Health and Nutrition Coordinator - Tanzania

Health and Nutrition Coordinator – Tanzania

Tracking Code

659-566

Job Description

PCI is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing diseases, improving community health, and promoting sustainable development worldwide. With support from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), PCI Tanzania will be implementing the final phase of Food for Education (FFE) programming in the Mara region (2017-2021). The goal of the program is to improve literacy among primary school students, and increased use of health and dietary practices, empower women etc.

In line with programmes objectives, growth and sustainability, PCI wishes to attract talents and professionals to help run the programme.

The goal of PCI’s school health and nutrition sector is to employ multiple, complementary strategies to improve health and nutrition outcomes among primary school students in 231 FFE schools. The Health & Nutrition Coordinator will coordinate with and provide technical support to regional and district-level Health and Nutrition Officers, as well as PCI District Health Support Officers (DHSOs) on the design, planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of school and community-based health, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities. The Health & Nutrition Coordinator is responsible for ensuring high-quality and high-impact implementation of activities in project schools and surrounding communities according to program goals, objectives and targets. The Health & Nutrition Coordinator is also responsible for effectively leading an integrated and synergistic approach to health and nutrition across sectors including agriculture, education, and gender/women’s empowerment. To impact health and nutrition outcomes among students, the Health & Nutrition Coordinator will also work closely with school committees, teachers, and parents and parent-teacher associations to strengthen school-based health platforms and services and use social and behavior change (SBC) strategies to create an enabling environment for good health and nutrition practices and outcomes among young people.

The Health & Nutrition Coordinator will work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to ensure robust monitoring and evaluation of interventions, and the design and implementation of special research activities to demonstrate effectiveness and impact. S/he will also facilitate collective problem-solving and strengthen linkages and information exchange between program staff, stakeholders, and beneficiaries. S/he is expected to maintain strong and effective working relationships with other PCI staff working in the program, key government partners, beneficiaries and NGOs working in the same geographical area.

This position will report directly to the FFE Program Director based in Musoma

Key Duties &Responsibilities:

Coordination, Technical Support, and Quality Assurance (50%)

Coordinate and manage PCI’s health, nutrition, and WASH activities in Mara Region, providing direct supervision and support to the PCI District Health Support Officers.
Participate in monthly sector coordinator planning meetings and quarterly and annual staff program meetings.

Develop, revise, and update activity workplans for the health team.
Contribute to strategic thinking around high-impact and evidence-based best practices in field of school health, nutrition, and WASH.
Contribute to high level project implementation by working closely with the Regional Health Office, District Health and Nutrition Offices, school health teachers, and other key health and nutrition sector stakeholders.
Support recruitment of consultants for specific tasks or deliverables
Design and facilitate trainings for regional and district staff on new activities, tools), and/ or materials.
Strengthen capacity of school health teachers to screen for and refer cases of infection/illness/disease to local health services; foster technical capacity strengthening through technical updates, training opportunities, exchange visits, literature sharing, etc.
Contribute to design and implementation of school health, nutrition, and WASH campaigns to increase awareness and contribute to behavior change for improved health.
Strengthen school-based platforms (e.g. health clubs) and cadres (e.g. volunteer student aids, health teachers) to facilitate behavior change and norms change for adoption of good life skills, menstrual hygiene management. and adolescent sexual and reproductive health practices.
Support efforts to build community and parent engagement in child/adolescent health and nutrition.
Lead process of integrating health and nutrition behavior change curriculum within PCI’s early childhood development platform.
Collaborate with agriculture team (including agriculture extension officers) to integrate nutrition messages within agriculture platforms, to promote crop diversification.
Collaborate with PCI’s Women Empowered team (and other platforms) to promote preparation of diverse foods/dietary diversity.

Coordinate with other key health and nutrition sector actors working in Mara region, while linking to and supporting the government’s national-level health priorities

Staff Supervision and Mentorship (20%)

Provide supportive supervision and mentorship/follow-up at the school and community levels in coordination with Regional and District Health and Nutrition Officers and Support Officers
Facilitate development of annual performance objectives for staff under your direct supervision.
Conduct bi-annual and annual staff performance review to direct report employees in the sector.

Monitoring, Learning, Evaluation, and Reporting (20%)

Support the PCI Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation (MLE) team with monitoring and evaluating school and community-based health, nutrition, and WASH activities, in collaboration with District Health Support Officers and District Health and Nutrition Officers; participate in design and analysis of baseline survey, midterm reviews, and final evaluation; lead process of using existing data for programmatic decision-making.
Collaborate with MLE team in design and implementation of special studies to showcase impact of select interventions.
Ensure key findings from monitoring, evaluation, and research activities are shared and discussed with relevant district and regional government stakeholders.
Prepare quarterly and annual donor health sector reports and disseminate to relevant stakeholders when and as needed.

Representation (5%)

Represent PCI at strategic health and nutrition forums at regional, district, and national levels; share with Program Director, Country Director, and International Office staff the outcomes of such meetings; use such forums to link to and support the government’s national health and nutrition priorities

Other Duties as assigned – including (5%)

Other duties as assigned by Program Director or country office

Required Qualifications:

Master’s degree or equivalent in Public Health or nutrition-related field.
At least 5 years experience in managing or providing technical support to community-based health and/or nutrition programs.
Significant training in nutrition, e.g. as nutritionist, and/or at least 1 year exprience implementing nutrition-sensitive or nutrition-specific interventions.
Solid knowledge and understanding of global evidence-based approaches to school-based and community-based health and nutrition interventions; ability to articulate and operationalize best practices.
Training in and/or experience implementing social and behavior change interventions; understanding of core behavior change principles.
Experience designing, organizing, and facilitating skill-based trainings for local government staff.
Excellent English and Kiswahili communication skills (oral and written).
Ability to effectively work as a team member as well as a high performing individual contributor
Willingness to live in Musoma, TZ.