Summary
Date Posted: Monday, December 11 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Head of Health and Nutrition
Country/Region: Uganda Country Office
Location: Kampala
Reports to: Deputy Director Program Development and Quality
Organization: Save the Children International

Join us to lead sustainable change for children:
• Be part of a GLOBAL and DIVERSE technical community
• Get EXPOSURE in many different contexts
• Test and scale up INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
• Influence policies that affect MILLIONS OF CHILDREN

OVERVIEW
Are you passionate about being an advocate for children? Do you want to use your expertise to bring about lasting change for children and be a part of an inspiring, dynamic global movement?
The Head of Health and Nutrition takes overall responsibility for the strategic direction, growth, and coordination of Save the Children International’s work on health and nutrition (including health and nutrition in development and emergency contexts, human resources for health, policy advocacy, and community/children mobilisation) in the Uganda Country Programme. As a senior member of the Programme Development and Quality department, the Head of Health and Nutrition is responsible for leading and overseeing the development and delivery of high-quality, innovative, cost-effective programmes in health and nutrition both in an emergency as well as long-term development, resulting in immediate and lasting change for children. S/he is also responsible for monitoring programme quality, initiating and taking technical leadership in health and nutrition-focused studies, documentation and dissemination of good practices by working together with other members of the PDQ team, in particular with the MEAL team. In close collaboration with other PDQ teams, in particular with the ACCM team, s/he will be leading on policy research and advocacy on health and nutrition through networking and collaboration with relevant civil society organisations, relevant ministries, and other institutions.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Sounds interesting? Read more below.

THE ROLE
The Key Area of Accountability include:
Strategic Programming
• Lead the development of multi-year ambitious yet practical thematic strategy in health and nutrition, including Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, including Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E) and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH), policy advocacy and community/children mobilization in the programme and policy designs in line with 2022-2024 Save the Children’s Country Strategic Plan for Uganda programme.
• Lead technically and work with other PDQ and operations teams to design and implement high-quality, cost-effective, innovative, and sustainable project proposals and concept notes in line with the 2022-2024 Country Strategic Plan and Country Annual Plans.
• Lead technically and oversee the development and achievement of ambitious, practical health and nutrition plans as part of the Country Annual Plans with learnings from programme delivery, good practices, and donor interests.
• Seek strategic linkage, wherever applicable, with other thematic areas of the Uganda programme i.e. child protection, CRG, Education, Youth, and Livelihood for developing integrated programmes for hard to reach children in Uganda through a direct implementation and/or partner.
• Ensure that children participate in programme and policy designs at all levels.
Strategic Technical Assistance
• Provide technical guidance and strategic inputs for the development of relevant proposals.
• Ensure technical support and sign offs for donor reports to ensure that the reports are of high quality, aligning to health and nutrition strategic plans and deliverables in project proposals.
• Contribute to the strategic technical monitoring of projects and programmes focusing on appropriate approaches and methodologies; conceptual and practical frameworks; monitoring frameworks; standards and tools for effective and quality delivery of health and nutrition programmes.
• Develop and ensure application of Quality Benchmarks into all Save the Children’s programmes related to health and nutrition.
• Provide technical support to the technical partners, operations teams and other stakeholders.
Policy Analysis, Representation and Advocacy
• Represent SC Health and Nutrition programme in Uganda in high level internal and external fora.
• Contribute to developing policy research and advocacy strategy, policy briefs and position papers in health and nutrition in line with the Country Strategic Plan and global strategy of Save the Children.
• Identify and capitalise key opportunities and events for Save the Children to position itself as Uganda's leading organisation for Health and Nutrition work.
• Ensure that children's voices guide research, advocacy and policy change objectives.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning
• Assist PDQ team to ensure that all Health and Nutrition projects and components have robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning plans.
• Technically assist PDQ team in measuring achievement and progress towards programme goals and results.
• Ensure to provide an avenue for children’s voice through accountability mechanisms across all Health and Nutrition programmes implemented directly or through partners.
• Serve as a technical knowledge, skills and experience hub for the thematic area in Uganda and in doing so play a leading role in introducing innovations in health and nutrition programme (gained from existing and emerging Save the Children’s global knowledge and practices) and in turn documenting and sharing best practices and innovations for replication and advocacy purpose.
• Ensure that learning from Save the Children in Uganda programmes is consistently documented, shared and used to improve quality programming and influence how other stakeholders address children's rights and needs.
• Work closely with the Senior MEAL Specialist and field-based specialists to ensure that the Health and Nutrition work contributes to all relevant programme and Global Indicators.
• Lead and work closely with the Senior MEAL Specialist to identify strategic ground-breaking research in Health and Nutrition to develop innovative programmes and issue-based advocacy.
Resource Mobilisation
• Proactively seek information on potential donor sources and share project opportunities in health and nutrition with PDQ and Operations teams.
• Provide analysed and accurate information to fit in donor priorities and positions on issues related to health and nutrition and influence senior management decisions on strategic priorities of the thematic area.
• Provide timely key information related to health emergencies for emergency funding (health gaps, rapid health response) including leading on integrated rapid needs assessments.
• Along with Director of PDQ, maintain excellent professional contacts with strategic and potential donors and key technical agencies to continuously leverage support and resources for children in Uganda programme.
• Provide substantial written contributions to proposals, reports and information and communications products.
• Provide support to developing programme and project budgets.
People Management, Mentoring and Development
• Lead the development of relevant and sustainable capacity-assessment and capacity-building strategies for field teams and different categories of partners on health and nutrition.
• Ensure that all technical staff in health and nutrition understand and are able to adapt their roles in both emergency and development contexts.
• Ensure the availability of support including mentoring, coaching and training for appropriate professional development opportunities for staff in Health and Nutrition
• Manage the performance of the direct report in Health and Nutrition through effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations; coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities.
• Support the development of an organizational culture that promotes our values, accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.
Innovation, Strategies and New Business
• Propose and guide innovativeness in designing and developing high-end programs to deliver high impact, low cost and evidence-based interventions to ensure the children we serve realize their full potential to survive.
• Participate in the situation and stakeholder analyses to develop a strategic health and nutrition programming plan linked to SCI’s country plan.
Partnerships
• Establish, maintain and strengthen linkages with relevant government departments and civil society partners in health and nutrition programming.
• Support the assessment of organizations and agencies as SCI partners.
Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Provide technical guidance and strategic inputs for the design of contingency plans related to health and nutrition.
• Provide accurate technical information and regular updates on the health and nutrition emergency.
• Ensure that the relevant staff has the key health and nutrition knowledge and are confident with recommended practices related to the specific health and nutrition emergency.
• Responsible for updating staff health policy related to specific health outbreaks (e.g. Ebola)

To be successful for this role you will bring/have the following:
• Qualified clinical health professional.
• Master in public health or paediatrics or a related field.
• At least 8 years of relevant technical health and nutrition experience, including at senior level.
• Proven experience developing and managing high-quality, innovative, cost-effective technical maternal and child health projects, including in fragile and insecure environments and with International NGOs.
• Proven experience in writing up high-quality donor reports and proposals.
• Knowledge of current global and regional debates on universal coverage and quality of maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health and nutrition policies and models, global targets and evidence-based strategies for achieving maternal, new-born and child health.
• Demonstrated ability to work in health and nutrition programmes in collaboration with national health ministries and international partners.
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mindsets.
• Experience solving complex issues through analysis, and definition of a clear way forward.
• English fluency (verbal and written) required
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international and matrix management environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Commitment to Save the Children values.
• Ability to travel in the districts 30% of the time.



Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 96

Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree

Job application procedure
Interested and qualified Click here to apply

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