For more than 50 years, The Manoff Group, Inc. (TMG), a woman-owned small business, has been an international leader in pioneering innovations in community nutrition programs to improve family diets and the nutritional well-being of women and young children. Our approach, Behavior Integration, offers a practical methodology for achieving measurable and lasting behavior change at the individual, community and organizational levels. Behavior integration is based on human-centered design principles and uses techniques from disciplines such as anthropology, behavioral economics, psychology, marketing and communications to strategically create programs that enable people to practice life-enhancing behaviors. All project work is conducted in a spirit of collaborative learning and co-creation.

The USAID Family Health and Nutrition (FHN) Project is a 5-year effort funded by USAID to provide high-impact technical assistance to the government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ). Nutrition (RMNCAH&N) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program to sustainably improve the performance of health systems and accelerate improvements in health outcomes.

TMG provides technical leadership and capacity development assistance to this effort, across all outcome areas, on strategic social and behavior change. The focus is on supporting districts to identify, prioritize, and facilitate the types of activities needed to achieve meaningful and lasting change in what key system actors and citizens do in the face of health challenges. As part of the health improvement effort, TMG supports the project by providing focused technical expertise, support and coordination for nutrition.

Due to the cross-cutting and multi-factorial nature of nutrition and the persistent challenges to Zambia’s progress on nutrition indicators, FHN is committed to working closely with districts through multi-partner collaboration under the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) of the GRZ. multisectoral approach to improve nutritional status during the first 1000 days of life and beyond. To ensure that nutrition is properly positioned and reflected in the project, we are looking for a Nutrition Advisor.

The Nutrition Advisor will serve as the technical lead for nutrition on the project and will work closely with national and district level stakeholders to identify priorities, learn from best practices implemented by others and support districts to implement, scale and sustain work to improve nutrition outcomes. The Advisor will work within the project’s core multi-disciplinary team and will report to the project’s Technical Director. The Advisor will also work closely with TMG’s Senior SBC Advisor in Zambia and TMG Technical Support, based in the United States.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Nutrition Advisor:

• Analyze nutrition strategies, policies and plans as they are implemented at the district level with program staff and identify areas for strengthening
• Support districts to use a strategic planning process that includes behavioral analysis of program actors and key community and household members to identify gaps and opportunities for nutrition interventions
• Align FHN’s work with health sector nutrition programs, strategies and interventions and ensure alignment and continuity with all other health sector strategy documents/programs
• Lead and/or support capacity building activities in nutrition and in areas such as operational research and social and behavior change
• Represent USAID FHN in nutrition activities in multi-sectoral health and nutrition scale-up platforms and support coordination and collaboration activities such as technical working groups at all levels
• Support regular reporting on nutrition interventions at all levels where FHN is mandated or represented
• Support and participate in regular monitoring and mentoring and quality assurance/quality improvement tasks in the health sector related to service delivery
• Support DHOs to initiate and implement quality improvement activities, stimulating innovations in routine practices that can benefit from change
• Facilitate peer learning and knowledge sharing events at provincial and district level
• Identify nutrition-specific SBC communication needs in districts and support the process of developing, sourcing and implementing this SBC communication
• Support annual project reporting and work planning
• Serve as a critical link between TMG HQ nutrition support and the project

QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Equivalent Master’s degree in international public health/nutrition with a specialization in community programming in nutrition or in one of the following related fields: anthropology, sociology, psychology, marketing, communication
• Eight years of relevant experience in the design and implementation of evidence-based nutrition programs, with a preference for related experience in social and behavior change
• Experience in community nutrition programs and working with the SUN movement in Zambia is highly desirable
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing formative behavioral research
• Demonstrated experience using program information to adapt project activities to emerging needs
• Strong facilitation skills, including the ability to build consensus among partners and stakeholders, with demonstrated success working with local government and NGO stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability in strategic and tactical programming and use of creative and innovative program approaches and actions.
• Ability to work in a dynamic team with colleagues from different backgrounds, to develop new ideas and perspectives in a team environment
• Ability to work independently as required and take initiative to initiate and complete activities
• Demonstrated ability to articulate concepts well in writing and verbally, in English and at least one additional local language, with a proven ability to communicate effectively in a variety of multi-stakeholder settings
• Willingness to travel to the field and community level as needed
• Proficiency in MS Office and internet applications required
• Must be a Zambian national or have the legal right to work in Zambia