of the national context, strategies and policies to enable advocacy at national / regional level in order to hold duty bearers to account to realise children’s rights, including the right to health services and food.
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children
• Excellent program design, proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
• Understanding of award management, particularly for key institutional donors in the Health and Nutrition sector
• Excellent communication skills, both written and spoken, with good interpersonal skills and ability to communicate at all levels
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• Commitment to the aims and principles of Save the Children. In particular, a good understanding of the Save the Children mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector.

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information:

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.