ABOUT MERCY CORPS

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

PROGRAM / DEPARTMENT / TEAM

Mercy Corps has worked in Liberia since 2002, initially responding to the humanitarian impacts of the country’s civil conflicts and subsequently evolving its programming to address the changing needs and priorities of Liberian communities. Over the past two decades, Mercy Corps has implemented a diverse portfolio of programs focused on food security, agricultural livelihoods, nutrition, financial inclusion, youth economic empowerment, renewable energy, water and sanitation, and community resilience, supporting sustainable development and improved opportunities across the country.

The USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program in Liberia is a five-year, $35 million initiative implemented by Mercy Corps to improve literacy, school attendance, nutrition, and food security among primary school children in four counties: Grand Bassa, Rivercess, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh. The program will reach approximately 50,000 students annually across 234 public primary schools through the provision of nutritious daily school meals, strengthened early grade reading instruction, and integrated school health and nutrition interventions. In addition to reducing short-term hunger and improving educational outcomes, the program seeks to increase the Government of Liberia’s capacity to manage and sustain school feeding and literacy systems beyond the life of the award.

The program combines direct school meal provision with system-strengthening activities that support literacy, health and nutrition, school infrastructure, community engagement, and government leadership. Key interventions include strengthening teacher training and instructional support systems, improving WASH and food safety practices, promoting school gardens and local procurement, building the capacity of school and community management structures, and supporting national and sub-national government institutions to plan, finance, monitor, and sustain school feeding and early grade reading programs. The program is designed around a gradual transition strategy that shifts responsibility for implementation and oversight from Mercy Corps to the Government of Liberia, schools, and communities, ensuring long-term sustainability and local ownership of both education and school feeding outcomes.

THE POSITION

The Nutrition & Health Advisor provides technical leadership for the School Health and Nutrition (SHN) components of the program, including nutrition education, hygiene promotion, food safety, deworming, school health systems, behavior change, and referral pathways. The position ensures that health, nutrition, and WASH interventions contribute directly to improved educational participation, wellbeing, and learning outcomes while strengthening government systems, school capacity, and community ownership for long-term sustainability.

The Health and Nutrition Advisor will work with the program’s technical team, relevant government stakeholders, and participants at national, county, district, school, and community levels. She/he will ensure accountability to Mercy Corps policies, donor rules and regulations, and government policies.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Leadership and Strategy

• Support the ASCEND leadership team in developing a vision and strategy for the program that also includes linkages to the overall country portfolio.
• Play an active role in identifying and developing initiatives that strengthen school health, nutrition, food safety, and WASH strategic objectives of the program and the country office.

Program Management and Technical Oversight

• Responsible for the overall technical quality, implementation, and performance of School Health & Nutrition (SHN), food safety, nutrition education, and WASH-related components in line with ASCEND objectives, work plans, and targets.
• Provide technical oversight for menu planning and meal composition, ensuring school meals remain nutritionally appropriate, aligned with approved food baskets, and supportive of child health, nutrition, and learning outcomes.
• Support nutritional analysis and adaptation of school feeding menus as locally procured commodities are progressively introduced.
• Lead implementation and provide technical oversight for all School Health and Nutrition interventions, including nutrition education, hygiene promotion, food safety, deworming coordination, growth monitoring, referral pathways, and SHN systems strengthening.
• Provide technical leadership for the SHN Champion model, including development of guidance, coaching systems, peer learning approaches, supportive supervision, recognition mechanisms, and integration within existing education and government structures.
• Collaborate with the Agriculture & Markets Advisor to ensure school gardens serve as effective platforms for nutrition education, healthy food choices, experiential learning, dietary diversification, and school feeding sustainability.
• Supervise technical components on Nutrition & Health and WASH, including the related curricula, IEC materials and training, monitoring, and ongoing technical support. This may include the mentoring and training of project team members, school staff, local government personnel, community volunteers, and health facility staff.
• Provide technical oversight for school-based WASH interventions, ensuring that water, sanitation, and hygiene activities support safe food preparation, healthy school environments, disease prevention, and improved student wellbeing and participation.
• Provide technical leadership and quality assurance for food safety and hygiene systems, including safe food handling, meal preparation, storage practices, hygiene protocols, and compliance with school feeding standards. Provide technical support and coordination with relevant Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, and other government stakeholders to strengthen implementation and institutionalization of school health, nutrition, food safety, and WASH interventions.
• Support government ownership and institutionalization of school health and nutrition interventions within Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health systems at national, county, district, and school levels.
• Support implementation of the program’s graduation and transition strategy by strengthening the systems, capacities, and partnerships required for sustainable delivery of school health and nutrition services.
• Monitor emerging evidence, approaches, tools, and best practices related to school health, nutrition, school feeding, food safety, and WASH and support their appropriate application within the program.
• Ensure capacity strengthening, safeguarding, and protection principles are integrated throughout school health, nutrition, food safety, and WASH activities.
• Ensure school health and nutrition approaches are responsive to the needs of girls and other vulnerable learners, including considerations related to menstrual health, wellbeing, participation, and retention.
• Take the lead on the development of project implementation and awareness-raising strategies, ensuring compliance with national guidance and protocols, and USDA requirements.
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities and partners and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards, and strategic plan.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

