“an experienced humanitarian professional with expertise in Mental Health and PSS, to lead the roll out of an MHPSS Minimum Service Package of interventions and build staff capacity for further implementation”
War Child Holland’s programme in South Sudan
War Child is a learning organisation that continuously enhances its services to children affected by war and conflict. This includes striving to become a networked expert organisation able to mobilise and provide services and technical assistance within and outside the organisation, as well as across its programme teams. War Child Holland has been active in South Sudan since 1998 and established a country office upon secession in 2011. War Child in South Sudan focuses on supporting children to recover from conflict-related experiences and reinforcing community-based child protection mechanisms aimed at promoting child rights, education and psychological wellbeing with the active and meaningful participation of children, parents and community at large. The organization has been implementing child protection, psychosocial support, education and livelihood development activities in Jonglei, Eastern Equatoria and Upper Nile State.
As part of its 2021/2022 plan and in partnership with UNICEF, War Child will pilot the MHPSS MSP (Minimum Service Package) in South Sudan, specifically in Bor South county (Jonglei) and Malakal County (Upper Nile State). The MHPSS MSP is a demonstration exercise led by UNICEF and WHO focusing on a set of MHPSS interventions targeting children, adolescents and caregivers in different humanitarian sectors such as Protection (Child Protection, GBV), Education and Health. Within the framework of this project, War Child Holland in South Sudan is looking for MHPSS Advisor with strong background on mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings.
Your challenge
Against this background, as Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Advisor you will be responsible for leading the planning and implementation of the MHPSS Minimum Service Package (MSP) pilot initiative by WCH and UNICEF. You will train, supervise, coordinate and oversee MHPSS key staff, social workers and a team of community outreach facilitators who will engage in carrying out MHPSS MSP interventions including PM+, caregiver support, focused MHPSS for teachers, children, caregivers and frontline workers. You will support MHPSS key staff in documentation, analysis and reporting of MHPSS data collected through implementation of MSP initiative at community and primary health facility level. You will also conduct field visits to monitor and support MHPSS activities and interventions and ensure quality of MHPSS interventions. Last, but not least you will represent WCH in different MHPSS coordination forums and coordinate MSP initiative with MHPSS and CP partners at national and state level.
The MHPSS Advisor is mostly located at the country office (Juba) with frequent travel to the different field locations (40 to 50%). The MHPSS Advisor is operationally supervised by Programme Implementation Manager with functional reporting to the Programme Development and Quality Manager and Regional MHPSS Advisor.
Your main tasks and responsibilities
- Lead adaptation and contextualization of MHPSS MSP interventions developed for adults, children, teachers and frontline workers
- Facilitate the planning and rollout of MHPSS MSP interventions in primary health and community settings
- Develop MHPSS MSP implementation guidelines and tools to facilitate effective delivery of MHPSS services
- Provide MHPSS training and regular in-service coaching to frontline MHPSS workers in MSP interventions including PM+, caregiver support, group based MHPSS for teachers, group based MHPSS for children and frontline workers
- Conduct systematic supervision and oversight of frontline workers to ensure implementation of MSP in line with the guidelines and procedures in place
- Develop and implement data collection tools to document implementation process, track results and identify challenges and remedial actions
- Support frontline MHPSS workers to collect, analyse and report MHPSS data
- Compile, analyse and report on MSP implementation progress
- Conduct regular field visits to provide technical support and supervision to frontline MHPSS workers
- Develop/adapt quality assurance tools and rollout to MHPSS frontline workers
- Ensure compliance of MSP interventions to MHPSS minimum standards and best practices in the field
- Represent WCH and play active role in different coordination forums including MHPSS, PSS and CP cluster/sub cluster
- Prepare and share outcomes of MSP initiative at different coordination platforms to promote the scale up of the interventions.
