Power of Nutrition Research Project Coordinator
Action Against Hunger, Ethiopia
Job Description
Action Against Hunger-USA is part of the Action Against Hunger International network, which provides humanitarian relief in over 40 countries worldwide in the sectors of nutrition, health, water/sanitation, and food security. Action Against Hunger-USA, an independent NGO, currently manages operations in 8 countries: Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia and Haiti. Action Against Hunger-USA has over $110 million in programs, and approximately 1,700 staff based in the various country offices and New York City, Washington D.C and Horn and East Africa Regional Office in Nairobi. Additional growth is anticipated.
Summary of Position and essential functions and responsibilities:
Action Against Hunger has received a five-year contract from the Power of Nutrition to conduct operational research in Ethiopia related to select innovations in the community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) that aim to improve the coverage and cost-effectiveness of treatment. The operational research component is led by Action Against Hunger USA in partnership with partners, including UNICEF and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, among others. The Power of Nutrition (PON) Ethiopia operational research study aims to address critical gaps in linking knowledge to effective action on acute malnutrition, including how to scale proven innovative approaches to treatment, as well as their implications for the broader policy-level environment. As such, the study will focus on two specific innovations in the management of acute malnutrition:
- Family MUAC: Family MUAC is an approach that consists of equipping caregivers to measure and monitor their own children’s MUAC given the provision of training and MUAC tapes. Caregivers are taught to self-refer their child for treatment if/when they are identified as acutely malnourished. The goal of this approach is to achieve early detection and treatment for acutely malnourished children.
- Reduced dosage: This approach consists of reducing the standard treatment from a weight-based calculation to an alternative, ‘optimized’ dosing regimen whilst still maintaining comparable treatment outcomes. As current and projected resources are insufficient to meet the total burden of wasting in Ethiopia, there is need to explore ways to increase the cost-effectiveness of treatment. The use of a reduced dosage protocol may contribute to achieving such advances by reducing the cost of product per child treated and cured. As the main point-of-contact for the study in Ethiopia, the PON Research/ Project Coordinator will be based in Addis Ababa, with significant travel to the field to oversee study design and implementation.
Purpose:
The PON Research/Project Coordinator will work directly with the study’s Principal Investigator (PI) and be the lead accountable for overseeing the entire research study in Ethiopia across all stages, from study design, to ethical approval, training, data collection, analysis, documentation, and dissemination.
Engagement:
S/he will be the primary point of contact and central interface for all matters related to the PON study, including close collaboration with the Action Against Hunger Ethiopia country team, the PI and research team within the US Office, select academic/university partners, as well as all PON consortium partners (UNICEF, MoH, etc.) and donors (e.g. PON, Eleanor Crook Foundation, etc.).
Key activities in your role will include:
- The PON Research/ Project Coordinator will serve as the primary interface between Action Against Hunger and other stakeholders in Ethiopia, including: consortium and academic partners, donors and other stakeholders.
- Strategically engaging in partnership with the Ethiopia MoH and UNICEF as implementing partners of the project, as well as with relevant donors, including PON, ECF and others.
- Engaging with country-level nutrition coordination mechanisms (e.g., Nutrition Cluster, technical working groups) to ensure alignment with project activities and a clear pathway to uptake and scale-up, dependent upon results
- The PON Research/ Project Coordinator will serve as the leading force behind the design and implementation of the study on a day-to-day basis in Ethiopia, putting in place measures to ensure quality delivery according to protocols and donor agreements.
- Systematically reviewing relevant literature on Family MUAC and simplified protocols, summarizing the evidence and extracting relevant operational implications into an accessible, usable form for decision-making support to program
- Together with the Principal Investigator, leading the development of a feasible operational research scope and design (in the standard and intervention arms), ensuring all relevant national and internatio