• Support measurement and learning related to child nutrition, school health, hygiene behaviors, attendance, and other school health and nutrition outcomes.
• Work closely with school feeding, logistics, and commodity management teams to monitor meal quality, meal fidelity, and adherence to approved menus and ration specifications.
• Work with the MEL team to design and implement operational studies and surveys, including developing ToR’s, working with consultants, contributing to tools development, and ensuring report findings are disseminated and adopted in the program.
• Work with the MEL team to design and/or improve routine monitoring; provide technical input to pause and reflect sessions (data interpretation and application); and guide field teams on any necessary operational and program adaptations.
• Work with the MEL team and other technical colleagues to develop a coherent learning agenda for the program.

Team Management

• Provide technical leadership during sector review, planning, and learning meetings.
• Establish an adaptive management learning culture in which evidence is continuously generated, and lessons learned are actively shared across the consortium for maximum impact.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback via regular performance reviews.
• Provide technical and on-the-job training to team members and project stakeholders.
• Provide team members with information, tools, and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives.

Finance & Compliance Management

• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to programming.
• Draft and/or review scopes of work to hire and manage any technical consultants, including review for technical efficacy and contract budget.
• Developing, executing, and tracking the budget for the nutrition & health and WASH component.

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.

Representation:

• Collaborate with the Government and Partnerships Director to maintain internal and external relationships to ensure program success, including contacts with the relevant government departments, international and local NGOs working in food security, nutrition, health, and WASH, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Represent the program in relevant health, nutrition, school health, school feeding, and WASH technical working groups and coordination platforms as required.

Organizational Learning:

As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities they serve – we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Participants:

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our program participants and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging participant communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

None

ACCOUNTABILITY:

Reports Directly To: Technical Director

Works Directly With: Government and Partnerships Director, Program Manager, Agriculture and Markets Adviser, county implementation teams, MEL Lead.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO PARTICIPANTS AND STAKEHOLDERS

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree in nutrition, public health, community health, nursing, health promotion, or related field.
• Minimum seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in nutrition, public health, school health, school feeding, maternal and child health, or related sectors.
• Experience with school feeding program design, implementation, food safety, menu development, or nutrition-sensitive service delivery is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing or managing integrated nutrition, health, hygiene, and behavior change interventions.
• Experience supporting government systems strengthening, institutional capacity development, and sustainability initiatives.
• Experience working with the Ministry of Health and/or Ministry of Education structures.
• Experience implementing school health, school feeding, nutrition education, deworming, hygiene promotion, or related programs strongly preferred.
• Experience designing or implementing school-based WASH, hygiene promotion, environmental health, or healthy sc initiatives strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience developing training materials, job aids, behavior change materials, and capacity-strengthening approaches.
• Experience supporting monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptive management processes.
• Familiarity with U.S. Government, UNICEF, WHO, WFP, or other donor-funded programming preferred.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English, including report development, writing, and editing.

SUCCESS FACTORS

• Ability to work across disciplines and effectively coordinate nutrition, health, WASH, agriculture, education, and school feeding stakeholders toward shared program objectives.
• Ability to translate nutrition, health, and WASH evidence into practical, scalable approaches that improve educational participation, wellbeing, and learning outcomes.
• Ability to balance technical rigor with practical implementation of realities in school and community settings.
• Strong facilitation and partnership-building skills with government, schools, communities, and implementing partners.
• Ability to communicate, take direction, assume leadership, and make rational decisions.
• Diplomacy skills in working with a team with different backgrounds, abilities, and technical knowledge.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.
• High motivation, initiative, and adaptability.
• Even temperament and a good sense of humor.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or by our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves professionally, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).

Please click here to apply: NUTRITION & HEALTH ADVISOR – NATIONAL | Mercy Corps Liberia