The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization that promotes children’s rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries

ROLE PURPOSE:

The SBC Officer will implement Health, Nutrition and adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH) SBC related interventions in Turkana. The SBC Officer will support in the designing of the overall SBC strategy and integrated umbrella campaign. S/he will ensure that all SBC activities support the achievement of health & nutrition targets in the project sites. The position will be responsible for the timely implementation of all SBC related activities based on state of the art SBC practices and capture lessons learned. The SBC officer will also take a leading role in coordination with all project staff and partners in the consortium to adhere to the SBC strategy and approach in their respective Counties.  S/he will work closely with project technical and management staff to generate stakeholder inputs, support in development of implementation plans and suitable knowledge management and measurement

The Program / Department / Team

With funding from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Mercy Corps’ USAID Nawiri Program is leading a consortium of Kenyan and international partners on a five-year journey to sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition in Turkana and Samburu Counties of Kenya. Through a phased approach that emphasizes evidence gap analysis, as well as partnership, learning, and co-creation, the program takes a robust county-centered design with government leadership, active engagement from communities, the private sector, and civil society. Mercy Corps’ consortium brings together the global leadership, research capacity, technical expertise, and implementation experience necessary to partner with local institutions to test, adapt, and scale evidence-based solutions. Together we will sustainably reduce persistent acute malnutrition for vulnerable populations in Turkana and Samburu counties. The project is co-created, co-implemented, and co-measured to address problems and solve them at the county level. Save the Children is a member of the Mercy Corps Led USAID Nawiri consortium implemented in Samburu and Turkana counties.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Social and Behavior Change Advisor

Indirect Reports: None

Staff reporting to this post:

Direct: None

Country Dimensions: Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children now has an operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Wajir and Nairobi and we work through partners in many other parts of the country. In total, we employ around 200 staff and had an operating annual budget in 2019 of approximately US$ 13 million.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY : 

Technical assistance and capacity building

• This staff will be the primary driver of developing the SBC approach, branding campaign platforms and working with all purpose leads (Governance, health & nutrition, WASH and Livelihoods) to ensure they are using state-of-the-art SBC approaches linked to the overall strategy and work with them on the development of SBC content (i.e. trigger videos, forum theatre, experiential fairs, radio diaries, experiental and participatory learning) as appropriate.
• Mobilize and engage with communities through the MOH structures including Community Health Services and other change agents in the project to address negative social determinants to health and nutrition.
• Support in provision of state of the art and evidence based technical inputs and guide priority setting for the research agenda and activities in collaboration with the SBC Advisor and other technical teams.
• Support in designing strategy and umbrella campaign with stakeholder input and audience testing
• Support in actively identifying direct technical inputs from all technical areas to ensure effective support for their targets; coordinate project SBC activities and provide direct technical support to other technical counterparts as needed.
• Cultivate strategic relationships with government ministries, and other stakeholders for the smooth implementation of program activities in their assigned County.
• Coordinate monitoring of SBC activities with other staff according to the M&E framework and assess if targets are achieved and document results in their assigned County.
• Ensure the timeliness and quality of all SBC content for reports and meet all reporting requirements.

Capacity Building, Mentorship and development

• Build the capacity of USAID Nawiri field staff to be able to support and oversee the community change agents’ engagement with the community members. Support in the identification and development of innovative approaches for changing the attitudes, perceptions, and practices around decision-making for health and nutrition outcomes, at multiple levels and scales (e.g. individual, HH, community, public and private sector institutions, etc.)
• Lead and motivate the community own resource persons (e.g. CHVs) to ensure effective project implementation.
• Work with Civil Society Organizations(CSOs)/Sub grantees (e.g. Local implementing partners, community based organizations (CBOs), Faith based Organizations(FBOs) to define expectations, provide leadership and support as needed, and evaluate performance regularly
• Capacity built the CSOs, CBOs, FBOS, Community own resource persons to ensure they have the requisite skills and knowledge to be able to implement projects as required.

Representation and advocacy

• Represent NAWIRI in relevant internal and external fora as required.
• Represent Save the Children in relevant internal and external fora as appropriate
• Work closely with the Health and Nutrition team and any other project and operations teams in advocating for the survival of the child in line with the Country Strategic Plan and global strategy of Save the Children
• Work with consortium members to further Save the Children’s mission for children.

Assessment, monitoring, evaluation and documentation

• Participate in the annual work planning process in close collaboration with USAID, MOH and County health teams and the project staff
• Prepare narrative reports for the donor(s) and Save the Children as required, ensuring these are of a high quality and submitted for review in a timely manner. This will involve compilation of information from a range of project staff and MoH partners
• Monitor program outputs and results and work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research team to ensure that results are documented and reported accurately and in a timely manner
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Research team and ensure that all monitoring plans, baselines, reviews and evaluations are in line with the project design and donor guidelines and are being implemented as required.
• Facilitate appropriate dissemination of research findings and good practices documentations in the project internally and externally to donors, governments, consortium partners and other key actors for immediate and sustainable development of children in Kenya
• Escalate complaints and feedback of a serious nature to field manager/Technical Head and child safeguarding focal point.

Knowledge management

• Serve as a technical knowledge, skills and experience hub for the sector in USAID Nawiri in documenting and sharing best practices and innovations for replication and advocacy together with quality programme team.
• Work with technical resources among Save the Children members to facilitate sharing and learning in child survival and nutrition good practices and leverage their support for strengthening HSS related studies, assessments, innovations, advocacy and capacity building in favour of children in Kenya

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in social sciences or related field.
• Experience implementing SBC, ASRH, health promotion, social marketing, child health, nutrition or similar programs in Kenya. Knowledge of and ability to implement using the Human Centred Design (HCD) would be an advantage as experience in water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• Minimum of 4 years of experience required in health communication, public health promotion, health or behavioural sciences, or related field and demonstrated experience in community-based and inter-disciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated ability to implemented effective behaviour change campaigns, including community engagement and experiential activities in Kenya; prior experience working in Northern Kenya highly desired
• Demonstrated abilities and experience in SBC strategy and materials development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of SBC interventions.
• Experience of working with local/national governments and capacity building of systems, partners and staff.
• Demonstrated problem solving skills, collaboration experience, creativity and willingness to innovate;
• Demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in a team
• Familiarity and understanding of USAID & FFP policies and procedures, or those of other donors, or those of donor-funded projects or community-based projects;
• Highly developed interpersonal, communication and facilitation skills including participatory approaches, influencing and negotiation.
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in and ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner
• Outstanding report writing skills
• Fluent oral and strong analytical, written English communication skills is required
• Qualified candidates from Samburu County are encouraged to apply