Psycho-Social Support (PSS) Advisor

WHO ARE WE ?

Emergency First International is an international NGO, non-profit, apolitical and secular. Emergency First International was born from the merger between two French NGO Première Urgence and Aide Médicale Internationale.

First International Emergency assists civilian victims, marginalized or excluded by the effects of natural disasters, wars and economic collapse situations.

Our vocation is to defend the fundamental rights of the person, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 man.

Let’s help them do without us

Our goal is to provide a comprehensive response to all the basic needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in the urgency to help them regain independence and dignity.

Our mission: to help populations affected by humanitarian crises by giving them the ability to regain control of their destiny
Currently our projects are conducted in 22 countries by dan s 2650 national staff, 145 expatriates and 63 employees at headquarters.General Objective

The Psychosocial Support (PSS) Advisor is responsible for the technical capacity building, supervision and standardization of PUI MHPSS activities. He/She provides guidance for the development as well as for ensuring the quality of current and future MHPSS programmes at the design, implementation monitoring and evaluation phases.
He/she provides technical guidance to the coordination and project teams and in particular to the MHPSS Project Managers in a functional relationship. He/she represents PUI to the authorities, humanitarian actors and donors for the MHPSS sector.

Role and Responsibilities

Context analysis / Strategy / Development: S/he will support HoM/DHoMP in the design and inclusion of MHPSS activities in PUI programs and strategy and contributes to the design of relevant MHPSS interventions on the mission, based on the identified MHPSS needs in the country and in line with PUI MHPSS intervention framework. In coordination with the MHPSS team, he/she analyses the strengths and weaknesses of PUI’s MHPSS activities in the country.
Programmes quality: He/she provides technical support in his/her field of expertise to the programme teams and ensures the quality and effectiveness of the mission’s MHPSS programmes. He/she aims at strengthening, structure, and frame PUI’s MHPSS interventions following international, national, and internal standards.
Representation / Coordination: He/she ensures PUI’s external representation in the MHPSS sector to partners, donors, national authorities, and local actors. He/she represents PUI in relevant Clusters (Health, Protection) or MHPSS sector coordination group meetings. He/she contributes to the good information sharing within the MHPSS sector.
Human Resources / Training: He/she develops PUI internal capacity on MHPSS and provides technical support to the project teams and to the MHPSS teams. When appropriate, he/she provides support to the project managers for the recruitment of key technical staff in MHPSS. He/she designs and supervises the content of MHPSS training and ensures the overall quality of MHPSS activities on the basis of identified needs.
Logistics and Administration: When necessary and in support to the Project Managers, he/she contributes to identify and communicate on the needs and gaps regarding logistic and administrative procedures.
Security: He/she contributes to the compliance with security rules on the mission and share all information related to security to his/her line manager and/or to the mission’s security manager.

Specific Objectives and Linked Activities

Participate in the mhpss context and mhpss needs analysis, in the definition of the mhpss strategy and in the design of new mhpss interventions:

He/she ensures the monitoring and analysis of national MHPSS policies, national protocols, data and MHPSS assistance programmes from key MHPSS actors in the country.
He/she provides continuous information to his/her line manager, the coordination team and the project teams, especially the MHPSS team, on current and emerging MHPSS policies, guidelines and approaches at the national level and within PUI.
He/she monitors the evolution of humanitarian MHPSS needs in the country of intervention in coordination with the project teams and thanks to information provided by the clusters (Health, Protection) or national MHPSS coordination group.
According to his/her analysis in the MHPSS sector, he/she suggests to conduct needs assessments to his/her line manager when appropriate.
He/she participates in the identification of MHPSS needs in collaboration with the project and MEAL teams, particularly through the integration of MHPSS in needs assessment.
He/she participates in the definition of terms of reference and participates, if necessary, in needs assessments, the results of which he/she analyses to feed the MHPSS intervention strategy.
If necessary, he/she supports the adaptation and/or development of data collection tools to be used for MHPSS needs assessments, with the support of the MHPSS Advisor from headquarters (HQ).
In collaboration with HQ MHPSS Advisor, he/she participates in the development of the mission’s operational strategy, in particular for the MHPSS sector, in synergy with the other related sectors (Health, Nutrition, Protection) and in line with PUI’s MHPSS intervention framework and national policies / international recommendations.
He/she participates in the facilitation of annual strategy workshops with the mission’s MHPSS team, from which he/she formulates recommendations / suggestions for the MHPSS department.
Based on the needs analysis and the mission’s MHPSS strategy, he/she suggests new MHPSS interventions in line with PUI’s MHPSS intervention framework and encourages an integrated multisectoral approach, with the support of the HQ MHPSS Advisor.
When developing new MHPSS interventions, he/she actively participates in the design of MHPSS activities by ensuring their technical relevance, contributes to the writing of new project proposals for the MHPSS component, makes recommendations on the budget, human resources, logistics and timeframe needed for implementation, and identifies quantitative and qualitative performance indicators.
When designing new MHPSS interventions, he/she ensures the quality of the interventions by mainstreaming gender and cross-cutting protection principles.

