Nutrition Field Officer

Under the supervision of the Supervisor, the Nutrition Field Officer (NFO) will complement the Food Security and Nutrition response program by ensuring vulnerable communities, such as pregnant women, mothers of children under 5, older people and people with special needs, are properly assessed, have access to multi-purpose cash assistance and are provided with remote and household-based needed awareness and counseling to ensure messages on optimal infant and young child feeding, malnutrition, maternal health, as well as COVID-19 are disseminated and challenges faced by caregivers on nutrition are addressed and supported. The NFO will therefore assess the beneficiaries wellness status and ability to care for themselves and their families, especially regarding their nutrition and health, in order to evaluate proper route of support, plan it and implement it, including response such as MPCA, remote and face-to-face nutrition awareness sessions, as well as referrals to other needed services, including Health, lactation specialists, WASH, protection, etc. The position requires extensive field work and movement in Beirut as well as meticulous organization and follow up skills.

Objective 1 - Needs analysis and adapting approaches to cultural context (10%)

• In collaboration with other Field Officers in the team and the team supervisor, assess and understand the different practices, norms and concerns regarding Infant and Young Child Feeding, nutrition, maternal nutrition, mental health, and care practices amongst the targeted communities in the areas of interventions.
• Analyze and discuss the optimal and sub-optimal practices needing improvement and to input this analysis into programmatic interventions.

Objective 2: Provide support and counseling to targeted population through ensuring provision of multi-purpose cash, nutrition awareness and referrals to services (50%)

• Coordinate with authorities and municipalities to implement activities in allotted areas of intervention and maintain relationships
• Coordinate with team members at the mission working in Beirut to identify target population of pregnant and lactating women, be it through beneficiaries targeted for MPCA, trainings to MSMEs or other targeted population from available datasets or through new mapping of target population in the areas of implementation.
• Coordinate with other actors working in nutrition in the areas of intervention to ensure no overlap of services takes place
• Plan remote support (phone, WhatsApp, etc.) and HH visits with nutrition awareness sessions on nutrition, malnutrition, diet diversity, food utilization, food safety, Infant and Young Child Feeding practices, maternal Health, and health seeking behaviors, COVID-19 updated recommendations, through one-on-one counseling, respecting COVID-19 preventive measures, at the household level 
• Conduct demonstration of Family MUAC to mothers to support them in monitoring their children’s malnutrition status through face-to-face visits and promptly refer them to related services accordingly.
• Participate in other nutrition and health promotion activities that could be identified based on beneficiaries needs and linked with the nutrition context
• Register and record all relevant data regarding the beneficiaries and the sessions conducted, keeping track of the needed follow-up sessions to plan and needed services expressed
• Discuss nutrition awareness session plans for vulnerable populations and referrals with other team members and line manager and technical team, ensuring close coordination among different interventions

Objective 3: Conduct referrals based on assessments and expressed needs (10%)

• Observe and collect information during activities sessions on the beneficiaries’ needs and vulnerabilities, keeping protection-related needs in mind
• Refer mothers reporting needs and challenges on breastfeeding and breastmilk substitutes to Lactation Specialists (LS) and ensure full assessments are conducted to provide them with the needed support and follow-up
• Conduct daily and weekly referrals to needed nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive services based on assessment and awareness session, including but not limited to health and mental health services, sexual and reproductive health, food access, supplementary feeding, WASH needs, etc.
• Ensure referrals are made through proper channels in close coordination with MEAL department and follow-up on uptake of referrals

Objective 4: Support program teams (10%)

• Support program teams in MPCA activities, trainings of MSMEs, and organizing food preservation and food safety sessions as part of other program activities.

Objective 5: Document and report on all activities conducted on a daily and weekly basis details on target, progress, referrals, challenges, and needs (20%)

• Transfer all data collected on hard copies to soft copies
• Provide verbal and written report, on a daily and weekly basis, on all activities, including type of support provided, targets reached, progress at work, follow-ups conducted, referrals made, challenges faced, sub-optimal practices, lessons learned and needs
• Document all forms and files used for mothers/caregivers targeted and counseled by keeping an updated register and storing all tablets, data, and documents in secure locations/files
• Seek technical support on technical topics (nutrition, malnutrition, IYCF, WASH, health promotion, food security, cash assistance, etc.) from line manager and technical Coordinators, as needed
• Attend debriefing meetings with line manager and other team members, as requested

Objective 6: Security

• Respect the security rules specified in the mission and base security plan, see to it that the team under his/her responsibility complies with the security plan and perform the security management tasks that can be assigned in its protocols
• Communicate to the security managers of the working location any security related information or noncompliance with the security plan

Objective 7: Support humanitarian activities of Action Against Hunger

• Support the emergency interventions of the organization as per the employee’s abilities
• Support any activity that helps reaching our humanitarian goals, as per the employee’s abilities
• Promote gender equality within the humanitarian and/or development work
• Attend meetings and trainings as needed

Requirements:

Training/ Education:                                          

Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics or relevant degree.

Technical specific knowledge:  

• Strong knowledge in Infant and Young Child Feeding practices, nutrition in the life cycle, malnutrition, child development, maternal nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, community nutrition and public health promotion.
• Knowledge on IYCF in emergencies, mental health, food security, and/or maternal and child health is a plus

Previous experience:    

• 1-3 years of experience in nutrition counseling, community nutrition, and health promotion
• Experience in working in the humanitarian field in Lebanon

Humanitarian sector knowledge:                 

NGO experience is mandatory

Languages:                                                             

Native Arabic speaker and fluency in English (written, speaking) are a must

IT and specific systems:                                    

Good command of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.