Health & Nutrition Advisor

Role Summary

The advisor is the technical lead for Medair’s health & nutrition sector in Madagascar. The advisor contributes to the country strategic direction, considering evolving needs, and provides advice and technical support to the management and the health & nutrition team. The advisor oversees the technical quality of programming and is responsible for the national-level sectoral co-ordination with relevant authorities, clusters, and partners.

Project Overview

Recent cyclones, floods and drought have affected crops in the south-east of Madagascar and many areas are facing crisis levels of food insecurity. Significant numbers of children are experiencing acute malnutrition, with life-threatening risks compounded by difficulty in accessing healthcare. Medair aims to increase access to essential health and nutrition services for the most vulnerable in these areas, alongside ongoing WASH and DRR activities.

Workplace & Conditions

Antananarivo, Madagascar with regular travel to project locations in remote areas, with basic living conditions. When in the capital, accommodation in a team house with 3 other EIC.

‍Responsibilities:

• Health & nutrition technical oversight: strategic oversight and overall quality supervision of health & nutrition sector, ensuring implementation is in line with national, international & donor guidelines & standards.

• Capacity building: maintain current awareness of relevant guidelines & standards, identify & address training needs, support development & implementation of guidelines, job aids, and supervision tools.

• Representation: national-level sectoral co-ordination with relevant authorities, clusters, and partners. Support sectoral elements of donor and other proposals & reports. Participate in Medair H&N workshops.

• Implementation: visit project sites to oversee sectoral quality, develop systems for data collection & analysis, ensuring quality monitoring & evaluation. Ensure quality procurement & management of supplies. Advise on budget.

• Staff: support technical elements of recruitment, ‘matrix manage’ relevant sectoral staff, oversee country ‘staff health’ system & supplies.

Qualifications, Experience & Technical Competencies:

• Medical Doctor or Nurse with postgraduate degree in Public Health or Community Health

• Excellent French (spoken and written), fluent English (spoken and written)

• 5 years’ experience in international public health and nutrition project management, including at least 2 years in a humanitarian setting. Previous Medair experience desirable.

• At least 2 years’ experience in supervisory management roles, including strategic direction, quality oversight, recruitment, training, and mentoring.

• Excellent IT knowledge, especially Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, Teams, Sharepoint.

‍Behavioural Skills:

• Strong servant leadership skills with a consultative management style

• Creative, open-minded, flexible, self-learner, with good understanding of cross-cultural issues

• Capacity to work under pressure and manage personal stress levels, self-motivated, proactive

• Able to oversee multiple tasks, prioritising, delegating, and seeking advice as required

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, team player

Team Spiritual Life:

Reflect the values of Medair with team members, local staff, people we serve, and external contacts. Work, live, and pray together in our Christian faith-based teams. Fully contribute to a rich spiritual team life, including team devotion, prayer, and words of encouragement.