Program Manager Nutrition

IsraAID, founded in 2001, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to providing life-saving disaster relief and long-term support globally, with teams of professionals responding to humanitarian crises.

The Programme Manager Nutrition will provide comprehensive leadership, management, and technical coordination for IsraAID's Kenya component of the Integrated Community Nutrition Management Program. The incumbent is responsible for ensuring that all program activities, including planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting, are conducted in strict accordance with the approved project document, work plans, budget, donor requirements, IsraAID policies, and applicable national and international nutrition standards. This role is crucial for the effective delivery of nutrition interventions across various communities.

1. Lead daily management of the Kenya ICNMP component, ensuring consistency with approved project documents, logframes, targets, and budgets.
2. Translate program design into costed annual and quarterly work plans, detailed implementation plans, and procurement schedules.
3. Oversee program delivery across Kakuma, Kalobeyei, and Turkana West host communities, adapting implementation to context while maintaining standards.
4. Monitor program performance, expenditure, and burn rates, identifying variances and agreeing on corrective actions.
5. Coordinate program start-up, routine reviews, risk management, adaptive planning, and close-out activities.
6. Provide timely and accurate narrative and quantitative inputs for internal updates, donor reports, and other program deliverables.
7. Offer program-level technical leadership for quality implementation of community-based screening, active case-finding, and referral for malnutrition cases.
8. Oversee support for decentralized Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) and Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSFP) services.
9. Coordinate integrated monthly outreach and mobile clinic services with health facilities, including malnutrition screening, immunization, and hygiene promotion.
10. Ensure effective use of Community Health Promoters (CHPs), outreach workers, and school staff for screening, referral, and treatment follow-up.
11. Guide implementation of Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) interventions, including breastfeeding support and caregiver counseling.
12. Coordinate capacity strengthening, training, mentorship, and supportive supervision for health workers and CHPs on CMAM/IMAM and MIYCN.
13. Promote integrated approaches linking nutrition with WASH, child protection, education, and food security activities.
14. Support community and household-level kitchen gardens and climate-resilient agricultural practices.
15. Ensure program sites are accessible, safe, and inclusive, considering gender, age, disability, and protection.
16. Oversee context-appropriate nutrition and wellbeing information, education, and communication (IEC) and social and behavior change communication (SBCC).
17. Support establishment of peer support groups and community structures reinforcing positive nutrition practices.
18. Ensure caregivers understand Family MUAC use and how to seek care.
19. Coordinate community feedback and response management, ensuring feedback informs program adaptation.
20. Promote meaningful participation, community ownership, and accountability to affected populations.
21. Build and maintain effective working relationships with Turkana County Department of Health, UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF, and partners.
22. Support county and sub-county nutrition coordination, contributing to joint planning and alignment with county priorities.
23. Clarify roles, responsibilities, referral arrangements, and data-sharing protocols with partners.
24. Support joint strategic planning, co-design, and integration of program approaches into county systems.
25. Work with MEAL to operationalize the program MEAL plan, tools, indicators, and reporting schedules.
26. Ensure routine monitoring captures screening, enrolment, service quality, training, and community engagement indicators.
27. Promote harmonization and digitalization of nutrition data and reporting tools, integrating with MoH systems.
28. Review program data, facilitate performance reviews, document lessons learned, and ensure evidence informs adaptation.
29. Coordinate participatory assessments and evaluations.
30. Ensure accurate and timely program reports and documentation.
31. Coordinate program-side forecasting of nutrition commodity requirements.
32. Monitor commodity pipeline status, availability, receipt, storage, distribution, and utilization.
33. Support development and application of commodity management SOPs and accountability controls.
34. Ensure program teams understand commodity handling, use, storage, and reporting procedures.
35. Contribute to planning for phased asset transfer and operational handover to county or community structures.
36. Lead, supervise, and support assigned program staff, setting objectives and conducting performance reviews.
37. Foster effective collaboration across program, technical, MEAL, finance, logistics, HR, and security functions.
38. Ensure field activities align with IsraAID security guidance and public health measures.
39. Promote safeguarding, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, and ethical conduct.
40. Undertake other duties relevant to the role as assigned.

1. University degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, Public Health Nutrition, Human Nutrition, Public Health, or a closely related field; postgraduate qualification is an advantage.
2. Professional registration with the Kenya Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute (KNDI).
3. At least 6–8 years of progressively responsible experience in nutrition and/or public health programming, with at least 3 years in a program/project management or supervisory role.
4. Demonstrated experience managing community-based and facility-linked nutrition interventions, including acute malnutrition screening, CMAM/IMAM, OTP/TSFP, MIYCN, and caregiver counseling.
5. Experience working in humanitarian, refugee, displacement, or arid and semi-arid land (ASAL) contexts; experience in Turkana, Kakuma, or Kalobeyei is an advantage.
6. Proven ability to manage integrated, multisectoral programs and work effectively with government, UN agencies, NGOs, and community structures.
7. Experience in project cycle management, work planning, budget monitoring, donor compliance, risk management, partner coordination, and report preparation.
8. Working knowledge of nutrition monitoring and surveillance, MEAL frameworks, data quality, digital reporting, and Ministry of Health information systems (DHIS2/HMIS).
9. Experience with nutrition commodity forecasting, pipeline monitoring, inventory management, and supply-chain SOPs is an advantage.
10. Knowledge of relevant Kenya national nutrition policies, CMAM/IMAM and MIYCN guidance, humanitarian standards, and safeguarding principles.
11. Strong program management, planning, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
12. Strong technical communication and report-writing skills.
13. Excellent stakeholder engagement, negotiation, facilitation, and partnership-management skills.
14. People management, coaching, mentoring, and team-development skills.
15. Strong analytical skills and proficiency in Microsoft Office; familiarity with digital data collection, MEAL, and inventory management systems.
16. Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and respond flexibly in a changing humanitarian environment.
17. Fluency in written and spoken English and Kiswahili; knowledge of local languages in Turkana is an advantage.