Nutrition Officer at International Medical Corps

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and Nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at the highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated healthcare systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

Job Position: Nutrition Officer

Location: Damboa, Borno

Job Summary

• The primary functions of the Nutrition Officer is to provide leadership and overall day-to-day management of all Nutrition Food Security programming at duty designation and state, participate in defining intervention priorities, develop necessary contacts and relationships with government, non-government, donors and UN agencies at the field level; Contribute to the development of strategies and manage existing programs and resources, and provide day to day supervision, management and coaching to a wide team of Nutrition Food Security in the operation areas.
• Ensure that the International Medical Corps program is delivering the highest level of quality of nutrition services in line with national and international guidelines. The nutrition Assistant will be technically be supervised and supported by the Nutrition Officer.

Main Responsibilities

1. Ensure observance, and respect the dignity of beneficiaries and members of the community at all times
2. Participate in any nutrition sector-specific assessments and make technical recommendations for appropriate activities, both for initial disaster response phase and for the longer-term disaster risk reduction and transition phase.
3. Determine the cause of malnutrition in the emergency response and formulate appropriate responses that will address the cause.
4. Assess the immediate lifesaving nutrition interventions needed (such as CMAM) in addition to the prevention activities (ENA, IFE, BSFP and TSFP) that need to be implemented at the same time.
5. Provide direct hands-on technical support to Nutrition Program Assistants and IMC partners to effectively and innovatively manage emergency nutrition projects with focus on key technical areas.
6. Ensure that emergency nutrition and related projects are technically sound, environmentally friendly, socially and cultural acceptable.
7. Actively represent International Medical Corps in nutrition sector discussions and activities, serve as an International Medical Corps nutrition sector resource person, and display technical and organizational leadership in sectoral activity commensurate with the role as a primary resource person for International Medical Corps in your working areas.
8. Manage International Medical Corps’s nutrition response and recovery activities across a wide range of actors within International Medical Corps, donors, host governments, UN and NGO partners to ensure consistency of programming.
9. Strong negotiation skill with the partners, host community and government officials.
10. Actively participate and represent IMC in State and LGA nutrition CMAM Cluster meetings.
11. Assist in the development of, or provide technical review for, emergency response proposals to be submitted by International Medical Corps to ensure that proposed activities and programs align with best practices in the nutrition sector. As appropriate, suggest new developments in the nutrition sector to International Medical Corps programming.
12. Be fully aware of national policies, strategies and other initiatives and developments by the government and other stakeholders in the area of nutrition. Regularly assess the implications for IMC’s program and priorities of any changes in the operating environment in this sector and report on these to the Program Manager and Nutrition Coordinator as required.
13. Actively participate in surveys done at the Community level (KAP, SMART, Causal Analysis, Barriers, Coverage, JANFSA, ENNA).
14. Ensure the development of core skills and competencies in Nutrition and Food Security among IMC staff in the project offices.
15. Provide technical support and training where required to all team members and partners.
16. Build the capacity of Technical, Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), Community Nutrition Mobilizers (CNMs) and committees to deliver quality service and undertake participatory monitoring of the implementation of the project works and record lessons learned and reports.
17. Prepare weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports to donors, line departments and sectors.
18. Strengthen partnerships, institutional linkages and working relationships.
19. Other duties as assigned.

Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse:

• Actively promote PSEA (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) standards within International Medical Corps and amongst beneficiaries served by International Medical Corps.

Compliance & Ethics:

• Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics throughout International Medical Corps. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of International Medical Corps’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity.

Job Qualifications And Experience

1. Degree in Public Health, Nursing, Nutrition or equivalent
2. Minimum of 3 years experience in nutrition work and implementation of nutrition/ food security intervention programs, including community mobilization, monitoring and evaluation aspects.
3. Significant experience on community management of acute malnutrition and Infant feeding in Emergencies in host communities/ IDP camp settings.
4. Understanding of nutritional surveillance and information systems.
5. Proven ability and experience in planning and conducting formal training session on nutrition including CMAM and IYCF.
6. Proven capacity to supervise, train and coach local staff and community workers.
7. Excellent communication skills and a willingness to be respectful, kind, sensitive and empathize with children and their caregivers.
8. Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult and frustrating working conditions.
9. Ability to deal with relations with local authorities as a Nutrition representative of IMC in the working areas.
10. Ability to integrate into the local environment including awareness of political, religious and economic aspects of the community.
11. Excellent inter and intra-personal skills to ensure consistent positive relations with key stakeholders.
12. Strong report writing and computer skills.
13. Fluent in written and spoken English and Hausa.
14. Commitment to and understanding of IMC’s aims, values and principles.

Key Competencies:

• Strong communication skills: oral, written and presentation skills.
• Should be a team player and culturally sensitive.
• Demonstrated proficiency in computer applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, email and utilization of the internet
• Strong leadership, team building, conflict resolution and ability to deliver IMC’s strategic objectives.
• Extremely flexible, and have the ability to cope with stressful situations.

Application Deadline
17th May 2023.

Method of application
Interested and qualified candidates should address and send their Applications to the “Human Resource Coordinator, International Medical Corps” via: imcnigeriavacancy@internationalmedicalcorps.org using the Job Title as the subject of the email.

Note: Candidates MUST state the position and location they are applying for as the Subject of their email, application letter and curriculum vitae should be in a single Microsoft Word Document, otherwise applications will not be considered.