Nutrition Officer CMAM - Emergency Capacity Building, NO-B, Lilongwe, Malawi (open to nationals of Malawi only)

The position will support the nutrition emergency response. *This is a temporary appointment for 364 days.

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For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Purpose of the Position

The Ministry of Health (MOH) in Malawi adopted the Community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) approach since 2004 with the aim of increasing coverage and accessibility of treatment by decentralizing care to health centers and treating the majority of cases as out-patients through provision of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) and basic medical care. This is complemented by supplementary feeding for moderately malnourished children (MAM). Currently the CMAM programme is reaching about 65% (42,000) of the severely acute malnourished (SAM) children expected case load of (69,533). This indicates the need to urgently enhance active-case finding through screening at community level for early identification of under-five children who are malnourished to be enrolled in CMAM. Since 2008, the monitoring, supervision and quality control of the CMAM has been assured by the "CMAM Advisory Services which was phased out in March 2013, despite the MoH limited capacity (technical and human resources) for mentoring and support supervision at district and health facility level.

Since January 2015, Malawi has been experiencing floods due to continuous rains that have caused rivers to overflow. An estimated 1.15[1] million people affected directly and indirectly due to loss of property, crops and livestock, displacement, disruption of services and infrastructure including roads and bridges. According to Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA), 230,000 people have been displaced into temporary sites especially schools. About 20% of affected are children, and 17% under-five children. UNICEF is responding to humanitarian needs and co-leading alongside government in Nutrition, WASH, Education and Protection clusters.

As a result of the floods in the 15 affected districts, CMAM case load is increasing considerably due to screening but could also be due to disease outbreak such as cholera, malaria and infection as well as food deficit. Using the current SAM prevalence rate a case load of >20,000 is expected. In addition, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among the under-five children may increase susceptibility to infection such as cholera, measles and acute respiratory infections and worsen the condition of those already infected. Although Malawi VAD levels are below the WHO moderate (10-20%), more needs to be done to accelerate the reduction of any forms of VAD from the population.

Given the limited capacity of the MOH, concerted effort is needed to support the emergency response, recovery and resilience integrating with the regular nutrition programs.

After April 19, 2015, nutrition recovery plan is being implemented informed by the recently concluded post-disaster need assessment (PDNA) of March, 2015. Support is needed to ensure smooth transitioning of activities from immediate response to recovery and resilience, as well as improvement of emergency programme for future. The TA will ensure coordination and implementation of the nutrition activities, given the very short implementation period and high number of activities to be completed. The TA in collaboration with the MOH and partners, under the guidance of UNICEF, will continue to conduct on-the-job support and mentoring, as well as assessment of quality of services at district and health facility level, conduct quarterly joint supervision, and monitoring of CMAM services and supplies.

Therefore, a Nutrition Officer CMAM (Emergency Capacity Building) is needed to allow UNICEF to complete the remaining activities for nutrition emergency response, whilst at the same time ensuring quality of treatment of CMAM in the regular program. The consultant must ensure alignment of emergency interventions with existing CMAM and community based nutrition programme (SUN-NECS), as a critical transition from response to recovery and community resilience.

Key Accountabilities and Duties & Tasks

1. Training and capacity building POA finalization – CMAM

• Ensure continued of monitoring the general situation of SAM & MAM through CMAM database and end user monitoring
• Support community mobilization and screening for active case identification of MAM & SAM (existing health facilities & camps) 
• Work with MoH District level in periodic monitoring/ supervisory visits. Support the district level MoH in effective "End user monitoring" by monitoring;
• Support CMAM evaluation

1. Development and collaboration for training module at national level

• Work with MoH District level to Support implementation of quality CMAM-SAM program (plans, training, refreshers, supervision, monitoring, equipment, supply chain management, supplies-RUTF)
• Improve institutional capacity to plan, manage, supervise and monitor nutrition services at district level
• Timeliness of delivery of therapeutic milks, RUTF and anthropometric equipment
• End use satisfaction (quality, adequacy and appropriateness) of supplies & equipment
• Effective utilization of supplies and equipment

3.Training and capacity building for Nutrition in Emergency for all level of functionaries and NGOs

• Support integration of CMAM and optimal IYCF through the existing community care groups (CCG) & volunteers
• Support community mobilization (awareness meetings, household registration, formation and identification of Community Leader Action for Nutrition (CLAN)) to ensure integration of CMAM, maternal nutrition, IYCF, dietary diversity, WASH
• Support promotion of optimal IYCF (exclusive breast feeding, breastfeeding, complementary feeding through the existing CCG & volunteers
• Monitoring to ensure no general distribution of powdered milk or formulas
• Support nutrition education campaigns through, radios, community theater groups
• Support distribution of nutrition IEC material - nutrition key message booklet-Chichewa,
• Support Training health workers on IYCF counseling
• Support Training CCGs - TOT, supervisors, frontline workers, CLANs and CCGs
• Support training of theater groups in nutrition (1 group in each ADC making 10 groups trained in 3 sessions) district level activity to be supported by national core team

Facilitating Quality control of treatment in NRUs and OTPs by training and mentorship-

• Develop training pool and ensure TORs
• Facilitating on the job guidance to trainers and NGOs
• Collaboration with Partners and NGOs.

 Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• Bachelor's degree in nutrition, nursing, community health or public health and related areas in nursing or community health nursing.  A postgraduate degree or higher is an asset.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in community nutrition and health programs
• Minimum of 2 years of experience working in the field of community health or nutrition
• Knowledge and experience in nutrition and health in Emergency.
• Knowledge in Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programmes desirable.
• Experience in supporting MoH in implementation of Health and Nutrition capacity strengthening program.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Core Values

• Commitment
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Integrity

Core competencies

• Communication
• Working with People
• Drive for Results

To view our competency framework, please click here. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.