Nutrition Cluster Coordinator, NO-C, Damascus, Syria

Contract

This is a NO-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-3 contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, health

UNICEF Syria was established in 1970 and has been working with partners to help empower children to fully claim and enjoy their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF works with partners across Syria to deliver supplies, services and expertise in areas of Child Protection, Education, Health, Nutrition, Water, Hygiene and Sanitation for every child. UNICEF also provides humanitarian assistance when needed.

Syria continues to face one of the most complex emergencies in the world. Unprecedented humanitarian needs are compounded by displacement inside the country and across its borders, extensive destruction of civilian and social services infrastructure, devastating impacts on the economy, and most importantly, the breakdown of the social fabric that stitched the country together for decades.

Today, 90% of people in Syria live in poverty, most are unable to make ends meet or bring food to the table. Families have had their resources depleted, with limited employment opportunities, skyrocketing prices, and shortage of basic supplies. For most people, the current socio-economic challenges represent some of the harshest and most challenging circumstances they have faced since the beginning of the crisis 11 years ago.

In 2023, 15.1 million people need humanitarian assistance. This is the highest number of people in need ever recorded in Syria since 2011. The number of children in need - more than 6.5 million – has increased by seven per cent in the past year alone. This is largely due the ongoing conflict, continued displacements, the unprecedented economic crisis, deepening poverty, and unemployment. The COVID-19 pandemic, the hike in price of commodities triggered by the overall global economic situation and the impact of sanctions are further compounding the dire situation.

For information of the work of our organization, please visit our website: UNICEF Syria

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the Job:

UNICEF as the lead agency for the Nutrition Sector and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Nutrition Cluster Coordinator will facilitate a timely and effective nutrition response in Syria and ensure that the capacity of national and local institutions is strengthened to respond to and coordinate emergency nutrition interventions that demonstrate results and impact achieved.

1. Identification of key partners:

- Assist in the identification of key humanitarian partners for the Nutrition Sector response, respecting their respective mandates and program priorities - Assist in the identification of other key partners including local and national authorities - In collaboration with Working Group members, carry out capacity mapping of all current and potential actors – government, national and international humanitarian organizations as well as national institutions, the private sector and advocate to donors, NGOs, government and other stakeholder on the nutrition programme needs and services.

2. Establishment and maintenance of appropriate humanitarian coordination mechanisms:

- Ensure appropriate coordination between all Nutrition humanitarian partners (including national and international NGOs, WFP, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement (SARC) and other international organizations active in the sector) as well as national authorities and local structures. - Contribute to ensure the establishment/maintenance of appropriate sector coordination mechanisms including working groups at the national, and if necessary, local level. - Contribute to ensure full integration of the IACS’s agreed priority cross-cutting issues, namely human rights, HIV/AIDS, age, gender and environment, utilization participatory and community-based approaches. In line with this, promote gender equality by ensuring that the needs, contributions and capacities of women and girls as well as men and boys are addressed. - Secure commitments from working group participants in responding to needs and filling gaps, ensuring an appropriate distribution of responsibilities within the group, with clearly defined focal points for specific issues where necessary. - Ensure that working group participants work collectively, ensuring the complementarities of the various stake holders’ actions. - Under guidance of supervisor, promote emergency response actions while at the same time considering the need for early recovery planning as well as prevention and risk reduction concerns. - Ensure effective links with other sectors (with OCHA support), especially Health & Nutrition, WASH, Food Security, Agriculture and Livelihoods and Child Protection. - Upon supervisor’s request, represent the interests of the Nutrition Sector in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator as well as donors on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy. - Upon supervisor’s request, act as focal point for inquiries on the Nutrition Sector’s response plans and operations.

3. Planning and strategy development:

Ensure predictable action within the Nutrition Sector for the following: - Needs assessment and analysis, development of standard assessment formats for use within the sector. - Identification of gaps and prioritization of nutrition needs. - Developing/updating agreed response strategies and action plans for the Nutrition Sector and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in the overall country strategies, such as the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) an integral component of the SHRP (Syria Humanitarian Response Plan) process. - Contribute to drawing lessons learned from past activities and revising strategies and action plans accordingly. - Contribute to developing an exit or transition strategy for the Nutrition Sector.

4. Application of standards:

- In close coordination with supervisor, contribute to ensure that Nutrition Sector participants are aware of relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and relevant commitments that the Government/concerned authorities have undertaken under international human rights law. - Contribute to ensure that the Nutrition Sector responses are in line with existing policy guidance, technical standards, and relevant Government human rights legal obligations.

5. Monitoring and reporting:

- Specifically needs to include an analytical interpretation of best available information in order to benchmark progress of the emergency response and early recovery interventions over time. That is - monitoring indicators (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity and cost) of service delivery which are derived from working towards meeting standards (mentioned in point 4). - Ensure regular reporting against the Nutrition Sector indicators of service delivery (quantity, quality, coverage, continuity and cost) which support analysis of the Nutrition Sector in closing gaps and m measuring impact of interventions. - Contribute to UNICEF and any other nutrition sector documents, to ensure materials are produced clearly presenting nutrition data available for UN/ NGO and government / SARC partners.

6. Advocacy and resource mobilization:

- Identify core advocacy concerns, including resource requirements, and contribute key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the Humanitarian Coordinators, Whole of Syria Nutrition coordination team and other actors. - Contribute to the advocacy for donors to fund sector participants to carry out priority activities in the sector concerned, while at the same time encouraging sector participants to mobilize own resources for their activities through the usual channels. - Upon request from supervisor, act as the focal point for reviewing and ensuring quality control for all the Nutrition Sector project submitted for Flash Appeal, CERF and other funding mechanisms.

7. Acting as “Provider of last resort”:

- As agreed by the IASC Principals, the Nutrition Sector lead agency is responsible for acting as the provider of last resort to meet agreed priority needs and will be supported by the HC in their resource mobilization efforts in this regard. Work in close collaboration with supervisor in order to ensure appropriate delivery of results.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education: • Master’s degree in one of the following fields is required: nutrition, public health, policy and/or management, health sciences, humanitarian assistance and development or another health-related science field. • A bachelor’s degree can be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree if accompanied with additional 2 years of work experience.

Experience: • At least 5 years of progressively responsible humanitarian work experience with UN and/or NGO, including nutrition programme management and/or coordination in the first phase of a major nutrition emergency response. • Recent experience in Nutrition in Emergency programmes including, but not limited to, Malnutrition, Micronutrients, Supplementation, and SMART survey methodology. • Knowledge of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the Sector approach either through training or practical experience will be an asset.

Language requirements: Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of Arabic will be an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (2), Builds and maintains partnerships (2), Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (2), Drive to achieve results for impact (2), Innovates and embraces change (2), Manages ambiguity and complexity (2), Thinks and acts strategically (2), Works collaboratively with others (2).

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: UNICEF Competency Framework.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Other Remarks:

This is a National Officer position, opened only to nationals of Syria. UNICEF Syria is non-family Duty Station, Hardship E. This is a Fixed-Term position, with an expected duration of 2 years.