Senior Technical Advisor, Social and Behavior Change

Background:

ELEVATE Nutrition (Enhancing Local Efforts for Vital, Transformative, and Evidence-Based Nutrition), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is a five-year cooperative agreement led by FHI 360 in collaboration with Action Against Hunger, Bixal, CNFA: Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, GEMNet-Health, and Oxford Policy Management. The project aims to advance local implementation of high-quality nutrition programs and policies to improve the nutritional status of women and children, particularly in the first 1,000 days. ELEVATE Nutrition will drive efforts to sustain USAID technical leadership in nutrition, enhance locally driven nutrition programs and policies, and boost innovative efforts to share learning and transfer knowledge.

Job Summary:

The subject matter expert will provide technical expertise and strategic leadership to ELEVATE Nutrition’s portfolio of social and behavior change (SBC) activities across multisectoral nutrition efforts. The senior technical advisor will serve as a member of ELEVATE Nutrition’s technical leadership team and provide strategic leadership for the design and implementation of SBC activities. They will establish quality standards for all SBC activities and ensure the Activity’s SBC work reaches those standards in support of ELEVATE Nutrition’s goal to advance evidence-based, local efforts for improving nutrition outcomes. They will supervise other SBC technical staff on the project. S/he will collaborate with ELEVATE Nutrition staff and partners working in SBC activities to maintain a multi-sectoral focus across all project activities. 

Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

Thought Leadership

• Curate, develop, and adapt promising SBC strategies and evidence for contributing to global technical leadership and enhanced local multisectoral nutrition programming

• Lead development of SBC research topics within project learning/research agenda and support implementation of SBC research based on local priorities and needs

• Identify and document successful local SBC advancements to contribute to global technical leadership; draft publications and external technical products and communications

• Represent ELEVATE Nutrition on webinars, panels, in working groups, and within other opportunities related to the subject matter

• Contribute to development of scopes of work for country and/or regional SBC staffing needs

Program Quality and Technical Assistance

• Support design/adaptation of evidence-based local SBC efforts

• Oversee implementation of evidence-based SBC strategies and provide high-quality technical assistance

• Contribute to development of work plans and budgets, ensuring alignment with project goal and intended results

• Collaborate with technical leadership team to identify and implement knowledge exchange methods that strengthen locally led learning for evidence-based SBC

• Support local nutrition leaders to participate in global nutrition events related to SBC by assisting with preparation, e.g., abstract, poster, and presentation development

• Provide supervision and mentoring to SBC technical staff and/or consultants to ensure their work meets technical quality standards and to contribute to their professional development

• Contribute to project donor reports as related to the subject matter

• Participate in project technical leadership meetings and provide input on progress, challenges, and proposed adaptations to strengthen implementation as related to SBC

Applied Knowledge & Skills:

• Track record of having successfully led SBC strategic planning and programming with bilateral and multilateral donors, implementing partners, and local organizations; experience working in USAID funded programs essential

• Track record of successful leadership of SBC strategies and programming in multisectoral nutrition programs/projects

• Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality technical products

• Ability to work with technical teams across diverse contexts; demonstrated success providing technical assistance in complex environments

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Fluency in written and spoken English

• Fluency in French, Spanish, or Portuguese desirable

• Willing to travel as required (10-25%)

Experience:

• Master's Degree in nutrition, public health, international development and/or related field; PhD and/or MPH desirable

• 12+ years of experience providing technical leadership in SBC progra