REACH Nutrition Senior Assessment Officer for South Sudan At IMPACT Initiatives

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT, REACH AND ACTED

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. The IMPACT team comprises of specialists in data collection, information management, data analysis, and GIS. IMPACT was launched at the initiative of ACTED, an international NGO whose headquarters is based in Paris and is present in thirty countries. The two organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

ACTED is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1993, which supports vulnerable populations, affected by humanitarian crises worldwide. ACTED provides continued support to vulnerable communities by ensuring the sustainability of post-crisis interventions and engaging long-term challenges facing our target populations, in order to break the poverty cycle, foster development and reduce vulnerability to disasters. Their 3,300 staff are committed in responding to emergencies worldwide, in supporting recovery and rehabilitation, and working towards sustainable development.

We are currently looking for a REACH Nutrition Senior Assessment Officer to assess nutrition and mortality needs and conditions in South Sudan and to work closely with REACH teams to provide relevant analysis to the humanitarian response.

Supervisor: REACH Emergency Sectors Research Manager

Title: REACH Nutrition Senior Assessment Officer

Location: Juba, South Sudan

Contract duration: 12 months

Start date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

IMPACT, through REACH, has been implementing programming in South Sudan since 2012. Responding to the Sudan Border Crisis, REACH initially engaged through coordinated information management support – in the form of refugee camp mapping and service provision analyses, thematic assessments, and multi-sectoral needs assessments – in Maban County, Upper Nile State and Pariang County, Unity State. IMPACT was engaged by DFID to provide a series of impact evaluations of their BRACE programming across Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States in 2013; a programme with run for two years, included 5 total assessments, and reached a total of more than 20,000 households. Immediately following the conflict of December 2013, REACH expanded its programming to include the IDP response, participating in Initial Rapid Needs Assessments of conflict affected

areas, providing mapping and monthly service provision analyses for major IDP sites around the country, and running large-scale IDP return intentions assessments.

2018 saw the expansions of both IMPACT and REACH programming to 10 of 10 states, spanning the refugee, IDP and development responses, and covering diverse activities such as cross-border port monitoring, assessments of hard to reach areas, flood mapping and vulnerability analysis, market monitoring and supply chain analysis, analysis of tensions and conflicts over access to natural resources, and third party monitoring of humanitarian and development programming. In 2019, REACH expanded its role within the technical space, increasing involvement in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Needs Analysis Working Group, UN technical agencies, and academics. In response, REACH has also expanded into multiple new research cycle streams beyond humanitarian needs monitoring, including sector specific, population movement, and AAP research.

Broadly, REACH South Sudan implements assessments across three core units:

· Monitoring of the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, through monthly assessments covering over 2,000 settlements in South Sudan, conducting an annual representative Multi Sector Needs Assessment to provide a snapshot of needs, and ad hoc rapid assessments in times of sudden escalations in conflict or natural disasters.

· Monitoring population movement trends in South Sudan, including tracking and analyzing large-scale displacement, returns and seasonal movements, through port and road monitoring, ad-hoc assessments, and a population movement baseline; assessing the perceptions of affected populations of the humanitarian response; engaging with the protection cluster in identifying and filling major information gaps; and mainstreaming a context sensitive approach within REACH South Sudan.

· Providing direct technical support to humanitarian clusters through active engagement with coordination bodies, dedicated assessments and information products, and strategic engagement to promote innovative methods towards understanding sector-related needs in South Sudan.

The Nutrition Assessment Officer will support the Sector Unit in providing direct technical support to humanitarian clusters. More information on REACH’s work in South Sudan can be found here: https://www.reach- initiative.org/where-we-work/south-sudan/.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the direct supervision of the REACH Research Manager for the Emergency Sectors Unit, the Nutrition Senior Assessment Officer will be responsible for assessing nutrition, health, and mortality needs and conditions in South Sudan and for working closely with other sectoral specialists and REACH teams to provide relevant analysis to the humanitarian response.

This includes:

· In collaboration with the Emergency Sector Unit Research Manager, and under the guidance of the Country Coordinator, providing support to humanitarian actors in South Sudan working in the field of Nutrition, specifically including the Nutrition Cluster with relevant and timely data and analysis;

· Further developing and expanding REACH’s nutrition and health portfolios, ensuring close collaboration with other sector-specific analysts including the WASH Assessment Officer;

· Supporting the development of new projects and programme strategies, as well as the production of donor reports and new proposals;

· Conducting nutrition assessments either as technical support to nutrition partners in South Sudan, or as ad hoc rapid nutrition assessments, including the design, planning, training and implementation, data cleaning and analysis, and reporting of the assessment results;

· Representing REACH South Sudan in Nutrition and Health Cluster meetings and as a technical representative on the Nutrition Information Working Group (NIWG);

· Providing ad hoc technical support to the Nutrition Cluster or the NIWG in the analysis of nutrition data or other secondary data sources, or technical training of staff, as requested;

· Participating in the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis workshops for Acute Malnutrition;

· Providing technical support to other REACH departments on the collection or interpretation of nutrition, health, and mortality data as requested;

· Coordinating and ensuring timely data collection, including management of field staff where relevant;

· In coordination with the REACH Country Coordinator and Sector Unit Research Manager, representing REACH externally with donors, partners and the wider aid community through clusters and sectoral working groups.

REQUIREMENTS

· Excellent academic qualifications, including a university degree (preferably a Master’s degree) in a relevant discipline (for example, but not limited to Public Health, Nutrition, Epidemiology, Statistics, etc.);

· SMART Survey Manager certification is highly preferred

· IPC Acute Malnutrition Level 1 training is highly preferred

· Experience conducting nutrition assessments (SMART, SQUEAC, RNA), or experience conducting quantitative data collection (household surveys) in emergency contexts is highly preferred;

· Training, certification, or relevant programmatic experience in other relevant nutrition topics (CMAM, IYCF, etc.) is considered an asset;

· Strong skills in Excel are required;

· Experience using statistical software such as EpiInfo, SPSS, STATA, or R is required;

· Experience using GIS software such as QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth is considered an asset;

· Experience designing data collection forms in Kobo, ODK, or similar mobile data collection tools is considered an asset;

· Prior knowledge of South Sudan context an asset;

· Ability to work independently;

· Familiarity with the humanitarian aid system and relevant actors;

· Willingness to spend time in deep field locations away from IMPACT/ACTED support is required

CONDITIONS

• Salary defined by the IMPACT salary grid; educational level, expertise, hardship, security, and performance are considered for pay bonus
• Additional monthly living allowance
• Free food and lodging provided at the organisation’s guesthouse or housing allowance (depending on contract length and country of assignment)
• Transportation costs covered, including additional return ticket + luggage allowance
• Provision of medical, life, and repatriation insurance + retirement package