The USAID Advancing Nutrition Director of Country Programs (DCP) position is open for recruitment from September 21 to October 4, 2020. The DCP is a member of senior leadership and sits on the Project Management Team. The DCP works with the project’s Technical Directors and Chiefs of Party to ensure consistent, coordinated implementation of the project’s technical priorities across the country portfolio and is responsible for the overall success of country programs.
The USAID Advancing Nutrition Research Advisor position is open for recruitment from September 15 to November 9, 2020. The Research Advisor will sit on the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team and is responsible for ensuring high-quality design and implementation of program evaluation and research activities, including quantitative analysis and mixed methods research, across the project.
The USAID Advancing Nutrition Senior Advisor, MEL Country Support position is open for recruitment from September 15 to September 29, 2020. The Senior Advisor will sit on the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team and provide MEL support to USAID Advancing Nutrition country programs. They will support country staff to develop and implement MEL plans and activities.
The USAID Advancing Nutrition Project Coordinator, MEL and Capacity Strengthening position is open for recruitment from September 14 - September 28. The project coordinator will work across two key technical teams: the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and Capacity Strengthening (CS) teams, to stay organized and on deadline through daily administrative support.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) Specialist position is open for recruitment from August 31 - Sept. 15, 2020. This position is fully dedicated to the USAID Advancing Nutrition project and is based in JSI's Arlington office. Please note the JSI office is closed due to the ongoing pandemic and that all project staff are working remotely until the office reopens. Qualified applicants are invited to apply through the JSI Career's page.
Social norms—the unstated rules that govern behavior in society and determine what is acceptable or taboo—are one of many influences on child feeding behaviors. Norms often specify what young children should eat, as well as how, when, and by whom young children should be fed. There is growing interest in how social norms affect nutrition and health outcomes, yet few practitioners routinely measure the influence of social norms on complementary feeding behaviors or design programs to amplify supportive norms or shift harmful ones.
Good nutrition during the first 1,000 days, from pregnancy until a child’s second birthday, is crucial for optimal child health and long-term development. As COVID-19 shuts down countries and misinformation spreads, it is imperative that sound research drives policy decisions and counters false information that threatens breastfeeding. To address these challenges, USAID Advancing Nutrition and UNICEF will co-lead a communications working group dedicated to translating findings from emerging and evolving research about infant feeding during the first 1,000 days.
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have an indirect, yet severe and lasting, effect on maternal and child nutrition. Weakened and overwhelmed health systems can mean reduced access to and utilization of nutrition services. Added stress on households can create additional challenges to practice recommended nutrition actions in the critical first 1,000 days—from the start of a woman’s pregnancy through her child’s second birthday.
Rapidly-emerging evidence and innovations have resulted in a wealth of knowledge about nutrition’s critical role in health and physical, intellectual, and emotional de
Inadequate nutrition, suboptimal care, and poor feeding practices put children under 5 years at higher risk of disease and mortality. The nutrition needs of many are inconsistently addressed, under-addressed, or unaddressed, causing morbidity and mortality. Providing adequate nutrition services as part of the continuum of care is an important part of reducing morbidity and mortality in children. Unfortunately, routine health services do not always provide those services in a consistent manner.