Title:
Location:
Reports to:
Technical Surge Advisor- Social and Behavior Change
50% deployment to emergency locations; Base locations outside of the US
and UK will be considered
Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods Director at HQ
International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, non-profit organization dedicated to
saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development
programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a
private, voluntary, non-political, non-sectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality
of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved
communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical
assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility for rapid response to emergencies.
International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them
back to self-reliance.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND
Program Goal:
Specific Objective:
The Partners:
Improve overall availability of capacitated emergency nutrition specialists.
To improve overall emergency nutrition response.
International Medical Corps (lead), Save the children and Action Against
Hunger.
International Medical Corps is leading a consortium with Action Against Hunger (ACF) and
Save the Children UK (SC UK) to provide technical Surge capacity for response in emergencies.
The program will hire four Technical Surge Advisors (TSA), specifically one Infant and Young
Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E), hosted by SCUK, one community management of
acute malnutrition (CMAM), one Social Behavior Change (SBC) hosted by International
Medical Corps, and one needs assessment expert hosted by ACF. In addition International
Medical Corps will hire a program coordinator to manage this program. These TSAs will be
deployed to Level 3 emergencies as a priority and to Level 2 emergencies as needed to support
nutrition partners on the ground including the nutrition cluster to conduct nutrition needs
assessments, start-up or quickly expand CMAM programs, support government and partners on
IYCF-E, and support social behavior change in hygiene and sanitation and its linkages to
nutrition.
The four TSAs will be deployed 50% of the time. When not on deployment, they will focus 25%
of the time to dedicated work of their hosting agency and 25% of their time to the consortium.
They will focus on building the capacity of the consortium partners and other partners including
Ministries of Health, government departments, in country UN agencies and local and
international NGO staff on IYCF-E, SBC, CMAM and needs assessments; provide remote and
follow-up support to emergency response as needed; review, update and when needed develop
new guidelines to simplify and improve response in disasters to nutrition needs especially in
IYCF-E, nutrition and WASH related SBC, CMAM and needs assessments.
UNICEF estimates that more than 90 percent of deaths from diarrheal illnesses in young children
can be attributed to unsafe or inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices. Recent
evidence also points to unsafe food as a cause of diarrhea in children especially at the weaning
age. Effective social behavior change to improve hygiene is widely accepted to be one of the most
valuable tools to reduce the burden of diarrheal diseases after a disaster. Hygiene promotion is,
nevertheless, given significantly less emphasis than other water supply and sanitation initiatives.
In most major emergency responses there is a major emphasis on providing water and sanitation
facilities and not enough emphasis on hygiene promotion and integrating hygiene promotion and
nutrition.
JOB PURPOSE:
The SBC Technical Surge Advisor (TSA) will provide senior leadership and will be responsible
for improving the delivery of emergency nutrition, specifically SBC, responses in rapid onset
and protracted emergencies globally, through in country deployments and remote technical
assistance to governments, nutrition clusters, the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC), and local and
international non-government organizations.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:
Deployments (50%):
Specific tasks and responsibilities will be outlined in a TOR (prepared and validated by all the
members of the Technical Surge consortium) for each deployment, based on country context and
needs; and they are likely to include several of the following key tasks:
 Deploy within 72 hours of an emergency request
 Provide technical training, strategic advice, and operational support on Social and Behavior
Change relating to sanitation and hygiene and nutrition.
 Ensure adequate coordination for SBC is in place through either establishing and leading
or providing substantial support to the Nutrition and WASH clusters and possibly
supporting an SBC technical working group
 Lead SBC assessments and advocate for inclusion of the 12 determinants of behavior
change in multi sector rapid assessments
 Support country nutrition and WASH clusters to develop a SBC strategy and mapping as
required
 Design appropriate and evidence based SBC response plans
 Advocate for prioritization of behaviors across sectors that affects the most vulnerable
and increase mortality and morbidity
 Assess capacity building needs across partners and develop a plan for meeting these;
conduct Training of Trainers (TOTs) for Ministries, train field workers/first responders,
hold orientations for stakeholders
 Integrate SBC into current, new, or scaled up nutrition activities: CMAM, micronutrients,
IYCF-E
 Advise on integration of SBC nutrition and hygiene behaviors with other sectors (WASH,
Food Security and Livelihoods, Child Protection, Health)
 Work with the CMAM and IYCF-E TSAs to develop relevant integrated SBC messages
and behaviors to focus on during the emergency response
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Design M&E tools and indicators
Monitor and evaluate SBC activities
Determine need for scale up, brief donors and advocate for adequate resource allocation.
