Nutrition Officer

About the Organization

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past couple of years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in the northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

Job Summary

You provide professional, technical, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process for the nutrition programmes/projects within the Country Programme, from development planning to delivery of results. You contribute to programme success by implementing a variety of technical and administrative programme tasks to facilitate programme development, implementation, programme progress monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of results.

Key Responsibilities

• Support to programme development and planning
  • Conduct and update the situation analysis for the programme sector(s) for the development, design and management of nutrition related programmes/projects.
  • Contribute to the development and establishment of sectoral programme goals, objectives, strategies, and results-based planning, through analysis of nutrition needs and areas for intervention; and submission of recommendations for priority and goal setting.
  • Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes.
• Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results
  • Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues. Provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decision-making. Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference and/or to capture and institutionalize lessons learned.
  • Monitor and report on the use of sectoral programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets), verifying compliance with approved allocation, goals, organizational rules, regulations/procedures, donor commitments, standards of accountability, and integrity.
  • Prepare regular and mandated sectoral programme/project reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of programme progress.
• Technical and operational support to programme implementation
  • Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners, and other country office partners/donors on the application and understanding of UNICEF policies, strategies, processes, and best practices on nutrition-related issues to support programme implementation, operations and delivery of results.
• Networking and partnership building
  • Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with nutrition sector government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve programme goals on maternal and child rights as well as social justice and equity.
  • Participate in appropriate inter-agency (UNCT) meetings and events on programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners and colleagues on UNDAF operational planning and preparation of nutrition programmes/projects, and to integrate and harmonize UNICEF’s position and strategies with the UNDAF development and planning process.
  • Research information on potential donors and prepare resource mobilization materials and briefs for fund raising and partnership development purposes.
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
  • Identify, capture, synthesize, and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
  • Research, benchmark and report on best and cutting edge practices for development planning of knowledge products and systems.
  • Participate as a resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients and stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor or equivalent (First Level University Degree) in Nutrition and Dietetics, Public Health, Health Administration, epidemiology, global health, maternal and child health, health policy, health management, health/nutrition research, or another health-related science field.
• Work Experience: At least 2 years of relevant work experience in Health, Programme Management, Nutrition, Adolescent Development, nutrition programs, public health, maternal and child health, monitoring and evaluation, partnership development, capacity building, policy and advocacy, resource mobilization, knowledge management or another related field.
• Skills: Nutrition Planning, Programme Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health, Child Health, Maternal Health.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Desirables:
  • Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language.
  • Experience in health/nutrition programme/project development in a UN system agency or organization.
  • Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.
• UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it.
• UNICEF competencies required for this post are:
  • Builds and maintains partnerships
  • Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
  • Drive to achieve results for impact
  • Innovates and embraces change
  • Manages ambiguity and complexity
  • Thinks and acts strategically
  • Works collaboratively with others

How to Apply

To apply, please click on the application link provided. Ensure you review the complete job description and follow the instructions. UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes. All applications must be submitted through the official UNICEF careers portal.