CILSS is seeking to recruit a Nutrition Expert for the PAGR/SANAD Regional Coordination Unit

Nutrition Expert for the PAGR/SANAD Regional Coordination Unit ( Reférence : S0119N17 )

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply

The Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) is seeking to recruit a Nutrition Expert for the PAGR/SANAD Regional Coordination Unit.

 The « Improving Governance of Resilience and Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture in West Africa (PAGR-SANAD) » Project is a project financed by the European Union for the benefit of the ECOWAS Commission, the UEMOA Commission and CILSS.

Designed to last for a total 54 months, the Project aims to improve the regional and national governance of agricultural and Food and Nutrition Security policies and programmes in West Africa and the Sahel in the context of resilience. Its specific objective is to develop the required capacities within regional and national institutions to strengthen the regional governance of food and nutrition security and agricultural policies in the context of Resilience in West Africa with a view to achieving the « Zero Hunger by 2025 » objective. The main expected outputs include a joint biennial report on SANAD-Resilience results and progress for the West Africa region, with a focus on gender equity; good management of agricultural investment and nutrition policies and programmes, food security information and early warning systems at the regional and national levels and resilience.

1. Hierarchical subordination

The Nutrition Expert shall be directly under the authority of the PAGR-SANAD Regional Coordinator. He/she will be responsible for organising and coordinating the activities of Component 3 « Nutrition » of the project. The Nutrition Expert will work closely with the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit of CILSS to ensure synergy and complementarity with other projects funded by the European Union. 

2. Responsibility/tasks

The Nutrition Expert will have to perform the following essential tasks:

• Coordinate the implementation of the activities of component 3 of the project « Support to the effective integration of Nutrition in agricultural policies and food security at the regional level and in the countries » in relation with the different actors of implementation of the component and partners working in the field of nutrition in countries and at the regional level;
• Contribute to the development of nutritional information in the CILSS, ECOWAS and UEMOA countries, in collaboration with partners, notably with WAHO, IRD, FAO, UNICEF, WFP and others
• Support the Sahel and West Africa countries to incorporate nutrition indicators into policies, strategies and programs;
• Provide participatory technical support for the selection of nutrition indicators, their understanding and use in nutritional data analysis or integration into national development policies, strategies and programs;
• Participate in the reflection on the integration of nutritional indicators into information systems on food and nutritional security in the Sahelian countries and in West Africa;
• Develop and implement a training plan in the areas of nutritional information with CILSS-ECOWAS-WAEMU countries;
• Establish close technical support for groups of national experts;
• Contribute to the analysis of nutritional data as part of the implementation of the Harmonized Framework, vulnerability and resilience analyzes in countries and processes for developing methodologies and tools for analyzing malnutrition , urban vulnerability and resilience
• Provide technical monitoring in the field of nutrition at regional and continental level (implementation of policies, good practices, tools, nutritional information …);
• Coordinate and report on activities related to the Component  » Support to the effective integration of Nutrition in agricultural policies and food security at the regional level and in the countries » » of the mid-terms and final project implementation reports in accordance with the contractual terms applicable to European Union financing;
• Contribute to the preparation of the bi-annual progress report on food and nutrition security, sustainable agriculture and resilience in West Africa and the Sahel;
• Coordinate overall nutrition actions at the CILSS level including the supervision of the CILSS nutritionists team;
• Contribute with other Food and Nutrition Security teams in the development and dissemination of technical documents, and to advocacy and communication on national and regional food security and nutrition strategies;
• Contribute to the process of developing methodological documents and harmonized collection tools on nutrition;
• Contribute to rapid assessments of food and nutrition crises with other regional food and nutrition security information systems (CILSS, FAO, FEWS NET, WFP, etc.);
• Contribute to the production of communication and advocacy tools on nutrition including notes to decision makers based on the results of studies, diagnoses and surveys carried out within the framework of the project in collaboration with the communication unit of CILSS;
• Work closely with the technical assistance to the Project.
  

3. General Qualifications and Competencies (minimum requirements):
   

The applicant must:

• Hold a postgraduate degree in Nutrition (or equivalent degree), i.e. a degree obtained after at least 5 years of university studies in Nutrition;
• Be computer literate (database, statistical software, spreadsheet, word processing, etc.);
• Possess strong working knowledge of French, written and spoken, and be able to speak English.

4. General professional experience (minimum requirements):
   

• Have at least ten (10) years professional experience in nutrition, nutritional diagnosis and nutritional information system;

• Demonstrate an experience of at least 5 years in support of nutrition promotion in development policies, projects and programmes.

5. Specific professional experience (minimum requirements):
   

• Have a good knowledge of nutrition and food security issues in Sahelian and West African countries;
• Have a good knowledge of food security and nutrition policies and strategies in sub-Saharan Africa or West Africa;
• Have a good understanding of the global REACH (Renewed Efforts Against Child Hunger) partnership and the international Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement;
• Have completed at least one assignment in the public sector in nutrition monitoring and/or mainstreaming in policies and projects and/or programmes;
• Be able to develop training and advocacy tools in the field of nutrition;

• Be able to provide training and support to national and regional experts;
• Have a solid knowledge of nutrition survey techniques;
• Have a good knowledge of information systems (such as the national EDS, MICS, VAM, SMART surveys but also « household poverty » surveys);
• Have an excellent knowledge of statistical analysis protocols as well as the most common nutritional data processing and analysis software;
• Have a good knowledge of the functioning of regional or sub-regional institutions.

HOW TO APPLY

The applications should include the following documents:

• An application letter addressed to the Executive Secretary of CILSS;
• A cover letter;
• A Curriculum Vitae updated and certified true by the candidate;
• An extract of birth certificate or a substitute birth certificate: the applicant must not be more than 50 years of age at his/her first recruitment with CILSS;
• A certified copy of degrees, diplomas and certificates of qualifications;
• Copies of work or service certificates;
• A copy of the nationality certificate or any other document justifying the nationality of the applicant: the candidate must be a national of a Member State of CILSS;
• The addresses of three (3) reference persons.

Deadline and application submission address

Applications must be submitted in a sealed envelope to the mail department (Service Courrier) of the Executive Secretariat of CILSS or mailed to 03 BP. 7049 OUAGADOUGOU 03 – BURKINA FASO Tel. : (+226) 25 37 41 25/26 or 25 49 96 00 – Fax: (+226) 25 37 41 32 by specifying the title of the position, followed by: « Not to be opened until the meeting of the group examining the applications » or e-mailed to the following address: recrutements@cilss.int no later than January 31, 2019