TST Deputy Coordinator

Job Title: TST Deputy Coordinator

Organization: Action Against Hunger / Action contre la Faim – Canada

Report To: TST Coordinator

Location: Remote, with preference for time zones within 3 hours of GMT

Job Type: Full-time, 6-month contract with a strong likelihood of extension

Start Date: As soon as possible, ideally by mid-January 2023

Work Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Salary: CAD 85K – 95K

ABOUT ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

Founded in 1979, Action Against Hunger is a global humanitarian organization that takes decisive action against the causes and effects of hunger. Our mission is to save the lives of severely malnourished children while helping communities become self-sufficient. Recognized as a world leader in the fight against malnutrition, Action Against Hunger has pursued its vision of a world without hunger for almost four decades, combating hunger in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity. With more than 8,000 staff in nearly 50 countries, our programs in nutrition, food security, livelihoods, water, sanitation, and hygiene, reach more than 20 million people each year.

ABOUT ACTION AGAINST HUNGER CANADA

With an annual Budget of $35million and staff strength of nearly 40 people, Action Against Hunger Canada (est. in 2006) works tirelessly in the fight against hunger globally through our specialized nutrition technical programs that build the knowledge and skills of nutrition and public health professionals worldwide for the detection, treatment and prevention of malnutrition. We are a leading recipient of funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and advocate for changes to policy and practice in support of better nutrition and increased food security. Our collaborative programmatic model brings together communities, civil society, government, and the international assistance community to work jointly on fundamental public health issues that contribute to hunger in this world.

Our leading-edge programs have been built on the foundations of technical excellence, rigor and innovative practice over many years. We are experts in nutrition information systems, emergency nutrition and gender equality. Action Against Hunger Canada plays a hosting role to two significant global programs (SMART and the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance’s Technical Support Team) that provide guidance, tools and training in the areas of nutrition data collection and analysis and best practices for emergency nutrition service delivery for hundreds of Governments, civil society organizations and international organizations worldwide. Our programs support the capacity of public health professionals who deliver lifesaving and long-term initiatives in communities globally. We also work towards sustainable transformative health system strengthening in all our efforts to ensure a long- lasting impact together with our partners, including members of the Humanitarian Coalition. As a member of the Action Against Hunger International Network, we also provide a range of technical support for the mainstreaming of gender equality across our programs and operations world-wide. Our commitments towards a gender transformative approach are integrated in our core health programming and our technical support to our International Network.

To learn more about Action Against Hunger, visit our website at www.actionagainsthunger.ca

ABOUT THE GNC TECHNICAL ALLIANCE AND THE TST

The GNC Technical Alliance(the Alliance), established in 2020, is a humanitarian nutrition technical assistance platform that responds to technical requests, by leveraging and building on existing resources, capacities, initiatives and coordination structures. The purpose of the Alliance is to improve the quality of nutrition preparedness, response and recovery, by enabling and providing coordinated, accessible and timely technical support through multiple channels where gaps exist. The Alliance supports practitioners by delivering the following services:

1. Access to high-quality information, capacity strengthening resources, guidance and learning that has been curated by global nutrition specialists and agencies (Knowledge Management).
2. Where guidance is limited, timely access to interim consensus-driven guidance for emerging technical issues in humanitarian nutrition, including guidance on programme adaptation (Thought Leadership).
3. Access to experienced nutrition technical specialists to answer questions, or to provide more in-depth support whether remotely or in-country (Technical Support).

Although the services are interconnected, the support and coordination for these work-streams are managed by specific Leadership Team members, namely Action Against Hunger (AAH) Canada (Technical Support Team) and Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) (Knowledge Management and Thought Leadership), supported by and in partnership with UNICEF as lead and World Vision as co-lead of the Alliance.

The Technical Support Team (TST) combines various resources for nutrition in emergencies technical assistance to meet the specific needs of the practitioner in a timely, cost effective, coordinated and sustainable manner. These include resources hosted by INGOs (AAH Canada, AAH USA, Save the Children, and International Medical Corps), GNC Coordination Team and UNICEF as well as 20 TST Partners available, on demand, to provide technical support when needed. The coordination of these resources is under the supervision of UNICEF, the GNC and AAH Canada (known as the TST Coordination Unit), in collaboration with a steering group of the INGO partners.

The TST can support actors with a range of nutrition in emergency (NiE) technical areas including Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies, Early Detection and Treatment of Child Wasting, Social Behaviour Change for Nutrition Outcomes, Nutrition Assessments and Surveillance, Management of At‑risk Mothers and Infants, Gender and Gender-based Violence in Nutrition, Cluster Coordination and Information Management, Intersectoral Collaboration, Nutrition-sensitive Programming and Capacity Development. Via the TST Partners, additional expertise is also available including prevention and treatment of wasting and stunting, Maternal Nutrition, Food Assistance, Micronutrient and Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Programming, Coverage Assessment, Cash and Voucher Assistance, Adolescent and Adult Malnutrition.

