Join us.
Organizational Description
Tanager is an international nonprofit that connects smallholder producers and private businesses to co-create new ways of realizing life-changing economic and social opportunity. Our process builds on years of technical expertise, on-the-ground presence and public/private partnerships to unite economic growth with social innovation. Together, we are ushering in an era of equitable market systems that combine profitability with the power to address urgent challenges in poverty, malnutrition, and gender inequity.
Tanager provides a full range of services to co-create healthy markets that benefit all participants:
Connect: Tanager connects people and partners to bridge stakeholder divides, expand market access, and unlock the full potential of shared market opportunities. We bring the right people to the table and make sure every voice is heard, linking smallholder producers to major consumer brands and everyone in between.
Analyze: Tanager combines technical expertise and business perspective to assess markets, analyze supply chains, and pilot new technologies and tools. We test promising business models and shed light on issues critical to market success. We advance research vital to emerging economies. Our analytical approach helps us identify variables early on, which saves time and money in the long run.
Implement: Tanager is a flexible implementing partner with a track record of delivering results in complex, dynamic environments. We drive ambitious initiatives to the finish line with a clear roadmap and the right resources at the right time and place. Our global expertise and on-the-ground presence brings last-mile experience crucial to sustainable market solutions. Clients know they can count on us to keep our word and see things through.
People & Values
It takes bold hearts and resourceful minds to change the world. Our mission attracts high-caliber professionals who are dedicated to the work we do and the way we do it. We take risks, roll up our sleeves, and push the boundaries of what’s possible. We listen, learn, and adapt rapidly, without losing sight of our end goal or the momentum needed to reach it.
We are a networked team that supports each other. We live our mission and exhibit and embrace the following values:
Discernment
- Make choices using sound thinking, intelligence, and experience.
- Be honest and ethical in everything you do and say.
- Set high standards and learn from your mistakes to continually improve.
- Trust your teammates’ capabilities and intentions.
Connection
- Build strong connections with our partners and communities to achieve results.
- Work as a team with everyone at the table and reach out for input as well as advice.
- Measure success, not by the boxes we tick, but by the real difference you make in people’s lives.
Balance
- Strive to achieve equilibrium in all you do.
- Exercise perspective and prioritize what is important.
- Align the interests, expectations, and needs of those we work with.
- Balance seriousness with humor and levity, and our work with our personal lives.
Agility
- Ask, evaluate, innovate, and apply to deliver the best result for all.
- Be agile, efficient, and adaptable in your relationships, processes, and work.
- Take what we’ve learned and adapt to each new situation.
Project Description
Tanager is implementing two programs with a focus on gender mainstreaming and nutrition integration. The Impacting Gender & Nutrition through Innovative Technical Exchange in Agriculture (IGNITE) mechanism is a five-year investment (2018 – 2023) implemented by Tanager to improve household nutrition and women’s empowerment by strengthening African institutions’ ability to integrate nutrition and gender into their way of doing business and their agriculture interventions.
IGNITE works with African institutions to design, implement, and evaluate nutrition-sensitive and gender-integrated agriculture interventions. IGNITE will also strengthen the ability of African institutions to incorporate nutrition and gender equality into their policy priorities and business practices—their way of doing business. Based on the interventions implemented by IGNITE clients, IGNITE will identify key mechanisms and drivers of demand for the scale up and replication of nutrition-sensitive and gender-integrated interventions. IGNITE activities will be targeted in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Current project clients include NGOs, private sector companies, and government bodies working in agriculture.
Position Summary
Tanager is seeking a Nutrition Expert with a strong background in nutrition sensitive Agriculture, to lead the design and provision of technical services to IGNITE clients, supporting them to design, implement, and monitor nutrition-sensitive agriculture activities and nutrition-sensitive business strategies. The Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Expert will also provide thought leadership on the development of tools, resources, and models that will facilitate the integration of nutrition into agriculture interventions and institutions’ way of doing business. The Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Expert will report to the IGNITE Deputy Team Leader. This position is a national position and can be based in any of the following locations – Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia or Burkina Faso.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Support IGNITE clients with the development, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of nutrition-sensitive interventions in agriculture
- Lead the identification and design of context specific approaches that increase the consumption of safe, nutritious food and enhance women’s empowerment.
