Background:

ELEVATE Nutrition (Enhancing Local Efforts for Vital, Transformative, and Evidence-Based Nutrition), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is a five-year cooperative agreement led by FHI 360 in collaboration with Action Against Hunger, Bixal, CNFA: Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, GEMNet-Health, and Oxford Policy Management. The project aims to advance local implementation of high-quality nutrition programs and policies to improve the nutritional status of women and children, particularly in the first 1,000 days. ELEVATE Nutrition will drive efforts to sustain USAID technical leadership in nutrition, enhance locally driven nutrition programs and policies, and boost innovative efforts to share learning and transfer knowledge.

USAID/Ghana has requested that ELEVATE Nutrition establish activities in Ghana from August 2024 through June 2028 to provide technical support to advance the government’s efforts to plan and deliver equitable and quality multisectoral nutrition services that promote household resilience and food security. The activities will focus on improving the governance and policy environment, strengthening multisectoral coordination at national and local levels, supporting local governments to increase funding for multisectoral nutrition, supporting social and behavior change through non-health sector partners, and improving knowledge synthesis, documentation, and management. The programming will take place at both the national level, as well as in the five regions of northern Ghana (Upper East, North East, Northern, Upper West, and Savannah).

Job Summary:

The Chief of Party (COP) will provide overall vision, leadership, management, and technical direction for ELEVATE Nutrition Ghana to ensure an integrated vision among different components and actors and achieve programmatic results. S/he will serve as ELEVATE Nutrition’s main point of contact for USAID/Ghana, national government counterparts at the National Development Planning Commission, local government bodies in the program region, local partners, and other program stakeholders, such as UNICEF, and USAID and donor-funded projects. Further, the COP is expected to identify issues and risks related to program implementation in a timely manner, recommend appropriate program adjustment, and ensure smooth functioning with the donor, grantees, partners, and other key stakeholders. S/he will be responsible for the overall program vision and implementation, including overseeing work plan development, supervising activity implementation, and ensuring that program activities meet the stated goals, objectives, and reporting requirements. The COP must demonstrate his/her ability to work in complex environments and manage diverse teams to deliver impact within agreed timelines.

The COP will report to the US-based ELEVATE Nutrition Director of Country Programs and oversee Ghana-based staff. This position will be based in either Accra or Tamale, Ghana, requiring regular travel to northern Ghana.

Essential Job Functions:

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead FHI 360’s ELEVATE Nutrition team in Ghana and serve as the primary point of contact with USAID/Ghana regarding the day-to-day activity implementation and management matters relating to the ELEVATE Nutrition Ghana program.
• Primary liaison with the Government of Ghana; ensures successful client relationship and fosters strategic opportunities for innovative nutrition actions.
• Lead project start-up with support from the U.S. Office, including work plan development and budgeting, hiring staff, office procurement, and other logistical efforts.
• Oversee technical implementation and ensure project activities are of high technical quality and delivered on time and on budget.
• Manage and supervise ELEVATE Nutrition Mozambique technical and operational staff. Ensure positive work environment and effective teamwork across activities.
• Coordinate closely with FHI360 Ghana country office staff to ensure that all administrative and finance activities are well planned and executed to avoid implementation gaps at program level. Ensure that project budget pipeline and procurement annual plan are regularly updated.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for information on the progress and current status of all activities.
• Establish appropriate monitoring mechanisms to ensure that activity progress and specific implementation concerns are regularly and promptly reported and that objectives are met.
• Manage the preparation and presentation of work plans, monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans, and all reports, ensuring the quality of all deliverables.
• Facilitate ongoing project learning and adaptive management as well as documenting and sharing learning from ELEVATE Nutrition Ghana activities.
• Ensure that solid relationships are built and maintained between and among FHI 360, USAID, and key local stakeholders and partners.
• Travel domestically to activity sites, as needed (approximately 20-30% time). Travel internationally for participation in ELEVATE Nutrition learning and sharing events, and other initiatives, as needed.
• Perform other duties as needed.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, public administration, agriculture, nutrition or other directly relevant field from an accredited university; master’s degree or higher preferred.
• At least 10 years of relevant experience, including at least 5 years of successfully managing complex international programs (implementation, logistics, budgeting, staffing), preferably those funded by USAID and conducted in Ghana or other similar contexts.
• Prior experience as a Chief of Party or Deputy Chief of Party preferred.
• At least 3 years programming experience in the areas of multisectoral nutrition, multisectoral nutrition governance, food security, resilience, healthy diets, systems strengthening, social and behavior change or other relevant technical area.
• Demonstrated success across the whole range of project management responsibilities including: strategic program planning; work planning and budgeting; financial, administrative, contractual management and oversight; staff management.
• Demonstrated successes in relationship management and collaboration with local partners and stakeholders, local government agencies, ministries, donors, and civil society.
• Excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills with demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in diverse team situations, build and maintain a cohesive team spirit, as well as mentor staff.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and analytical capacity.
• Fluency in speaking, reading and writing English required.

This job posting summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be assigned to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.

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