UNICEF recruits 01 Knowledge Management Officer, P-2
Knowledge Management Officer, P-2, ESARO, Johannesburg, Post#109453
Job Number: 521192 | Vacancy Link
Locations: Africa: South Africa
Work Type : Temporary Appointment
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, an Advocate
The Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region is home to approximately 250 million children under 18 years of age – a population that is expected to double by the end of the century. ESA region is a complex and heterogeneous region comprising low-income and middle-income countries. The region continues to face multiple humanitarian crises fed by a combination of factors including cyclical drought and flooding, erratic weather patterns such as El Niño, and multiple instances of insecurity and conflict often leading to mass population displacements. Persistently high levels of poverty and malnutrition and frequent disease outbreaks exacerbate humanitarian needs in the region. In 2016, Southern Africa was affected by the worst El Niño-induced drought in 35 years resulting in high levels of food insecurity and water shortages.
Despite significant socio-economic progress in some countries, malnutrition in all its forms remains a serious concern in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR). While stunting prevalence among children under five decreased from 52 per cent in 1990 to 34 per cent in 2017,rapid population growth means that the number of stunted children increased from nearly 24 million to 29 million over this period, and the region is home to 15 per cent of the worlds stunted children. In most countries, children from the poorest 20 per cent of the population are nearly twice as likely to be stunted (45 per cent) as those from the richest (26 per cent). At the same time, Global Acute Malnutrition (low weight for height, or wasting) affects approximately 6 per cent of children across the region, while in Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia and Madagascar the rate surpasses 10 per cent. Ninety per cent of the annual burden for treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in ESAR is in 12 countries: Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Several of the high burden countries for stunting are also high burden countries for SAM (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia, and Tanzania). At the same time, the number of children under five who are overweight has increased from 2.1 million in 1990 to 3.5 million in 2016.
Reducing stunting, in order to provide opportunities for children to realize their full potential, is the second Regional Priority, maintaining UNICEF’s commitment to this important issue between 2018 and 2021.The nutrition section rolling workplan details the activities planned to support the regions 21 countries to reduce stunting. A key area is around improved measurement and documentation of progress in reducing stunting. The purpose of this 12-month TA is to better document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices, particularly in relation to countries with thematic funds; to increase learning and replication of successful activities by filtering, documenting and disseminating examples of good practice and lessons learned; and to improve analysis of trends and monitor progress against Regional Priority 2 – to reduce stunting among children less than five years in ESA countries by at least one third by 2021.
How can you make a difference?
The overall purpose of the Knowledge Management Officer is to provide support to country offices for documentation of learning and to ensure this learning is readily available for country offices to use to improve programming. The Knowledge Management Officer will work under the overall guidance of the Regional Advisor for Nutrition and the direct supervision of the Nutrition Specialist (NIS). In addition, the incumbent will work closely with the Regional Office Knowledge Management (KM) Specialist as well as with other Knowledge Management Focal Points in the Regional Office.
Major duties and responsibilities
Working closely with the Nutrition Specialist (NIS) as well as the ESAR Nutrition Section and in collaboration with the Regional office KM specialist, the incumbent will have the following responsibilities:
Support countries in ESA region to document lessons learned and best practices for dissemination through regional and global channels, publication or other channels including the SDG Knowledge Platform.
Support countries to develop visibility products in collaboration with Communication Section in the Regional Office.
Support countries in the region that received thematic funds from the Netherlands (GTF-N; 18) to document baseline data and progress in implementation of the grants.
Support countries in the region that received thematic funds from the Netherlands to document lessons learned, process and intermediate outcomes of proof-of-concept interventions and to generate annual field notes and case studies as per grant requirements.
Prepare, analyze and summarize data related to emergency nutrition programming especially in Southern Africa for sharing with the technical working groups including the Regional Inter-Agency Standing Committee (RIASCO) and the Food and Nutrition Security Working Group (FNSWG).
Support nutrition assessments and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analyses, with a focus on the Southern Africa countries.
Build and maintain a regional repository of knowledge products for nutrition, including studies, field notes, lessons learned and best practices from the region that are already in existence.
Documentation of major nutrition-related meetings, including the Regional Nutrition Network Meeting.
Support the NIS specialist to prepare documentation on progress against stunting reduction in the region (aligned with the mid-term review of the Regional Office Management Plan (ROMP) in 2019):
Support compilation of regional nutrition database and analysis of trends, for the output indictors as well as outcome indicators.
Support dissemination of key topics (lessons learned, best practices, innovations, etc.) through the ESA Regional Nutrition Information Focal Point quarterly conference calls and/or through ESAR Webinar series.
Key expected Results
At least 2 lessons-learned documents produced and disseminated throughout the region.
Support and guidance provided to all countries that received GTF-N funds for development of field notes.
Southern Africa nutrition situation / up-date information provided to RIASCO and FNSWG.
Regional repository of knowledge products established and maintained.
Key knowledge topics disseminated through Regional platforms, including on-line meetings and webinars.
Final approved Nutrition Network Meeting report available as per SOP timelines (draft within two weeks and final within one month of meeting).
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
A Degree in public health nutrition, epidemiology, nutrition information management, knowledge and information management, or related technical field.
A minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in nutrition information and/or knowledge management and/or related areas.
Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
The competencies required for this post are :
UNICEF Core Values
Diversity and Inclusion
Integrity
Commitment
UNICEF Core Competencies
Communication (verbal and written) (LII)
Drive for Results (LII)
Working with People (LII)
UNICEF Functional Competencies
Relating and Networking (LI)
Persuading and Influencing (LI)
Formulating Strategies and Concepts (LI)
Applying Technical Expertise (LII
View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Closing Date Fri Apr 19 2019 22:55:00 GMT+0100 (Afr. centrale Ouest)