Monitor and Improve the Quality of the Mhpss Programmes:

He/she supervises the implementation of MHPSS programmes on technical issues and ensures that MHPSS activities are in line with PUI MHPSS intervention framework.
He/she provides technical support to the MHPSS teams by responding to technical questions (definition of activities, technical choices, implementation timeframe, quality control, etc.), and identifying solutions to problems.
He/she participates in the adaptation of technical implementation modalities, SOPs, technical guidelines and other framework documents used in MHPSS activities, with the support of the HQ MHPSS Advisor.
He/she supports in development and maintenance of service mapping, as well as efficient internal and external referral pathways.
He/she contributes to the design and adaptation of tools for MHPSS activities.
He/she makes regular technical field visits and supervisions to monitor and improve the quality of MHPSS activities.
He/she promotes coordination between the different sectors and technical departments in the field (operational meetings, reports, etc.) and supports an efficient flow of information between the MHPSS teams and the other technical departments for a better implementation of the integrated approach.
In collaboration with his/her line manager, the MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning) department, and consortium partners, if necessary, he/she participates in the design and adaptation of monitoring tools for MHPSS activities, as well as monitoring plans for each project to meet donor requirements, and to measure achievements of MHPSS activities (quantitative and qualitative).
He/she alerts his/her line manager if delays in project implementation are identified and contributes to suggesting adjustments (in terms of activities, area of intervention, budget, implementation timeframe, etc.)
If relevant and depending on programmes, he/she suggests conducting technical evaluations of MHPSS programmes, participates in the definition of the terms of reference and participates, if necessary, in the evaluations, the results of which he/she analyses to feed into the intervention strategy.
In coordination with the MEAL department if relevant and the MHPSS teams, he/she participates in the internal knowledge building strategy for MHPSS interventions. He/she ensures the harmonization and capitalization of tools and practices on MHPSS projects on the mission in correlation with PUI tools and participates in the updating of the latter in collaboration with the HQ Technical Department (TD).
He/she encourages the experiences and knowledge sharing within the MHPSS teams and actively contributes to the knowledge building for the MHPSS sector at mission level.
If relevant, he/she encourages the production of research documents on the mission in collaboration with HQ TD
In collaboration with other departments and sectors of intervention, he/she ensures that the cross-cutting principles of protection and gender mainstreaming are considered in MHPSS programmes formulated as an action verb conjugated at the 3rd singular person.
He/she ensures that the project/s, methodology, selection criteria do not harm the beneficiaries, PUI teams or any other person. He/she immediately alerts his/her line manager in case teams or beneficiaries are put at risk of harm.

Ensure the external representation and sectoral coordination of pui in the MPHSS sector:

He/she represents PUI to the national authorities, key humanitarian and development actors (INGOs/LNGOs/CSOs) and donors involved in the MHPSS sector, and ensures that good relationships are maintained with each of them in line with PUI’s principles.
He/she actively participates in coordination meetings (cluster or others) and technical working groups in the MHPSS sector at national level
He/she ensures and coordinates with the MHPSS teams the sectoral representation of PUI for the MHPSS sector to relevant partners and different local authorities
In the event of a donor visit, he/she plays an active role in preparing and managing the visit.
He/she participates in PUI coordination meetings and is an active member
He/she participates in the drafting and transmission of the internal reports / Sitrep on his/her technical field in MHPSS to his/her line manager and to the HQ MHPSS Advisor. He/she ensures the follow-up and analysis of MHPSS activity reports.
He/she participates in the drafting, validates and transmits the MHPSS technical parts of external reports to his/her line manager and to the HQ MHPSS Advisor respecting timeframe and external contractual deadlines (donor reports). He/she collaborates with the different departments and
technical sectors of the coordination team and supports an efficient flow of information between the MHPSS teams and the other technical departments for a better implementation of the integrated approach.

