Food Security and Livelihoods Manager – International Medical Corps (IMC)

Agriculture, Health Care

International Medical Corps (IMC)

The FSL Manager is responsible for leading and providing technical support to International Medical Corps Ethiopia country teams in order to successfully design and implement high quality humanitarian food security and livelihoods programs for new emergency FSL programs and supporting emergency preparedness and capacity building of IMC FSL staff and stakeholders on IMC FSL standards and technical approaches. FSL Manger will also be responsible for supporting the Nutrition and Food Security and Livelihoods Departments’ new initiatives and lead designing of innovative FSL programs.

The FSL Manager will be based at International Medical Corps’ office in Addis Ababa, and is expected to travel to provide technical assistance to field. This position demands technical knowledge, training, experience at national level, and work experience in difficult circumstances and in conflict prone areas.

Essential Job Duties/Scope of Work:

The purpose of the Food Security and Livelihood Manger position is to lead design, implementation and monitoring of integrated and sustainable food security and livelihood programs in emergency and development contexts, build the capacity of country teams and actively represent IMC and serve as the technical resource person on FSL sector networks and technical Working Groups in Ethiopia. The FSL Manager is also an integral part of the Nutrition department and will be instrumental in assisting the department in tackling some of the underlying causes of malnutrition through the design and implementation of nutrition -sensitive FSL programs.. 

Technical and implementation Support

·         Lead design of innovative and nutrition sensitive FSL programs for International Medical Corps’ Ethiopia that conform to IMC FSL standards, internationally accepted standards, and country guidelines , and formulate sector strategies and recommendations for response, disaster risk reduction, and long-term development

·         Lead the field-level implementation of activities using appropriate IMC standards and program monitoring tools to plan, review and track progress and quality by the program team

·         Regularly monitor field-level activities and work with local partners to resolve obstacles to timely, quality, and accountable implementation. Proactively raise issues with the Nutrition Coordinator or program director as appropriate.

·         Work with the M&E team to manage the project Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) plan, with particular emphasis on accountability and transparency. Lead in-field learning events, review and update sharing meetings, debriefs, etc. and ensure documentation and sharing of lessons learned. Ensure prompt collection, analysis, and sharing of all project data.

·         Work with the M&E team to conduct periodic reviews/monitoring of paper vouchers, market prices and supply, vendors capacity, cash assistance program, micro-gardening project etc

·         Provide guidance to field team on implementation of  integrated/multi-sectoral FSL programs with other sectors like nutrition health, WASH, protection, etc… as appropriate

·         Coordinate with other FSL partners, IMC sectors and community leaders to conduct sector specific and multi-sectoral assessments, identify the need for FSL options and support the country mission to feed assessment result into proposals if needed.

·         In emergency conditions, lead the team to counter the risks of malnutrition by ensuring that food is distributed, or cash assistance provided using appropriate mechanisms

·         Induct new FSL staff in IMC FSL standards and technical aspects of planning, implementing, and monitoring of FSL programs to enable them to fit in and effectively do their jobs

·         Assess the training needs of staff and develop a FSL training program to meet these needs.

·         Conduct FSL training for project staff and government counterparts on FSL activities such as food/cash assistance, kitchen gardens, agriculture, livestock, vocational skills training, VSLAs, income-generating activities, etc.

·         Support the FSL staff to write reports, document successes, challenges, and best practices for external and internal use.

·         Take initiative to promote more resilient livelihoods in order to increase people’s autonomy, enabling them to generate income that meets their basic needs, even in times of crisis in all IMC project implementation areas in Ethiopia.

·         Coordinate International Medical Corps Food Security and Livelihoods response, recovery, and development activities across a wide range of actors within International Medical Corps, donors, host governments, UN and NGO partners to ensure consistency of programming. 

·         Actively represent International Medical Corps in the food security and livelihood sector discussions, technical working groups and serve as International Medical Corps’s food security and livelihood sector resource person.

·         Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Food security, rural development, Entrepreneurship, International development, or any other agricultural related discipline.

·         At least 4 years of experience in designing, planning, implementing, supervising, and reporting on Food security and Livelihoods programs.

·         Technical background in any of the following FSL disciplines; Food assistance and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. 

Experience and Knowledge Required

·         Demonstrates understanding of the role of food security in preventative nutrition interventions

·         An up-to date understanding of food security, risk reduction, emergency response, sustainable development and livelihoods concepts.

·         Knowledge in designing and implementing appropriate and effective safety nets, including cash and/or food transfer programming

·         Familiarity with design and programming processes of different donors especially and a general familiarity.

·         Professional experience in areas of food policy and food security with demonstrated knowledge of trends in food security and the ability to analyse implications for national context, through, work experience, or other means.

·         Proficient analytical skills that demonstrate an understanding of the current concepts, priorities, and issues in program monitoring, data collection and evaluation.

·         Skills in technical proposal writing, designing and implementing food security and livelihood programs.

·         Ability to exhibit tact, diplomacy, and resourcefulness in dealing with high level officials from donor agencies, international organizations, and government officials and partners. 

·         Must have excellent English written and oral communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with other departments within International Medical Corps, donors, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

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Lien