Job summary:

The Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition (AFN) Lead, will provide technical support, strategic guidance and supervision for the design and implementation of evidence-based sustainable agriculture activities to improve maternal, infant and young children nutrition (MIYCN), in four selected regions (Iringa, Rukwa, Dodoma and Morogoro) of Tanzania for an expected USAID-funded four-year Cooperative Agreement. The purpose of the project will be to improve nutritional status of women of reproductive age. especially pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, and children under five.

Reporting to the Project Chief of Party with Economic Inclusion Manager of AKF as a stakeholder, the Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Lead is responsible for leading a nutrition-driven sustainable agriculture initiative within the project aimed at promoting household consumption and income for the targeted groups In the four selected regions. S/he will design, mainstream and utilise existing initiatives, platforms, networks and establish new ones as needed with focus on smallholder farmer engage­ment, growth of entrepreneurs and demand creation for consumption of nutritious foods by the local population. S/he is responsible for ensuring quality, impact and cost-effectiveness under this component.

The AFN Lead will supervise a small team working on design and delivery of all agriculture-related activities In the project. This component of the project will require working on promoting home production and consumption of diverse, safe, and nutritious foods year-round as well as promoting agriculture livelihood to support households earn income and use it to purchase food items to meet their nutrition requirement. The AFN Lead will work closely with the lead for the other two components of the project who will focus on maternal child health, nutrition and WASH behaviors, and on capacity building of local governments to coordinate multi-sector nutrition activities.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and/or refine relevant nutrition-focused agriculture training and capacity building programs/modules, materials, and tools to promote home production and processing of diverse, safe and nutritious food.
• Develop strategy and interventions for selected value chain development (e.g. horticulture, poultry, and pulses) to enhance household income.
• Collaborate with the Social, Behavior Change and Communication (SBCC) Lead in developing an SBCC program to promote nutrition and health behaviors around food production, processing and consumption at the household level to improve the nutritional status of women of reproductive age, adolescent girls, and children under five.
• Strengthen the capacity of project staff, implementing partners, stakeholders and others in implementing the nutrition-focused agriculture interventions in the project.
  
  • Manage the development of evidence-based program standards.
    guidance, and tools that reflect global best practice in nutrition focused agriculture and promote widespread application and use of these standardsProvide overall strategic direction for nutrition-focused agriculture activities.
  • Develop and manage the agriculture team work plans and budgets, ensuring consistency with the Project’s strategic direction and priorities
  • Lead and manage the Agriculture. Food security and Nutrition team.
  • Ensure timely, quality delivery on assigned activities, including management of budgets related to those activities
  • Contribute to and provide inputs to annual work plan, required project reports, baseline data, tools and indicators/tools for monitoring and evaluation and collection/sharing of lessons learned.
  • In collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, identify key gaps, best practices, and promising new approaches for food production, home-based value addition, consumption and marketing
  • Document lessons learned related, evaluate impact and modify SBCC approaches as needed.

Qualifications and Experience Required

• Ability to work effectively in a team, and in cross-cultural settings.
• Minimum of Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture, horticul­ture, agronomy, food production, nutrition or related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in international nutrition/public health programming with emphasis on food security and community nutrition programs including MIYCN. At least 4 years experience in senior management or technical lead position.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in the design and implementation of agriculture, food security and nutrition strategies, approaches and capacity building programs
• Demonstrated success in working with local government, NGOs and private sector
• Strong record of fostering new and effective partnerships including participation in technical advisory groups, international consultations, boards, etc.
• Ability to develop and apply M&E plans to determine program results and monitor impact.
• Demonstrated ability to manage project
• Ability to effectively lead and supervise a team
• Excellent written and oral proficiency in English, able to make strong oral presentations and produce high quality written reports.
• Experience of working in Tanzania will be preferred
• Knowledge of USAID and other donor policies, strategies, and program priorities preferred.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a CV and cover letter by email to: recruit.akftz@akfea.org by 14th May, 2018. Include ‘Agriculture. Food Security & Nutrition Lead in the subject line.