Food Safety Technical Advisor

The East Meets West Foundation (EMWF), “the foundation for learning, healing and health", is a US-based non-governmental organization that assists disadvantaged communities in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia through programs in education, health, clean water and sanitation. Founded in 1988, EMW has a 32-year track record of innovative and effective work in Vietnam and a vast portfolio of completed projects. EMW projects and programs are known for their high quality, long -term sustainability, emphasis on results, and significant scale. East Meets West Foundation is in partnership with John Snow Inc. (US), a health care consulting and research organization dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities in the U.S. and around the world, to implement the “Building Health Cities (BHC)” project in Da Nang city. Building Healthy Cities (BHC), a five-year project funded by USAID, aims to embed a health equity lens into city policies, planning, and services while improving data flow for existing Smart Cities in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Health and Smart Cities planning are related; decisions about transport, environment, sanitation, education, recreation, information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, and the built environment can have a major impact on health, despite being outside of the health sector. When this decision-making is harmonized, it can improve access to health services, decrease lifestyle and environmental risk factors for poor nutrition and non-communicable diseases, reduce speed of transmission during infectious disease outbreaks, and increase availability of usable data for urban health decision-making. Building Healthy Cities will work in partnership with Smart Cities initiatives and urban health coordination structures to add value via improved health goals and metrics in proposed infrastructure and ICT projects, enhance interoperability of data systems, and increased efficiency of multi-sector urban spending. In addition, Building Healthy Cities can help Smart City citizens of every demographic have a voice in the process through integration of a mobile citizen reporting system. Our goal is to integrate health within the Smart City context, reduce time and costs of producing data for decision-making, and empower citizens to demand better health-related services. As laid out in the work plan, BHC will provide technical support to the city of Da Nang in the following key actions: food safety, health surveillance in the Education system, and tourism (air pollution and waste management). BHC will work with the Departments of Information and Communication (DIC), Education and Training (DOET), Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE), and Tourism (DOT) as well as the Food Safety Management Authority to complete these activities. Under the sector of food safety, BHC will support evidence-based decision-making through mapping processes to improve food safety and hygiene across the city as well as support trainings and the creation of new materials on food safety for teachers and students. East Meets West Foundation is seeking a BHC Food Safety Technical Advisor based in Danang to provide specialized expertise in food safety to the Da Nang city team as well as the Project Director (PD, USA) and Deputy Director (DD, India). Work can be completed in Da Nang or remotely. BHC’s purpose in completing this activity is to improve BHC capacity to deliver on the objectives of its work plan, specifically to:

Healthier city policies, planning, and services provided with an increased focus on equity
Knowledge transfer created to inform a scalable, sustainable urban health and food safety approach

Specific for Food Safety, the workplan puts forward the following proposals:

Use data on food safety, making it public for locals and tourists to select “qualified” restaurants and suitable dishes.
Support to develop a thematic webpage on food safety in schools on the website of Department of Education and Training or of Food Safety Management Authority
Support to create video animations to provide instructions/guidance on school food safety
Support to conduct training and ICE sessions on food safety for teachers and students in schools

Key Duties and Responsibilities: A – Key Duties and Responsibilities: The incumbent is supposed to fulfil the following key duties and responsibilities which include but are not limited to:

Provide technical expertise in consumer and retail food safety and hygiene for BHC Danang activities.
In concert with Senior Advisor, Liaise with FSMA and other departments to finalize TORs for food safety activities.
Assist in developing memorandums of understanding with government, private sector entities, and local institutions partnering with BHC.
Comply with rules and regulations of the Project Authorities and comply with local laws.
Keep the Senior Advisor, EMWF leadership, and Deputy Project Director apprised on complex and/or sensitive issues and work closely with the country support team to troubleshoot these and identify the appropriate course of action.
Monitor progress of assigned activities against targets; take corrective action where necessary to realize project commitments.
Attend BHC staff meetings on regular basis to share and receive information across country teams.

Specific technical activities would include:

Create and manage content and consultants on activity relating to making data on food safety public for locals and tourists.
Create and manage content and consultants on activity relating to develop a thematic webpage on food safety in schools that aims to increase awareness and action for health
Create and manage content and consultants on activity relating to content design of food safety messages with illustrative images, etc. suitable for student age.
Create and manage content and consultants on activity relating to developing video animations (3-5 minutes each) to provide guidance on food safety in schools
In concert with FSMA and DOET, design and carry out training and ICE sessions in schools to increase awareness about food safety and advocate for a good foundation for health (prevention against food related diseases such as cholera or food to increase child nutrition (iron/calcium-rich food, etc.)

B- Qualifications and Required Competencies: The successful candidate is required to have:

Advanced (MS or Phd) degree in food science, agribusiness, agriculture economics, or relevant field; or Bachelors with 10+years of experience
A minimum of five years of experience in technical assessment, design and implementation of food safety/hygiene projects in Vietnam;
Prior experience leading food safety and hygiene assessments, trainings, or projects is strongly preferred;
Strong understanding of assessment of food safety context in Danang and behavior change methods for improving food safety and hygiene among food handlers and consumers;
Experience in childhood education programs/school-based food safety education;
Demonstrated experience in working with DOET, FSMA, or other related government partners preferred;
Demonstrated strong interpersonal skills and the ability to develop collaborative relationships;
Strong networking skills with senior government officials, NGOs and private sector.
Excellent written and oral communication skills required (excellent in Vietnamese, proficient in English) and ability to make high quality presentations to senior officials.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office required.

Salary and benefits will be determined based on experience and qualifications. The deadline for the above position is October 31, 2020. submit a cover letter and CV to East Meets West, attention to Ms. Thoi Phan at thoi.phan@eastmeetswest.org, subject: “Application for BHC Food Safety Technical Advisor”. Electronic copies only.