ROLE PURPOSE:

Global and national health indicators highlight the need to have a greater focus on health and nutrition wellbeing of school age children and adolescents. School-age children in Ethiopia are affected by a wide range of health and nutrition related problems that constrain their ability to learn, thrive and benefit from education. Some of the common health-related problems being parasitic infections, malaria, anemia, trachoma, skin diseases, disabilities, injuries, sexual and reproductive ill-health, and psychosocial and substance abuse. Some of the common nutrition-related problems being inadequate food consumption and associated levels of malnutrition as well as iodine and vitamin A deficiency, in most of the Ethiopian regions. Furthermore, there are low awareness levels on the effect of poor health and nutrition on children’s ability to learn. To address the needs of health and nutrition of school children, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education have been implementing different round of National School Health and Nutrition Strategies and Save the Children has been one of the major partner supporting the implementation of the strategy. 

On other hand, in the earliest years of life, especially from pregnancy to age three, babies need nutrition, protection and stimulation for healthy brain development due to the fact that maximum baby’s brain development happens during this time subsequently reflecting in education and capability development. Despite the need, early childhood development (ECD) programs remain severely underfunded and supported. Save the children is pioneer in supporting the GoE in ECD programs through its sponsorship and other projects.

To ensure the quality of implementation of our School Health and Nutrition programming, Save the Children plans to recruit a senior technical Advisor who can provide the required technical leadership. The senior Advisor

 will be responsible to technically lead all school health and nutrition programs in planning and executing capacity building actions, ensure the implementation of Save the children’s quality parameters like quality bench marks, common approaches and others. S/he will work to establish and strengthen relationship and a critical link between the Save the Children’s global, regional and in-country stakeholders and partners. The Senior Advisor will lead to strengthen strategic partnerships for new business development and work in designing School health and nutrition programs that will impact the life of school age children and their families. S/he plays a role of internal coordination for our school health programs and represent the CO in both internal and external platforms. The senior Advisor will lead the processes of identifying and document learnings, organize and share learning session and follow up the implementation at all levels of program operations.

A.KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:  

Technical Leadership:

• Provide technical leadership for School Health & Nutrition and ECD programs under the implementation and other programs with school health and nutrition components in close coloration with program operation units.
• Identify talents and capacity gaps, build capacity and mentor School Health ECD related program managers, specialists, officers and coordinators and other project staffs
•  Provide on-site supportive supervision, identify and share learnings and best practices, facilitate cross-program/project learnings
•  Build networks across field offices and collectively address any technical challenges to ensure program quality
•  Support program operation team to understand and contextualize global guidance, quality standards like quality bench marks, common approaches and other quality parameter.

Program Quality (Design & Implementation)

• Technically lead business development of new School Health and ECD programs/projects ensuring quality in designing and proposal development
• Engage with donor supporting School Health and ECD programs for key strategic opportunities and develop concepts that can be ‘pitched’ to donors.
• Support field offices both in development and humanitarian settings in school health and ECD project implementation and monitoring to ensure quality delivery, monitoring and evaluation.
• Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our School health and ECD program in design and implementation.
• Design and support the implementation of School Health and ECD programming that ensure our programs/projects towards impact, scale and sustainability.
• Lead the design and support the implementation & monitoring of School Health and ECD programs; ensure that School Health and ECD specific and internal technical best practices (including Save the Children’s Common Approaches) are applied in collaboration with program operation units and staff
• Provide technical backstopping as needed during humanitarian health and nutrition responses for the country office
• Support program operations to develop, monitor and revise social and behavior change communication (SBCC) strategies, formative research and materials development and identifying appropriate indicators to monitor and evaluate ECD and School Health behavior changes.
• Lead the development of an ECD and School Health program strategies of country offices with the education thematic sector to achieve the CO’s strategy and ambition of 2030,
• Explore innovative opportunities of ECD and School Health programming in country offices to pilot, and document, new or updated tools and guidance, especially with a focus on children with disability, environment and resilience
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our program design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
• Respond to requests for technical expertise from field offices related with ECD and school health and nutrition program/project offices
• Develop/revise ECD and School health training materials, guide lines ensure the incorporation of global and local evidences
• Provide technical leadership and closely work with MEAL and other sectors specially with education thematic sector and humanitarian operations in strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation and the use of data across all levels to improve program performance.
• Regularly and optimally coordinate efforts and closely work with members and regional office

External Engagement:

• Facilitate effective partnership with key stakeholders engaged in the implementation of ECD and School Health programs.
• Closely work with and contribute on the national technical taskforces, working group and the subgroups
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders working on ECD and School health to ensure synergy, sharing of technical resources, learning and mutual support.
• Represent SCI in relevant working groups, task forces, seminars and all relevant platforms
• Maintain and cultivate key external relationships with all School health and ECD actors both government and non-government sectors.

Other:

• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to SCI and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission;
• Other duties as assigned by the supervisor

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds Self Accountability for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds suppliers accountable to deliver on their responsibilities

Ambition:

•  Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and takes responsibility for their own personal development
•  Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
•  Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
•  Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

•  Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
•  Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

Integrity:

•  Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
•  Displays consistent excellent judgement

Job Requirements

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

Education

• Master’s Degree in Public health, Nutrition, or other related field. 

Experience and Skills: 

• Minimum of 6 years of experience in technically lead, managing and implement large-scale ECD and/or School Health and Nutrition projects,
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in team situations
• Solid experience in designing and technically support the implementation of ECD and School Health programming that ensure programs/projects towards impact, scale and sustainability.
• Experience in providing technical leadership for School Health and ECD programs in both development and humanitarian settings
• Experience and skill in building capacity and provide mentorship ECD and School Health program managers, specialists, officers and coordinators
• Experience and skill in identify and documenting learnings, best practices, and facilitate learnings
• Experience in developing donor relationships, working with/guiding national level technical working groups, working with government partners, with partner agencies.
• Good knowledge of the Ethiopian health and education systems and policies
• Strong result orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind sets
• Good skill in communicating, organizing group discussion, and presentation
• Good computer skill (MS word, MS excel, MS access and other data generating tools)
• Solid experience working with Government of Ethiopia especially with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education
• Demonstrated skills working in partnership with CSOs, international donors and agencies.
• Significant expertise providing technical assistance to national ECD and School Health policies and strategies
• Training, negotiation, mentorship, facilitation and team building skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Amharic, able to communicate professionally with a wide range of contacts; able to show tact and discretion when dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
• Commitment to Save the Children values

KEY COMPETENCIES (Indicative / Key Competencies)

Technical competencies:

• Drives Quality School Health, Nutrition and ECD Programming: Trains and mentors’ others on the application of relevant school health and ECD standards
• Understanding of Impact of emergencies on health, nutrition and other development programming and health outcomes: Engages in the humanitarian aid architecture, the cluster approach and inter-cluster coordination of public health information.
•  Able to build sustainable and integrated school health and ECD programs: Builds the capacity of others to design and implement integrated ASRH sensitive and specific programming and advocacy
• Able to link local to national and global level advocacy efforts, supporting localization of change and influencing global policy development.

Generic Competencies

• Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities
• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalized children and adolescent
• Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery
• Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers 

Scope & complexity of decision making

• Able to make decisions within a range of established alternatives.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI’s global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Gender Equality Policies, supported by relevant procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

• The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SC Health and Safety policies and procedures.
• We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. The duty station of the position holder will be in Addis Ababa This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

The Organization

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realize the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

How to Apply

Application Information:

• Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found here
• We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
• All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.

Interested applicants who meet the MINIMUM requirements should apply using the link