Nutrition Lead

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Programs – Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Pact is initiating a new activity in Malawi as part of the ACHIEVE project, a global project funded through the U.S. Department of State. The activity in Malawi will focus on supporting the Government of Malawi to provide integrated, high-quality maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition services at community and facility levels. The activity will be implemented in Zomba, Thyolo, Karonga, and Balakadistricts with limited focus also at a national level possible. In close coordination with the Ministry of Health, ACHIEVE will support the availability of integrated, quality lifesaving services to women, newborns, and children at community and facility levels; expand the availability of lifesaving HIV services by strengthening the integration of HIV services in ANC platforms, among others; and strengthen subnational health management teams to plan, manage, monitor, and evaluate their health programs.

The Nutrition Lead will serve as ACHIEVE/Malawi’s senior technical lead on nutrition interventions.

• Provide technical leadership in the design, coordination, and supervision of project activities aimed at strengthening high-quality, integrated Nutrition-related interventions at facility and community levels.
• Lead the delivery of project activities designed to improve nutrition-related interventions.
• Oversee project approaches for capacity strengthening for frontline health workers in nutrition-related interventions through training, skills building, mentoring, coaching, supportive supervision, and/or other approaches.
• Improve Nutrition service delivery using Quality Improvement tools and techniques for improving nutritional outcomes.
• Coordinate to identify and address gaps in nutrition interventions linked to procurement and/or management of commodities and supplies.
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship and coaching, supportive supervision to district-level Technical Officers and District Technical Managers to improve nutrition service delivery.
• Ensure collaboration and coordination with government and other key stakeholders to improve quality, coordination, and monitoring of nutrition activities.
• Monitor implementation of nutrition activities to ensure timely completion of objectives and targets.
• Support national and district nutrition governance (e.g. oversight, resource allocation) .
• Oversee the development of needed nutrition technical guidance, tools, job aids, training materials, and/or nutrition components of project technical deliverables (workplans, reports, etc.).
• Use data to inform and improve decision making on nutrition-related interventions and project adjustments, particularly for improving quality of care.
• Represent ACHIEVE in nutrition-related technical working groups and in planning, coordination, and performance review meetings.
• Work closely with the U.S. DOS, government, implementing partners, and other relevant stakeholders to identify, document, and disseminate best practices in nutrition-related interventions.
• Ensure nutrition activities (e.g. management of acute malnutrition) are integrated with MNCH and other relevant platforms.

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in nursing and Midwifery, Degree in Public Health, Health Management or relevant health field. Those with advanced post-graduate training in Public Health will have an added advantage.
• At least 5 years’ experience delivering, overseeing, and providing technical assistance in maternal and newborn health with a specific focus and expertise in nutrition-related interventions.
• Experience working at both health facilities and community levels.
• Demonstrated robust technical grasp of the nutrition continuum of care. This includes managing lifecycle-based interventions (particularly the first 1,000 days), coordinating referral pathways between prevention and treatment, and overseeing the delivery of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming within a supportive, enabling environment.
• Experience integrating nutrition services in MNH care, HIV care, and other relevant services.
• Experience providing technical assistance, capacity strengthening, supportive supervision, and performance monitoring in nutrition interventions.
• Demonstrated experience leading successful teams, achieving deliverables on time and within budget, and interacting effectively and collaboratively with a broad range of senior and mid-level public and private sector counterparts, donors, and other key stakeholders.
• Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with government and civil society stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, presentation, communication and reporting skills.
• Sound IT knowledge and skills in word processing, spreadsheet, databases, presentations
• Ability to work independently, good leadership and communication skills, ability to work with people from all backgrounds
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Ability to speak Chichewa and other local languages.

• A minimum of 5-7 years’ experience working directly with clients/patients in a clinical setting.
• Knowledge of USG rules, regulations, and policies.