Company Profile

JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI), a leader in global health, is a nonprofit public health management consulting and research organizations dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities throughout the world.

Job Description

• Job Location: Accra and Select Districts in the Northern Sector, Ghana.
• Job Type: Short Term Contract (15 days)
• Posting Date: 29/01/ 2021
• Deadline: 11/02/2021

Reporting
The  Nutrition Landscape Mapping Consultant will work under the direction of the National Support Manager

Job Summary
As part of its strategies to improve nutrition multisector coordination and programming, USAID Advancing Nutrition Ghana is working with the National Development Planning Commission to strengthen stakeholder engagement. At the initiation of the project, USAID Advancing Nutrition undertook a limited scoping mission to understand the nutrition stakeholder landscape, multi-sectoral nutrition coordination planning, the medium-term development planning process, and the associated drivers and challenges. To complement the scoping exercise with additional information and fill identified gaps, the project is seeking the services of a short-term consultant to undertake a mapping exercise to further understand relevant processes, bottlenecks, barriers, and drivers during the planning cycle. 

Specifically, the mapping will build on the scoping exercise, and also fill in potential information gaps including: Missing information from Government stakeholders not consulted during the virtual scoping mission (Ministry of Finance, Agriculture, Local Government & Rural Development) at the national level; More detailed understanding of how the Mid-Term Development Planning process occurs, the systems that are in place, the challenges that stakeholders face, and how they have overcome these challenges in past cycles at all levels;  and establishing existing capacities and functions of those involved in the planning process at all levels;

Scope of Work
The consultant will be required to deliver the following results:

• A comprehensive mapping report that highlights additional stakeholders consulted, processes, bottlenecks, barriers, and drivers during the planning cycle. 
• A rubric that identifies the existence or otherwise of skills and competencies such as data management, multisector budgeting, data use and advocacy, and multisector collaboration at the district level. 
• Summary report of competency needs of District Planning Officers to help inform which capacity needs exist and requires support and recommendations for capacity strengthening needs, and areas of the planning process to prioritize and pay attention to.

The timeline for completing the assignment is 15 working days. 

Required Skills or Experience

Qualification 

• Master’s degree or higher in relevant discipline; an advance degree in planning, social science, public health, or nutrition. 
• At least 7 years of senior level experience in leading national level engagement of government agencies, stakeholders, decentralized planning and working with development partners and networks.

Required Skills or Experience

• Significant knowledge and experience in the Medium-Term Development Planning process with knowledge in research, monitoring and evaluation, and ability to synthesis and write report.  
• Relevant knowledge of nutrition and food systems stakeholder landscape and how they interact.
• Relevant experience in nutrition programming and planning processes including various coordinating mechanism. 
• Strong writing and communication skills with the ability to interact effectively with stakeholders and partners at all levels.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of Ghana’s local government development planning process and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) work in Ghana.
• At least ten years of progressively increasing responsibility working in policy planning and implementation including nutrition and local government planning processes or related fields.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft software packages: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.