Project Coordinator – Nutrition

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Project Coordinator to enhance ILRI’s contribution to the mNutrition project, which will be aligned with ILRI’s efforts in the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (www.a4nh.cgiar.org) & Livestock and Fish (http://livestockfish.cgiar.org/)

The assignment will involve working with all consortium partners and local content providers to manage and coordinate various project activities including quality assurance (QA) procedures. He / she will specifically provide advice and guidance on mNutrition project’s quality assurance systems and their implementation, adhering to the agreed criteria. The QA aspect of the project focuses on the quality of health and agricultural messages generated, to ensure that they have the right content, are grounded on right scientific evidence, suited to the right target groups and are in the right style and vocabulary.

ILRI works to enhance the roles livestock play in pathways out of poverty in developing countries. ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in West and southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. www.ilri.org. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global agricultural research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centres that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner 
organizations.www.cgiar.org.

LRI is part of a DFID/GSMA funded mNutritionGlobal Content Partner consortium that includes CAB International (lead partner), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), OXFAM, and the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The consortium will lead the in-country development of the nutrition content framework and work with local partners to develop relevant mNutrition services. The ultimate goal of the mNutrition Initiative is to contribute to improving nutrition and food security of the poor, especially women, by harnessing the power of mobile technologies to improve access to information on nutrition-specific behaviors as well as nutrition-sensitive health and agricultural practices. The initiative plans to reach at least 3 million beneficiaries across 10 Sub-Saharan African and 4 Asian countries in 3 years.

Key Responsibilities
To manage the validation/review process for a designated portfolio of health and agricultural messages, including collaborative and internal reviews. This will include:

Project Management and Coordination

• Co-ordinate and collate the development of technical content by ILRI scientists.
• Develop and manage multiple partnerships both local and regional.
• Establish productive working relationships with a wide range of organizations and people, including external bodies.
• Defining the project schedules and timescales and liaising with partners to ensure documents are prepared in accordance with the agreed schedules and timescales.
• Carry out the initial scrutiny of project documentation to ensure that it meets established criteria.
• Preparation of background materials on the mNutrition quality assurance (QA) process.
• In consultation with relevant (internal and external) technical experts, provide advice and guidance on the preparation of documentation, interpretation of the consortium’s QA procedures.
• Work with consortium partners to develop and apply a QA framework for the mNutrition project as well as a process ongoing quality assessment of mNutrition content.
• Conduct random and scheduled checks of local content providers ‘work in progress’.

Communication and service delivery

• Provide excellent service to all stakeholders working within the project by being responsive and effectively dealing with any queries/issues.
• Providing accurate and up to date advice and guidance as well as identifying and proposing solutions to issues.
• Help disseminate knowledge and insights gains, as well as tools and methodologies across the mNutrition project and ILRI’s CRPs.
• Maintaining records of the QA process and keeping these updates on relevant mNutrition databases.

Requirements

• University degree in Business Administration, Communications, ICT, Nutrition, Social Sciences, or other related fields.
• At least 5 years relevant work experience, with some previous experience of project quality assurance systems and procedures (preferably in the ICT/mobile or nutrition sectors).
• Experience of working in various aspects of nutrition and/or agricultural systems in at least two or more developing countries.
• Project management experience in a large organisation (either in private sector or development).
• Experience of working with multiple internal and external partners in multiple countries.
• High level written skills, obtained through report writing and the ability to receive, understand and convey information in a clear and accurate manner adjusting the content of the information to suit the needs of different audiences.
• Experience of giving customers a positive and satisfactory service by responding to and dealing with enquiries, providing accurate and up to date advice and guidance and identifying and proposing solutions to new issues.
• Experience of establishing productive working relationships with a wide range of organizations and people, including external bodies, and of working as part of a team.
• Excellent attention to detail and the ability to maintain work of high quality.
• Commitment to and understanding of equality and diversity issues within a diverse and multicultural environment (A/I).
• Willingness to travel to other countries where the project will mostly focus its efforts i.e. Uganda, Tanzania and India.

Other competencies

• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage multiple partnerships.
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment with interdisciplinary teams.
• Ability to develop and facilitate processes and systems related to QA.
• Strong English language skills, both written and spoken.

Terms of appointment:
This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) positions based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus and is for a 2 years’ contract period.

Job level and salary:
This position is job level 3A with a starting salary of KES181,317 per month. In addition ILRI currently offers medical insurance for staff and dependents, Life insurance, Pension at 12.5% employers contribution, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days+ public holidays within ILRI’s National Recruited Staff Scheme.


Applicants: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development through: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ before 31 July 2014. The position title and reference number REF: PC/CapDev/07/14should be clearly marked on the subject line of the online application.

Suitably qualified women and citizens of developing countries, with experience of working internationally, are particularly encouraged to apply.