Supervise the MHPSS Team:

He/she provides a functional technical support to the project managers for MHPSS activities of the mission.
He/she sets up technical coordination mechanisms and organizes technical supervision of the mission’s MHPSS team.
He/she advises in the definition of the organizational chart for the MHPSS team.
He/she supports in the definition of all the job descriptions (JDs) of the mission’s MHPSS team, including the definition of the JDs for the expatriate and national MHPSS Project Managers.
He/she provides an active technical support to the Project Managers for the recruitment of senior national technical profiles in MHPSS (definition of Job Descriptions, tests, recruitment interview grids).
He/she may be asked by his/her line manager to contribute to the appraisal on technical issues for MHPSS Project Managers.
If necessary, he/she participates in the decision to terminate the employment contract of a person in the MHPSS team in collaboration with HR department, the Project Manager, the Field Coordinator.
He/she is familiar with PUI’s Internal Regulations, institutional policies, and internal processes on the mission.
He/she identifies with the Project Managers the training needs for mission’s staff for the MHPSS sector and accordingly plans organizational, methodological, and technical support, etc.
He/she supervises the organization of external technical training activities, pilots and facilitates internal technical training modules for the MHPSS sector in his/her field of expertise.
He/she provides inputs for the capacity building plans of the MHPSS team and if necessary, supports on the individual action plans of specific MHPSS team members upon needs.

Supports Logistical and Administrative Monitoring Of MHPSS Programmes:

He/she communicates to the Project Managers when he/she identifies that the logistical needs for MHPSS programmes are unmet, according to minimum standards and PUI’s recommendations (dedicated and adapted space available for MHPSS interventions, adapted materials available for children, etc.).
When necessary, he/she supports the Project Managers ensuring that orders for equipment are in line with MHPSS programmes requirements and local constraints (country certification, quality monitoring, etc.) while respecting the PUI’s supply procedures.
He/she contributes to providing necessary information needed to produce a cash flow forecast for the MHPSS department to the Administration and Finance Coordinator.
When relevant, he/she supports on up-to-date budget monitoring for the MHPSS department and participates in analysing, identifying any discrepancies, and proposing adjustments to the Administration and Finance Coordinator.

Ensure Security of People and Goods:

He/she respects the security plan and rules.
He/she contributes to the gathering of security related information and disseminates it to his/her line manager and/or the security officer on a regular basis or ad-hoc in case of emergency.

Qualifications

Mandatory Requirements:

Education Degree: Clinical Psychologist or similar background in Mental Health
Desirable Project management, Trained in / or knowledge of evidence-based MHPSS interventions programs (such as mhGAP, PM+, Children Resilience) and trained in psychological interventions such as Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy
Work experience: Minimum of 3 years of experience implementing MHPSS programs in a similar position (NGOs/private companies).
Language skills: Fluent in English, good knowledge of Hausa is an asset
Knowledge and skills: Excellent written and communication skills, Knowledge of program management and Knowledge of procedures of institutional donors (BHA, ECHO, UN agencies, etc.)
Computer skills: Good knowledge of the MS office software including Word, Outlook. Excellent in Excel

Other:

Ability to work independently, take the initiative and take responsibility in a proactive approach
Self-motivated, flexible and adaptable to the needs of the team and organization
Strong commitment in humanitarian principles
Resilience to stress
Diplomacy and open-mindedness
Good analytical skills
Organisation and ability to manage priorities and varied workload
Ability to guarantee effective and timely outputs
Problem solving and leadership skills
Proactive approach to making suggestions and identifying solutions
Ability to work and manage professionally and maturely
Ability to integrate into the local environment, taking account of its political, economic and historical characteristics

Assets:

Interests:

Strong motivation to help people in need.
Understanding of the political situation in the area

Transversals Skills:

Well organized
Conflict resolution and diplomacy experience.
Able to analyze and suggest improvement.
Able to take initiative to deal with difficulties encountered in daily work.
Able to adapt or change priorities according to the changing situation within a mission or the organization itself;
Autonomous, neutral, hard worker.
Able to manage stress and pressure.

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