Nutrition/SBC Advisor at Manoff Group

BACKGROUND

RING II

The Resilience in Northern Ghana (RING) II – Systems Strengthening activity focuses on enhancing the ability of all stakeholders to address poor nutrition and weak resilience in northern Ghana. The RING II – Systems Strengthening activity will result in sustained improvements in the delivery of local services to achieve measurable improvements in the nutrition and resilience of an estimated 85,000 reproductive-aged women and children under five years old.

The Manoff Group, Inc.

For over 50 years, The Manoff Group, Inc. (TMG), a woman-owned small business, has been an international leader in designing and assisting the implementation of social and behavior change programs that effectively promote healthy behaviors and allow populations to enjoy an improved quality of life. TMG’s innovative Behavior-centered Programming approach offers a practical methodology for realizing measurable and sustained behavior change at the individual, community and organizational levels. Our methodology is based on human-centered design principles and employs techniques from disciplines such as anthropology, behavioral economics, psychology, marketing and communications to strategically build programs that enable people to practice life–enhancing behaviors. All project work is carried out in the spirit of collaborative learning and co-creation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support the Technical Deputy Chief of Party and Behavior Integration Advisor in development of the overall behavior integration strategic direction, with particular emphasis on nutrition-promoting behaviors and their intersection with agriculture and resilience.
• Serve as a point of contact on matters related to nutrition, agriculture, and resiliency social and behavior change (SBC), provide up-to-date, evidence-based nutrition SBC technical guidance.
• In collaboration with key project stakeholders, support the development and implementation of RING II’s nutrition SBC portfolio, with particular emphasis on the intersection with agriculture, and resilience.
• In collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, identify key gaps, best practices, and promising new approaches for nutrition SBC and program design and oversee research studies to test and document their effectiveness as required.
• Support the development of evidence-based program standards, guidance, and tools that reflect global best practice in nutrition SBC and promote widespread application and use of these standards.
• Contribute to, and when needed lead, capacity strengthening efforts in the design and implementation of sustainable, high-quality nutrition SBC programs in project areas.
• Ensure timely delivery of quality products for all activities and manage budgets related to those activities.
• Contribute to the development of work plans, budgets and required reporting ensuring consistency with the Project’s strategic direction and priorities.
• Perform other duties as assigned by RING II management.

QUALIFICATIONS

This position requires a person with strong nutrition credentials who has applied their background in SBC programming; or someone who has strong social science /communication background who has applied the background in nutrition programs. The requirements below should be interpreted in line with these possibilities.

• Education: Minimum of a master’s degree in nutrition, public health, social sciences, health education, communication, or a related field.
• Experience: At least 7 years of experience in a role responsible for multisectoral programs.
• Required Skills/Experience:

· Prior experience working with programs that link resilience, agriculture and nutrition under a SBC cross-cutting framework preferred.

· Progressive experience with nutrition SBC technical assistance provision and capacity building.

· Prior field-based work experience designing and implementing nutrition SBC, especially in vulnerable, food insecure or disaster-prone settings.

· Demonstrated success in working with local government and NGO stakeholders.

· Research skills, preferably in formative and/or “operations” research (identifying research question, and working with experts in protocol development, implementation, and analysis).

· Minimum 5 years’ experience overseeing technical quality of programs integrating nutrition into maternal and child health, family planning, agriculture, food security/livelihoods, and/or HIV/AIDS.

· Experience interacting with and knowledge of key programs/priorities of U.S. Government agencies and USAID Missions, host country governments, partners, universities and other relevant stakeholders.

· Excellent written and oral communications and partnering skills.

· Strong initiative and self-motivation required, with a commitment to teamwork and effectiveness within a nonhierarchical, participatory management environment.

• Languages: English fluency required.
• Travel: Ability to travel up to 40% of the time.