Whilst each technical support package is tailored to specific needs, across the technical areas support provided could include capacity strengthening; the design and delivery of trainings and orientations; development of training plans; survey design and implementation; formative research; personnel, organizational and programmatic capacity mapping; policy assessment; coaching; strategy and work plan development; tool development; support to technical working groups; monitoring and evaluation design; learning and documentation; and advocacy support.

Technical support is generally available in three modalities: 1) quick remote support (response to technical queries, or reference to appropriate resources), 2) in-depth support (working in-country or remotely with country-based partners or the collective for an extended period with a detailed ToR), or 3) through the recommendation of vetted consultants.

Any organization looking to improve nutrition outcomes in preparing for, responding to or recovering from an emergency can receive support, including local, national and international NGOs, government and UN organizations.

To learn more about the Global Nutrition Cluster Technical Alliance, visit our website at https://ta.nutritioncluster.net

ABOUT THE ROLE

The TST Deputy Coordinator (DC) will join the TST Coordination Unit, and the GNC Technical Alliance, to strengthen coordination of in-depth technical support, coordination of the TST as a whole and bring a much needed boost in capacity for developing and maintaining partnerships, at global, regional and national levels. The DC will work on all aspects of the TST, including the technical support process, project monitoring and evaluation, knowledge/learning workflows and communications related to TST work. The DC will provide technical and other support to the TST Coordinator as well as the TST Advisors (NiE technical), the internal steering committee, and the deployment steering committee to increase the quality and effectiveness of TST support. The DC will provide support to ensure timely, comprehensive and high quality reporting with the Alliance and to TST donors. The DC will support the on-going coordination and smooth funiction of the full TST. Finally, the DC will ensure the TST remains effective and relevant in the face of unprecedented humanitarian needs and shifts in ways of working for technical support provision in nutrition in emergencies responses and the humanitarian sector. The TST Deputy Coordinator will play a leadership role in driving forward the TST’s approach to support local and national actors, and how the TST integrates “localization” across its operations.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Support Coordination

• Lead on the coordination of in-depth NiE technical support including receiving requests, developing technical support Terms of Reference in collaboration with requester and in-country partners, identifying appropriate HR and funds.
• In collaboration with the TST Program Officer, support the deployment of Advisors, including administrative processes (generally and linked with cost sharing/recovery) as well as coordination with requesting agency, host agency, UNICEF standby partner unit, and others depending on the specific deployment, including through the deployment approval process.
• Ensure quality control measures for in-depth support are in place, including ensuring technical review and approval of all in-depth support, setting up of technical backstop, on-going follow up with the requester and Advisor, and appropriate monitoring and evaluation.
• Facilitate post-technical support follow-up with external actors in coordination with the Advisor, i.e. sharing of recommendations, post-deployment webinar/follow up call, user satisfaction surveys, technical support for the knowledge/learning management of tools and resources developed, etc.
• Manage and oversee the work of the SBC, Assessment, IYCF-E and CMAM Advisors.
• Take part in the Dashboard Working Group to ensure the on-going development and utilization of the Alliance/GNC Request Management System.

TST Coordination

• Support coordination of the TST including ensuring coherence between NiE technical and coordination teams, including organizing monthly Full TST meetings, TST Orientations and other efforts to promote togetherness and efficient functioning across the TST.
• Support the development and monitoring of the annual TST Work Plan.
• Support the coordination and development of the TST Cross-cutting Themes Workstreams.
• Explore different models for the provision of technical support including both nationally and regionally focused approaches.

Partnership Development

• Support the TST Coordinator in the design and development of new partnership opportunities working towards the GNC Strategy and the “localization” objectives of the TST.
• Support the TST Coordinator in the maintenance of existing, and establishment of new, partnerships with technical support providers (both new and existing GNC partners) at global, regional and national level, in particular aiming for locally led nutrition action.
• Support coordination and collaboration with the Scaling Up Nutrition movement including, but not limited to, the SUN Civil Society Alliance and the new SUN Regional Hubs.
• Explore the opportunity for new partnerships outside of humanitarian and nutrition in emergencies sectors, including in development, gender transformative/feminist action and with other non-nutrition focused actors.
• Explore the opportunities for more local and national actors to participate with the TST, and GNC Technical Alliance as a whole, at global level.

