ECARO Roster of Consultants Experts in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Child Protection

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Description

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The UNICEF Child Protection Roster for Europe and Central Asia serves as a human resources repository from which the Regional Office or Country Offices can draw pre-vetted, well-qualified child protection experts quickly and efficiently, who can advance UNICEF’s mission to protect and realize children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).  

Scope Of Work And Duties:

The Child Protection Roster is designed to meet the consultancy needs of the region for the next three years. In this regard, UNICEF’s ECARO invites qualified experts to express their interest in joining the Experts’ Roster. This roster aims to provide specialized services, access to knowledge, and technical expertise to UNICEF’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in the Child Protection portfolio, particularly in the areas of:  

• MHPSS and Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA)/Emergencies, to support children and families in humanitarian settings such as the Ukraine emergency and refugee response, mixed migration routes in Mediterranean and Balkans, and return and reintegration of children to the region from Syria and Iraq 
• MHPSS and Child Protection in development contexts, with focus on high- and middle-income country settings, including to support alternative care, violence against children, justice for children, and social service workforce workstreams.  
• Multisectoral MHPSS initiatives to assess country-level needs and support internal strategy development and policy advisory, such as MHPSS assessment/situational analysis, development of country office MHPSS frameworks and theories of change, and technical support to governments in development of interministerial MHPSS plans and strategies.  

Applicants are required to indicate one or more of the areas of expertise for which they would like to be considered: 

• Prevention, promotion, and treatment approaches to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and families in emergency and humanitarian settings, to include: 
• Multilayered MHPSS including community and family supports for conflict affected children and families; focused and specialized interventions for those with mental health needs.  
• Capacity strengthening of workforce, including non-specialized, frontline workers. 
• Support to workforce wellbeing, with tailored approaches for emergency settings.   
• Capitalizing on humanitarian/development nexus space to advocate for strengthening and reform of systems. 
• Provision of training and supervision in evidence-based MHPSS intervention models in humanitarian and development settings, including UNICEF/WHO global tools such as EASE, EQUIP, I Support My Friends, and others. 
• MHPSS and GBV joint initiatives in both humanitarian and development settings, including focus on prevention and response to intimate partner violence in families with a member in the armed forces.  
• MHPSS across the continuum of child care, including prevention of family separation, support to children and caregivers in foster care, kinship care, residential care, and those leaving care. 
• MHPSS as part of violence against children (VAC) initiatives, including MHPSS to prevent and mitigate violence and to support children and families affected by violence, including focus on peer violence/bullying initiatives and family violence.  
• MHPSS and justice for children, including support to child victims and witnesses, children in detention settings, children at risk of offending, and capacity strengthening of legal professionals.  
• Integration of MHPSS in social service workforce capacity strengthening.  
• Multisectoral MHPSS situational analysis, service mapping, gap analysis, and needs and capacity assessments.  
• Support to country office development of multisectoral MHPSS strategies, theories of change, monitoring frameworks, workplans, and project proposals. 
• Support to governments in development and monitoring of interministerial MHPSS plans and strategies; policy review and advisory to ensure appropriate integration of MHPSS for children in legislation.  
• Facilitation of regional/subregional and thematic MHPSS communities of practice and learning exchange.  
• The range of tasks for consultants may include technical support to country teams, design and conducting of research and analysis, assessment, and evaluation, drafting of technical documents, content development of knowledge products, documentation of good practices, strategic programme design, communication and advocacy, training, mentorship, and capacity strengthening, monitoring and evaluation, information management system services, data analytics, and others as required.  
• Precise tasks, outputs, reporting and working relationships will be specified at the time of contracting for the given assignments.  

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Requirements applicable to all Experts:

• First level university degree or equivalent in psychology, social work, counseling or other field related to MHPSS. A Master’s degree in a related discipline is highly desirable. 
• Minimum 5 years relevant professional experience in one or more of the thematic areas of MHPSS in child protection as specified in this TOR is required.  
• MHPSS experience in high and middle-income countries is required.  
• Experience in Europe and Central Asia is an asset.  
• Strong knowledge of MHPSS best practices and evidence-informed approaches relevant across thematic areas detailed in this ToR is required.Strong understanding of MHPSS in Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) and multisectoral humanitarian programming, including IASC Minimum Services Package (MSP) and other interagency tools and standards is an asset.   
• