Contract                     Permanent

Hours                         Full time (37.5 per week)

Location                    London with a requirement to travel internationally (approximately 6 weeks / year)

Salary                         Circa £65,000p.a. + Discretionary Bonus, Life Insurance, Private Health Care and Pension (5% non-contributory)

Reports to                  Director, Investments

ABOUT THE POWER OF NUTRITION

The Power of Nutrition is a UK-based charitable foundation formed by like-minded investors and implementers committed to ending the cycle of undernutrition and helping children grow to their full potential through new financing and focused action. Our vision is to be a leader in the global efforts to eradicate stunting.

Undernutrition is the underlying cause of 45% of all child mortality. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, nearly 4 in 10 children are growing up with stunted bodies and brains.  Putting a stop to undernutrition is one of the best means we have to transform children’s health, education and livelihoods.

The Power of Nutrition is working to unlock $1 billion in new financing to transform children’s futures on a scale that few can achieve alone, including substantial co-financing at country level. The Power of Nutrition has a unique matching model in which it matches any dollar raised to make investments in support of national government nutrition programmes, further leveraging funding from implementing partners. The fund launched in April 2015 with support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development and our first implementing agency partners include the World Bank Group and UNICEF. In 2018, The Power of Nutrition developed partnerships with international NGOs to complement its portfolio with the World Bank and UNICEF.

Further information can be viewed at www.powerofnutrition.org

THE CONTEXT OF THE ROLE

The Senior Nutrition Governance & Systems Reform Specialist is a key appointment for The Power of Nutrition. S/he will work within the Investments team to ensure that all investments are robust, and well-structured to satisfy good governance criteria and to achieve a sustainable impact for children at scale. S/he will also collaborate closely with colleagues across the organisation to undertake the necessary due diligence on all new investment opportunities and support the review and management of ongoing investments. All the investments and programmes are complex, and this individual will need to interact with numerous stakeholders – Investors (Private, Corporate, High Net Worth and institutional donors), Implementing Partners (Multilateral Development Banks, UN Agencies and Non-governmental Organisations) and Governments and their respective departments (particularly Ministries of Health and Finance) in the UK and overseas. S/he will need to have a good understanding of health and / or nutrition systems especially public finance management in the health and/or nutrition sectors. They will have a strong ability to communicate, negotiate and influence at multiple levels, knowledge to evaluate and quantify the scope of nutrition interventions and the proportion of health and other sector budgets allocated to nutrition programmes. An ability to analyse the amount of capacity building and systemic reform being undertaken in-country will be an asset.

The Power of Nutrition team is relatively small, and everyone has the passion and commitment for our mission to nutrition. S/he must be a self-starter and have a can-do attitude to undertake duties beyond their specialist area. There are many opportunities to oversee nutrition programmes, get involved in fundraising, partnerships, communications, advocacy, branding and marketing.

It is a fantastic role to broaden/deepen your skills and experience, work within a creative and innovative UK-based charitable foundation with a clear focus on delivering a sustainable impact for children in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Programme Development, Delivery and Portfolio Management

  • Ensure all Power of Nutrition programmes with a domestic investment match component has a clear framework for measuring and tracking the size and quality of the match
  • Ensure all Power of Nutrition programme has a clear framework for strengthening the nutrition system (within which the programme is being delivered) and robust method for measuring the effectiveness and impact of approaches used  
  • In partnerships with implementing partners ensure new investments are developed in line with The Power of Nutrition’s Theory of Change and Investment Criteria
  • Ensure effective management of The Power of Nutrition’s investment portfolio
  • Ensure all investment decisions are underpinned by robust political economy analysis and effective appraisal of government’s capacity to scale up and sustain the proposed nutrition interventions;
  • Ensure all investment have robust governance in place to support effective implementation and facilitate cross donor/cross governments investments where appropriate
  • Throughout the lifecycle of investments, ensure progress is being made on the governance and systemic reform components in line with the programme’s ambitions
  • Collaborate with implementing partners to identify innovative new ways to realise sustainable scale up of nutrition interventions at a national level
  • Contribute effectively to policy dialogue with key stakeholders in implementing partners and national governments on the sustainable scale-up of The Power of Nutrition Investments
  • Work with implementing partners to develop cutting edge approaches to monitor and evaluate the impact of the domestic investment and systems reform components of The Power of Nutrition’s investments
  • Contribute to strengthening The Power of Nutrition’s network with institutions specialising in nutrition finance, governance and systemic reform.

