Job offer: Assistant Nutrition Manager

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION

CIRCULAR NO. 4 OF 2024.

Applications are invited from suitably qualified local candidates for the following positions that are tenable in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition:

MINISTRY : AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION

DEPARTMENT : NUTRITION AND HOME ECONOMICS

SECTION : COMMUNITY NUTRITION

JOB TITLE : ASSISTANT NUTRITION MANAGER

GRADE : H

LOCATION : MASERU

RESPONSIBLE TO: NUTRITION MANAGER

JOB SUMMARY

UNDER THE GENERAL SUPERVISION OF THE NUTRITION MANAGER, THE INCUMBENT WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR FORMULATION AND FACILITATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SECTIONAL POLICY; NUTRITION EDUCATION AND INFORMATION; NUTRITIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT; COMBARTING OF NUTRITIONAL RELATED DISEASES; COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION OF SECTIONAL ACTIVITIES; PREPARATION OF THE SECTIONAL BUDGET AND ASSUME PARTIAL OR FULL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NUTRITION MANAGER IN HIS/HER ABSENCE.

MAIN DUTIES

FORMULATION AND FACILITATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SECTIONAL POLICY

• Develops sectional policy to facilitate guidance in the overall implementation of sectional activities
• Develops simplified training manuals and guidelines to facilitate a common understanding and interpretation for easy implementation of food and nutrition programmes and activities
• Conducts training workshops for Nutrition officers to enable them to train the community-on-community nutrition
• Establishes control measures to ensure that utilization of set guidelines and procedures on food preparations and food handling is within the set standards, policies, rules and regulations.
• Monitors the performance of the sectional policy, rules and regulations as well as set guidelines on proper handling of food to facilitate their effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness to community so as to promote food safety.
• Reviews and revises the sectional policy to ensure their responsiveness to the environmental and developmental needs.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of sectional programmes
• Advocate for nutrition considerations into policies and plans of all the relevant sectors.

2. NUTRITION EDUCATION AND INFORMATION

• Develops and designs guidelines and methodologies on data collection and community education for Nutrition and Home Economics staff to ensure good quality information
• Develops and interprets simplified training manuals on nutritional issues, to facilitate a common understanding and adherence.
• Develops guidelines and manuals on nutrition related issues to facilitate the empowerment of District Nutrition Officers for productivity enhancement.
• Liaise with relevant agencies on the development of strategies and technical guidelines on nutrition.
• Monitors and evaluates the performance of the developed guidelines and manuals to ensure that it is efficient and effective.
• Liaises with both local and international organizations so as to promote and upgrade good nutrition in the community.
• Updates data regularly to ensure that information in the data bank is in line with the changing environmental and developmental needs.

3. NUTRITIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

• Conducts research studies to find nutritional trends throughout the life cycle in the country in order to establish relevant measures to be taken to enhance nutritional status.
• Conducts nutritional assessment on locally available and affordable resources to ensure food security
• Conduct surveys on the proper utilization and impact of the newly introduced and recommended products in Lesotho to ascertain the level of understanding of the consumers on their proper use as well as extend to which they warrant some review and improvements.
• Collaborate with research institutions in the field of human nutrition locally and internationally to design and develop relevant and appropriate food and nutrition guidelines for consumers in the different conditions.
• Conducts surveys and research studies on malnutrition related diseases in Lesotho in order to recommend and promote appropriate preventive nutritional measures.
• Use research results and evidence base to design demand-driven interventions, which can be easily adopted at household level.

4. COMBARTING OF NUTRITIONAL RELATED DISEASES

• Participates and recommends in the development of rules and regulations on nutrition to control entry of food that are not recommended for consumption.
• Participates and recommends in the designing and development of guidelines and strategies on overnutrition and undernutrition to eliminate lifestyle related diseases.
• Recommend strategies and measures to prevent lifestyle diseases related to improper food habits and poor nutrition practices to translate communities into a place where healthy lifestyle choices are easily incorporated into everyday life.
• Develop nutrition assessment tools to help individuals and households to track their own eating pattern and habits to correct the shortcomings where necessary.
• Liaise with both local and international nutrition sensitive programmes to create an integrated approach to combating diet related and nutrition related diseases

5.  COORDINATION OF SECTIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Draws and prepares the sectional annual work plan and report to ensure the smooth running of the divisional operations.
• Liaises with the local and international organizations to ensure and facilitate consistency and mutual support and synchronic implementation of sectional programmes as well as to avoid duplication of efforts and misuse of resources.
• Participates in related meetings, seminars, and conferences both locally and internationally for information sharing

6.  PREPARATION OF THE SECTIONAL BUDGET

• Prepares the overall sectional budget annually to ensure that all sectional programmes and projects are funded accordingly and implemented smoothly.
• Negotiates and justifies the sectional budget at the divisional budget discussions in order to secure the necessary funds to finance sectional activities.
• Recommends the review of the sectional budget to the head of division whenever the need arises to realign it with changes in the sectional business plan to facilitate the implementation of the critical programmes and activities within the section.

7. MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SECTIONAL PROGRAMMES

• Develops monitoring system to ensure consistency
• Designs   and uses Monitoring and   Evaluation frameworks for nutrition programmes.
• Interprets the developed monitoring system to the District Nutrition Officers to ensure mutual understanding, support and adherence.
• Establishes nutrition interventions and common indicators for assessing their results
• Hold meetings quarterly with relevant bodies to monitor the progress to ensure that they are in line with the planned activities

8. ASSUME PARTIAL OF FULL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NUTRITION MANAGER IN THE ABSENCE OF THE SUBSTANTIVE HOLDER OF THE POSITION

• Holds regular meetings with nutrition staff to facilitate planning and reporting of the divisional activities.
• Convenes quarterly meetings with nutrition staff to review progress and accordingly approves the required and necessary revisions in their operational work plans so as to provide the required resources for their achievement.
• Identifies the training needs of the individual supervisees and establishes the strategies to guide on their training and development so as to promote their capacity, competence, efficiency and effectiveness and provide in service upgrading the knowledge.
• Monitors and evaluates the post training and development performance of the undertaken training and determines the necessary action to maintain good skills and upgrade as necessary.

COMPENSABLE FACTORS

JOB SPECIFICATION

Education and training

• MSc in Community Nutrition/Nutrition/ Food Science and Technology (1st Preference)
• MSc in Home Economics/Consumer Science (2nd Preference)

Experience

Three (3) years of relevant experience in the field of Nutrition

OR

BSc. in Nutrition / Community Nutrition / Consumer Science.

Experience

Five (5) years working experience in the field of Nutrition

Other Knowledge and Skills

-Computer literacy

-Good interpersonal and communication skills

-Knowledge of research ethics

-Interpretation and analytical skills

-Training skills

2.  RESPONSIBILITY2.1   For work of others

This factor is minimal with this job.

2.2  For Property

The incumbent is responsible for proper utilization and safekeeping of his or her office furniture and equipment

2.3  For budget and finance in general

The incumbent is responsible for preparation of sectional budget

2.4   For safety of others

This factor is not identified with this job.

2.5  For effect of errors

The incumbent will be held responsible for inappropriate development and interpretation of guidelines and manuals that may portray the wrong message on handling of food.

3.  COMPLEXITYAuthority for decision making

The incumbent has authority to recommend the review of the sectional budget.

3.2  Problem Solving

This factor is minimal with this job

3.3  Supervision received

The incumbent is expected to work independently but reports monthly to his or her immediate supervisor.

3.4  Dexterity

This factor is very minimal in this job

CONTACTS

The incumbent comes into contacts with the following officers/offices during the execution