Support to Local and National Actors in General

• Lead on the appraisal and way forward on TST Localization Strategic Pathways recommendations from “localization of technical support” consultancy conducted from July 2022 to January 2023, identifying short, medium and long term actions towards a more locally-centred approach to NiE technical support.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen the way in which the TST engages with and provides support to local and national actors (including government).
• Play a leadership role in the TST Anti-racism and Localization Workstream in order to drive forward efforts to support local and national actors more effectively and to create meaningful shifts in TST operations towards a more locally centred approach to NiE technical support; also to ensure the TST’s localization objectives and activities are both well represented and aligned with anti-racism endeavours.
• Ensure TST localization efforts learn from and complement other localization efforts within nutrition and across sectors (including the Inter-agency Localization Toolkit process).
• Support to local and national actors in focus countries, currently started in Mali, Syria and Somalia and potentially others in the future, in collaboration with Nutrition Clusters (and other stakeholders), in providing a comprehensive package of technical and organizational capacity support to local/national organizations. Develop and put in place processes to identify, collect and document lessons from this work, including writing of products to demonstrate what has worked well and what hasn’t, and facilitate replication (where appropriate) in other contexts.

Grant Management

• Support the TST Coordinator in the identification of new funding sources and the development of new donor proposals.
• Support grant management including M&E and leads on report writing.

Communications

• Support the Alliance communications focal point and other comms resources, in the development of the website including structure and content (such as technical support News Pieces).
• Support the implementation of the Alliance Communications Plan to raise awareness and increase uptake of TST services. This might included development of new materials, identification of new communication channels and development new approaches.

These responsibilities encompass the majority of the work required by the DC, however, the TST works in an adaptive manner and, therefore, roles and responsibilities may evolve and include other activities than those written here.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in nutrition, public health, or related development studies; or equivalent combination of education and work experience in emergencies and program management.
• At least 8 years work experience in humanitarian program management, preferably with some in the area of nutrition and public health.
• Mid-level managerial experience in a humanitarian organization.
• Demonstrated experience in coordinating and working with different types of partners and a sound approach to partnership brokering.
• Significant experience in and understanding of working within the cluster system.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND OTHER ATTRIBUTES

• Solid understanding of the global, regional and national level humanitarian system and sound understanding of nutrition in emergencies architecture.
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of concepts and debates surrounding “localization” within the humanitarian system.
• Strong skills in coordination and the ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders, including nutrition clusters, partners and the Ministry of Health.
• Ability and willingness to work effectively in a diverse, dynamic and high performing team.
• Technical area of expertise in nutrition including IYCF-E, CMAM, assessments, SBC, Nutrition in emergencies, and capacity building, would be helpful.
• Sound understanding and experience in working with monitoring and evaluation, including both design as well as analysis and reporting.
• Excellent writing, oral and visual presentation skills.
• Ability to assess priorities and competently complete a variety of activities with a high level of accuracy and timeliness.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to initiate and implement activities with minimal oversight and supervision.
• Knowledge of and dedication to anti-racism efforts.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc).
• Ability to work at a high level in English (reading, speaking and writing).
• Ability to speak French, Spanish or Arabic; other language skills are desirable.

WORK CONDITIONS

• Work from home or occasional travel.
• Required to be seated whilst completing computer and desk-based tasks for long periods.

BENEFITS

• Vacation: 1-2 years: 3 weeks, 2-4 years: 4 weeks, 5+ years: 5 weeks
• Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan (after 3 months of employment)
• Retirement Savings Plan (after 1 year of employment)
• 13 paid holidays per year
• Paid time off (Personal and Sick Days)

Action Against Hunger Canada is committed to the creation of a diverse and inclusive workplace. Therefore, we actively encourage applications from BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+ community, persons with disabilities and other equity-deserving groups. If you are invited to continue the selection process, please notify our human resources representative of any accommodation or special measures that you may require.

Action Against Hunger Canada is committed to promoting the well-being of people around the world and focuses its efforts on saving lives through the elimination of hunger. To that end, we uphold the principles of Independence, Neutrality, Non-discrimination, Free and Direct Access to assistance, Professionalism, and Transparency in all our operations. We have ZERO TOLERANCE towards any behavior violating our Code of Conduct, including workplace violence, harassment, sexual harassment, any form of exploitation or abuse, corruption, fraud, and any behavior lacking integrity.

Action Against Hunger Canada is committed to safeguarding children and adults in the communities where we work. Our safeguarding commitment is to ensure that children and adults are protected from both deliberate and unintentional harm or abuse caused by Action Against Hunger staff, including the Prevention from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).

In an effort to safeguard children and adults in communities that we work with, our offers of employment and volunteering are conditional on successfully clearing background checks that may include, but are not limited to, criminal record, vulnerable sector, and employment reference checks.