ROLE PURPOSE:  

The Health and Nutrition Technical Advisor will be responsible for ensuring that health responses in Vietnam is supported with quality technical inputs and to drive the child survival breakthrough, drawing upon Health and Nutrition strategic priorities and ’s Common Approaches. The role will lead strategy development and the technical design and implementation of high-quality programmes that deliver change for children in both emergency and development programming. The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development.  It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners. The role will also link with regional health, nutrition, WASH and other capacities (such as climate change, education, child protection etc.) where they exist, and contribute to regional learning, evidence generation and knowledge management where appropriate. The role will work closely operations colleagues and with partners in the Vietnam CO, building their capacity and building ownership and agency of local organisations.  This position will be expected to engage with the country health sector, and coordination mechanisms, as well as represent the organisation with key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health, UN agencies, and key INGO / CSO. The role would be expected to support emergency preparedness, DRR and support the assessment, design and implementation of humanitarian responses with other CO staff. 

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

Reports to: Programme Development, Quality & Advocacy Director (PDQAD);

Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including  members, the Country Office Programme Development, Quality and Advocacy team, Regional Advisors, technical counterparts in other organisations, donors etc. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice;

Primary Technical areas: Health;

Primary Sub technical area: Health, Maternal and Newborn Health, Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health;

Secondary Technical areas: Nutrition and WASH;

Secondary Sub technical area: Social Behaviour Change.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

A. Technical Leadership:

1. Provide technical leadership for Health and Nutrition programming and advocacy for the Country Office, in particular in areas of maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition; adolescent sexual reproductive health, school health and nutrition and any emerging child health issues, for example due to climate change;

2. Set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy;

3. Capacity build, mentor and build a supportive health and nutrition community across the Country Office, in conjunction with other colleagues in WASH and other thematic sectors.

B. Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

1. Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities that allow for both integration into broader programmes and standalone health and nutrition projects; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across;

2. Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and co-responsible for proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality integrated health and nutrition programmes for children with public health resources, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation;

3. Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation;

4. Promote a Health Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments and national bodies, local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability;

5. Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g.  Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results;

6. Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of health and nutrition programmes at the community level;

7. Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams to carry out gender and power analysis, and conduct quality monitoring against international standards through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and social justice (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies);

8. Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of disaggregated data, evidence and analysis (including gender and power analysis) and understands its link to quality and accountable programming; Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors;

9. Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement;

10. Contribute to organisational learning on health and nutrition ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global health, nutrition and WASH community in . Contribute to strengthening the use of health and nutrition competencies within training and learning initiatives in the sector;

11. Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop emergency preparedness plans, and conduct sectoral assessments (including gender analysis and disability situation analysis using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes. Ensure synergies between cross-thematic humanitarian teams, data and programme design.   

C. Networking & External Engagement:

1. In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that  is a partner of choice in Health and Nutrition programming and advocacy;

2. Ensure that  is influencing and learning from others through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as health and nutrition working groups and other forum;

3. Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required;

4. Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed;

5. Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across , including technical working groups and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.