Lead the development of proposals and budgets to seek adequate funding for SBC to be
included in nutrition and WASH responses
Support and develop government capacity in SBC.
Contribute to research and analysis on SBC in emergencies to enhance good practices
and assist in building the body of knowledge and evidence
Synthesize and/or analyzes learning generated through programs into communicable
outputs and disseminate these appropriately
Stay abreast developments and current good practices in the field of practice
Contribute to writing and disseminating program learning documentation
Collaboratively and as needed, help develop tools and job aids that foster organizational
capacity in SBC
In addition to the response (50%):
As part of the work of the SBC TSA during non-deployment, the SBC TSA will build the
capacity of the consortium and GNC partners in designing and implementing evidence-based
behavior change interventions during emergencies. The SBC TSA will develop tools and
messages and will provide training to global partners via Skype and in person when responding
to a disaster. Since a substantial number of GNC partners also implement WASH programs, the
training will be for both sectors at the same time. The SBC TSA will be responsible for liaising
with both the nutrition and WASH sectors/clusters.
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In collaboration with stakeholders, develop and rollout appropriate SBC trainings.
In anticipation of emergencies, the SBC person will design behavior change activities
that correspond to each of the 12 determinants of behavior change. These activities
would be developed in consultation with the Global WASH and Nutrition clusters. They
will be adapted for each specific emergency response and implemented with the clusters
during an emergency response.
Design an SBC curriculum and program design based on existing guidance and adapted
to emergency response. This curriculum will then be disseminated through trainings for
MoH, NGO and UN staff
Document interventions and lessons learned to support the development of SBC-E
guidelines in emergencies
Document SBC responses in different emergency contexts including flood, earthquake,
conflict, refugee influxes.
Build partner staff capacity in SBC in emergencies
Security:
 Fully adhere to International Medical Corps Security procedures, communication protocols
and standard operating procedures.
 Behaves at all times in a manner which positively promotes International Medical Corps and
its work
Education:
Master’s degree in nutrition, public health, behavior change communication, sociology, or
related development studies; or equivalent combination of education and work experience in the
context of SBC.
Experience:
 At least 8 years work experience in SBC in the area of nutrition and public health, with a
minimum of 5 years specifically in international nutrition, preferably including WASH.
 Demonstrated experience and high acceptability in working with government, clusters,
NGOs, and donors.
 Demonstrated experience in successfully working across health, WASH, agriculture, and
social protection sectors and clusters.
Specific Knowledge Requirements:
 Advanced knowledge of SBC and its application to programs.
 Emergency response knowledge required.
 Fluency in written and oral English required.
 Working knowledge of French, Spanish and / or Arabic, desirable.
Skills:
 Proven teamwork, partnering skills (facilitating dialogue and communications across diverse
sectors, institutions, and geographic administrative levels)
 Excellent writing, oral and visual presentation skills; training skills
 Ability to assess priorities and competently complete a variety of activities with a high level
of accuracy and timeliness.
 Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
 Ability to initiate and implement activities with minimal oversight and supervision.
 Proficiency in MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc) and the Internet.
NB: This is an anticipated position and is contingent on funding.
To apply go to:
http://careers.internationalmedicalcorps.org/careers.aspx?adata=ELj2PZSpZqh0NwWnxSIaVO1
XHZKo%2bjKrFkd1%2bfvkY%2fiOxRiFjyxa0KlMaPPXAbHqWuehY7d6dpNDOS3HSS4B9jl
akL4uBrpWIPdcggUbJZvMhRL373CjzOgfbdSv9pe1zXmGGeuX0zN5QGkQw2SkmlVh52PDr
dvZWFwriAA2oXEY81x%2bofBZPqRtmdMPCs%2bc7g%3d%3d
Closing date: August 31, 2015