REACH Senior Assessment Officer (Food Security & Nutrition)

BACKGROUND ON IMPACT AND REACH

IMPACT Initiatives is a humanitarian NGO, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The IMPACT team comprises specialists in data collection, management and analysis and GIS, and manages several initiatives, including the REACH Initiative. REACH’s purpose is to promote and facilitate the development of information products that enhance the humanitarian community’s decision making and planning capacity for emergency, reconstruction, and development contexts. REACH facilitates information management for aid actors through three complementary services: (a) need and situation assessments facilitated by REACH teams; (b) situation analysis using satellite imagery; (c) provision of related database and (web)-mapping facilities and expertise.

REACH was born in 2010 as a joint initiative of two International NGOs (IMPACT Initiatives and ACTED) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). The organizations have a strong complementarity formalized in a global partnership, enabling IMPACT to benefit from ACTED’s operational support on its fields of intervention.

We are currently looking for a Senior Assessment Officer to support our REACH team in northern Ethiopia.

Position: Senior Assessment Officer

Unit: Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (HSM) Unit – Tigray

Contract duration: 6 months

Location: Mekele and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Starting Date: ASAP

COUNTRY PROFILE

The humanitarian access situation in Tigray remains volatile, with active hostilities reported across the region. The presence of multiple armed groups further complicates movement of humanitarian convoys and personnel. Access to rural areas remains particularly limited or in some case impossible, preventing the expansion of humanitarian interventions to the so-far unreached areas and preventing accurate assessment of needs.

Overall, food security has deteriorated across the region, especially since the conflict erupted during the harvest season. The interim Regional Administration has estimated that 5.2 million people are now in need of food assistance. Further deterioration is expected as the conflict continues through the typical ‘lean season’ months for the region, while simultaneously disrupting the next planting season. Nutrition partners have expressed concern that the significant number of moderately malnourished cases identified so far will become severely malnourished unless the food and nutrition responses are urgently scaled up. Of the 117,035 children screened from February until mid-April, more than 25,647 moderately malnourished (MAM) and over 3,458

severely malnourished (SAM) cases have been identified. This lack of operational access has made real-time monitoring of food security and establishing representative samples at cluster level extremely difficult. These barriers have led to critical information gaps in terms of the food security on the Tigray population overall.

REACH is planning on running a dual assessment approach that aims to provide multisectoral analysis with a food security and nutrition focus on both inaccessible and accessible areas. This is designed to provide as near comprehensive coverage of the region as possible considering the current access constraints and one element of this approach has already been started in the Humanitarian Situation Monitoring project.

POSITION PROFILE

FUNCTIONS

Under the supervision of the Research Manager, the Senior Assessment Officer will be responsible for the management and implementation of multiple rounds of a food security and nutrition focused assessment, including activity design, strategic engagements, and external coordination. S/he/they will also be responsible for related logistics, partner coordination, reporting and finance requirements and will be required to provide input to the strategic development of IMPACT/ REACH in country and region.

Summary

The REACH Senior Assessment Officer shall be responsible for:

· In coordination with the Research Manager, serve as the technical lead on designing and implementing REACH thematic assessment cycles on household food security and nutrition;

· Ensure that assessment approaches are implemented in a structured and aligned with response-wide information needs and decision-making milestones;

· Directly line management of REACH Assessment Officer(s), with cross-team support to GIS, Data, and Field teams;

· In coordination with the Research Manager and other team members, assure external representation of REACH with donors, partners and the wider aid community through clusters and sectoral working groups;

· Coordinate timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT Headquarters.

1) ASSESSMENT IMPLEMENTATION AND COORDINATION 1.1 Management of assessment processes

· The SAO is responsible for designing the methodology and tools associated with each assessment, according to REACH requirements and principles. S/he/they will manage the planning, implementation, and follow-up of all REACH and project specific assessment activities conducted.

· The SAO is responsible for contributing to the implementation of assessment projects, and providing support to the development of assessment, database and GIS tools with the REACH team. This will specifically include, designing of data collection tools (household surveys, focus groups, and more); development or review of databases; contributing to GIS data collection procedures; and analysis of information to contribute to reports.

· The Senior Assessment Officer is responsible for consolidating all analyses and conclusions from each assessment into IMPACT products such as factsheets, reports and briefs using standard

formats. S/he/they must ensure the writing of timely and accurate assessment reports and factsheets, ensuring the quality and accuracy of technical information provided as well as the confidentiality and protection of collected information. S/he/they will ensure that assessment reports contribute to aid coordination and planning and add to the general base of field knowledge in the country for all organisations working in the areas.

· The Senior Assessment Officer will also store, organize and disseminate assessments, project documents and best practices among partners and potential partners. S/he/they will coordinate timely and accurate reporting to IMPACT.

· The SAO is responsible for managing logistics, financial, administration and HR processes directly related to REACH and liaise accordingly with the relevant support counterpart.

2) TECHNICAL REPRESENTATION

· The SAO is responsible for regular attendance and participation in Rapid Response Working Groups and response-wide prioritization workshops, providing support for the group in analysing and interpreting response-wide food security indicators, including REACH humanitarian situation monitoring data, market data, and other data sources to provide a nuanced understanding of priority areas for immediate FSL and nutrition responses.

· The Assessment Officer will further represent IMPACT vis-a-vis current and potential donors and communicate relevant information to the IMPACT Country Coordinator. S/he/they will participate in inter-NGO meetings and those of UN agencies and any other relevant inter-governmental institutions at the national or provincial level.

· More generally, the Assessment Officer is expected to contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organisation, notably through the application of IMPACT’s mandate, ethics, values and stand-point with regard to other actors.

3) INTERNAL COORDINATION

· The Senior Assessment Officer is responsible for day-to-day management of assessment officers working within the portfolio. S/he/they are expected to guide and direct IMPACT staff and prepare and follow up workplans with each staff member that directly reports to him/her. This will include the preparation of ToRs, observation of recruitment procedures by planning recruitment needs in advance, and undertake interviews. S/he/they is also responsible for the learning and growth of individuals under their direct management as well as informally across the team.

· The SAO shall provide technical support to Research Manager and Country Coordinator in terms of the preparation of new project proposals, development of programme strategies, implementation of project activities, and any other required reporting mechanisms.

· The SAO is responsible for the timely and accurate preparation of narrative and financial reports related to REACH activities in country through close liaison with the Project Development and Finance departments.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO COMMUNITIES AND BENEFICIARIES

The staff member is responsible for ensuring that all relations with the communities we work are conducted in a respectful and consultative manner. Due attention must be paid to ensuring that communities are adequately consulted and informed about IMPACT programme objectives, activities, beneficiary selection criteria, and methodologies. This is the responsibility of every IMPACT staff member.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION

All IMPACT / REACH staff are expected to maintain the strictest confidentiality on all data collected and related processes. S/he/they will actively take measures to prevent the unauthorized sharing of any information and data belonging to IMPACT and its partners, or collected during his/her assignment with IMPACT.

REQUIREMENTS

· At least 3 years of relevant working experience in humanitarian settings such as operational research, Food Security or Nutrition programming, coordination;

· Excellent academic qualifications, including a Master degree in relevant discipline;

· Excellent analytical skills;

· Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting;

· Excellent team management skills;

· Ability to operate in a cross-cultural environment requiring flexibility;

· Familiarity with the aid system, and understanding of donor and governmental requirements;

· Prior knowledge of the region an asset;

· Fluency in English required;

· Ability to operation Microsoft Word, Excel and Project Management Software;

· Ability to operate R (or related statistical programming), and/ or GIS an asset;

· High level of autonomy and ability to work independently.