Fundraising

  • Support colleagues in Partnership & Brands in presentations to prospective donors
  • Support the development of proposals for prospective investors

Reporting & Communication

  • Work with internal and external colleagues to ensure the systems reform, domestic investment and scale-up components of investments are in accordance to the agreed results framework
  • Simplify the domestic investment, scale-up and systems reform content from evaluation and measurement frameworks for the Communications and Partnerships & Brand teams
  • Drive effective dissemination of successful scale of nutrition investments from The Power of Nutrition investments to influence regional and global policy and practice.

Strategy Development

  • Support the Director of Investments in setting the domestic investment, scale-up and systems reform standards for The Power of Nutrition investments
  • In collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, ensure The Power of Nutrition has robust indicators to measure the domestic investment, scale-up and systems reform components in programmes
  • Undertake governance analysis of The Power of Nutrition Investment countries and ensure these are used to inform investment decisions
  • Ensure The Power of Nutrition has a strong understanding of the global nutrition landscape and is effectively networked into the landscape
  • Act as a thought leader and communicator to a wide variety of audiences.

Sector knowledge and profile-building

  • Act as The Power of Nutrition’s leading source of knowledge on current and emerging evidence on domestic investment in nutrition, scale-up of proven nutrition interventions and systems reform in the nutrition sector.  
  • With a variety of external audiences, act as a knowledgeable resource about The Power of Nutrition’s programmes and priority areas
  • Represent The Power of Nutrition in key fora and manage relationships with our implementation partners and their key stakeholders in a supportive and pragmatic way

Membership of the team

  • Comfortable working flexibly and effectively in a focused team structure
  • Provide coaching and mentoring support to colleagues, as required to help build skills, confidence and capability in nutrition finance, governance and systems reform
  • Line manage interns when necessary
  • Commit to continuing the advancement of The Power of Nutrition brand, messaging and communications

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential requirements:

  • Masters’ degree or equivalent level of academic and professional experience in nutrition, health financing, public health, political science, public administration/management, accounting or finance,
  • Extensive experience in health finance management and/or systems reform.  Experience in   public finance management in the nutrition or health sector in a developing or middle-income country will be an asset
  • Evidence of expertise in political economy analysis and an established track and credibility in working on systemic reform issues in the nutrition and/or health sectors in fragile and conflict, developing and/or emerging economy context
  • A strong track record and evidence of successful delivery in political economy and/or institutional analysis
  • Familiarity or experience engaging with global governance structures/coordinating mechanisms within the nutrition sector will be an asset (Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, Council on Food Security, Nutrition 4 Growth initiative, UN REACH, etc.)
  • Proven programme development and programme management experience
  • Demonstrable experience in influencing policies and reforms at senior levels of government and influencing bilateral and multilateral donors.
  • Strong interpersonal and teamwork skills
  • Outstanding communication skills with a proven ability to taper style for both technically literate and non-technical audiences, investors and policy-makers.
  • Excellent writing and analytical skills – a publication record is desirable, but not required
  • Outstanding networking skills with a proven ability to work globally and effectively with diverse groups of individuals. Experience with large bilateral donors such as DFID, multilaterals such as the World Bank and UNICEF, and the private sector such as CIFF and UBS Optimus Foundation is desirable
  • Working knowledge of French.

Desirable:

  • Excellent political awareness and judgment on sensitive governance matters
  • Strong understanding of nutrition interventions in an international development context
  • Strategic and results-oriented
  • Excellent relationship building and relationship management abilities
  • Demonstration of an ability to influence beyond authority
  • A proven ability to solve problems and make decisions including challenging ones.

Based in London, this position involves travel internationally (approximately 6 weeks / year)

Please apply with Cover Letter and CV to the email: humanresources@powerofnutrition.org or LinkedIn by 31 March 2020.

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