- Co-create the design and implementation of interventions that increase household production, access to, purchase, and consumption of nutrient-rich foods
- Apply gender best practices to introduce innovative approaches to address barriers to intrahousehold allocation of food and joint decision making over household nutrition, income expenditure, and production decisions
- Advise on and support development, collection, and analysis of indicators for measuring access to, availability of, and consumption nutrient-rich foods; integrate nutrition into formative research
Strengthen IGNITE clients’ capacity to integrate nutrition into their institutional practices and policies
- Design and conduct participatory training and workshops on nutrition-sensitive agriculture for clients
- Develop and test out capacity building tools and approaches that integrate both gender and nutrition into the design and implementation of agriculture activities
- Support clients in the development, refinement, and/or roll-out of nutrition-sensitive institutional policies, procedures, and practices to support nutrition sensitive agriculture programming.
Provide technical thought leadership on identification of effective and efficient models that increase equitable consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious food year-round
- Contribute to development of case studies that make the business case for integrating nutrition into agriculture activities and business plans
- Collaborate with learning partners in designing tools and evaluations that identify most effective and efficient models for increasing equitable consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious food year-round
Support local service providers to expand the reach of IGNITE technical support services
- Support identification of local service providers; conduct trainings and other capacity building activities for identified local service providers; Support local service providers in providing technical support to IGNITE clients
Manage nutrition support and engagements with IGNITE clients
- Create and nurture strong and long-term relationships with IGNITE clients
- Serve as IGNITE point of contact on select client engagements, shepherding clients through the various phases of an IGNITE engagement and ensuring their needs are addressed at each stage
- In consultation with the Deputy Team leader and the Team Leader, address any concerns and complaints raised by the client
- Support in the maintenance of the IGNITE client tracker and update the IGNITE team as well as the client on progress of the partnership Participate in regular client meetings
Provide thought leadership to Tanager in other nutrition-sensitive agriculture investments
- Contribute technical input into the pursuit and design of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions in Tanager’s future new business opportunities
- Create awareness among other Tanager staff on the importance of nutrition integration, as appropriate
Other duties as assigned by your supervisor
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s and master’s degree combination in nutrition, public health, agriculture, development studies, or other relevant disciplines around the nexus of agriculture, nutrition, and gender
- Minimum of 8 years’ work experience with at least 5 years’ experience facilitating training on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, leading nutrition analysis, and identifying nutrition-sensitive and SBC interventions for agriculture programs or organizations; designing and implementing tools and approaches to support institutions in integrating nutrition in their agriculture work
- Demonstrated experience integrating nutrition into agriculture projects and knowledge of nutrition-sensitive agriculture concepts in sub-Saharan Africa; experience in West and East Africa preferred
- Demonstrated experience in offering technical assistance or advisory services in the agriculture sector and with a focus on nutrition integration
- Demonstrated knowledge of and proven successful ability to design and conduct training and workshops and lead interviews, focus groups, and other formative research methodologies
- Demonstrated ability to develop evidence-based recommendations and interventions to achieve nutrition outcomes in agriculture
- Demonstrated knowledge of social and behavior change communication theory and techniques
- Demonstrated understanding of gender-integrated agriculture concepts in Africa and ability to integrate a gender lens into nutrition-sensitive approaches
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience working with agricultural market systems, rural producers, farmers’ associations, agribusinesses, private sector agricultural production, marketing, or sales, and/or governments with an understanding of key entry points for nutrition integration
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills required. Ability to build relationships and rapport with teams, staff, and clients and navigate challenging or unexpected circumstances with creativity, calm, and positivity. Ability to communicate effectively with persons on all levels both inside and outside the company on issues that could be complex or sensitive in nature
- Excellent client relationship management skills
- Adaptable and innovative. Collaborative and open to feedback. Able to work independently and in a small team setting
- Strong analytical skills, including ability to gather and analyze a variety of information pertaining to issues and to develop appropriate recommendations for action
- Strong written communication skills, including demonstrated ability to write required documents in a clear, concise, well-organized manner
- Advanced computer skills in a Windows based environment including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel
- Fluency in English, written and oral, required; French language skills are strongly desired
- Travel in Sub-Saharan Africa expected 40%
- Applicants from African countries strongly encouraged to apply
To apply please follow this link to the listing on DEVEX.