Your profile
- Post graduate education in psychology, clinical counselling, global mental health (preferably in the humanitarian sector). Social work, public health or related fields may be considered
- At least 5 years of working experience in MHPSS programs, preferably in humanitarian settings
- Training and supervision experience (incl. remotely), focusing on MHPSS pyramid level 2 (community and family based MHPSS programs, such as caregiver support, group based MHPSS for children) and level 3 interventions (deep understanding and knowledge of evidence-based focused non-specialized MHPSS interventions such as counselling , PM+, TeamUp)
- In-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of IASC Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergencies and international best practices on the integration of MHPSS into Education, Child Protection, Primary Health Care and community settings
- Demonstrable technical expertise in the assessment, design and delivery of responses to MHPSS needs in humanitarian settings
- Capacity and proven track record in national staff and partner organization training and capacity-building
- Experience in evidence generation, documentation of case studies, success stories, MHPSS research protocol, and piloting MHPSS studies at community level
- Strong experience and background on monitoring and evaluation tools including Means of Verification of MHPSS programs
- Ability to prepare high compliance donor reports and other documents
- Prior experience in South Sudan in the field of MHPSS is an advantage
- Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
- Strong capacity development, coaching and supervisory skills
- Ability to reflect and link current work to new opportunities/possibilities
- Excellent leadership, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work in diverse cultural environments
- Outstanding networking and coordination skills including representation of WCH in coordination meetings with clusters and Technical Working Groups
- Ability to work in difficult environment under very basic living conditions
- Ability to work within a team structure or in isolation, flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and working with limited resources
- Enthusiasm, motivation, self-confidence and pro-active approach to problem-solving
- Ability to take individual initiative with limited supervision, meet tight deadlines and deliver quality results
- Affinity with War Child’s mandate
- Willingness to undertake frequent travels (up to 50% of the time) within the programme area
Our organisation
War Child Holland offers a challenging job, within an inspiring and motivated team of people and the backup of a strong and professional organisation in the Netherlands. War Child Holland offers its international staff a fair salary and comprehensive secondary benefits that includes free housing, good insurances (including health, travel and disability) and opportunities to develop and learn professionally. Please visit our website www.warchildholland.org for more information on the organisation and the programmes.
Job Location: Juba, Republic of South Sudan
Contract: 6 Months fixed term contract, female applicants are strongly encouraged.
Starting date: As soon as possible in 2021
South Sudan is a non-family duty station. The expatriate is not allowed to bring a partner and/or children.
How to apply
Interested and qualified candidates are invited to apply before 7 November 2021. Make sure to upload your English CV (maximum of two pages) and cover letter by using the following hyperlink:
Is this not your dream job? Support War Child by sharing this job with your network!
By submitting your application you certify that all of the statements made in your application are true, complete, and correct and are made in good faith. You understand that falsifying, misrepresenting or intentionally withholding information will be grounds for rejection of your application or withdrawal of any offer of appointment or, if an appointment offer has been accepted, this will be ground for employment sanctions, such as, but not limited to, instant dismissal. In addition, you understand that you need to submit a Criminal Record Certificate and that, if you fail to submit it, no employment relationship can be established.
War Child is an international organisation, and we are committed to be a diverse and inclusive employer, placing human and child rights at the centre of our existence and work. We hire our new colleagues based on their talents, competences and shared values; we do not distinguish them based on their age, gender and gender identity, race, color, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, disability etc.
The safety of children and youth is a paramount and essential to War Child’s work. War Child has a zero tolerance policy towards any form of abuse. To prevent placing children and youth at any risk this subject is addressed in our recruitment and selection procedures. Moreover, the accepted candidates will be required to state their commitment/ intent to be aware, consider and adhere to the minimum standards applicable in development and humanitarian settings, such as humanitarian values and principles, Sphere Humanitarian Charter, Standards in the Humanitarian Standards Partnership, Core Humanitarian Standard, International Humanitarian Law, Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief and IASC Six Core Principles Relating to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
Disclaimer
• Only applications received via our website are processed.
• If we appoint a suitable candidate before the given closing date, we reserve the right to remove the vacancy from our website before that date. In such a case, any responses received after that time are not processed.
• It could be that during our selection process the closing date for the vacancy is extended. If so, and you have not yet heard from us, your application will remain active.
More Information
- Job City Juba
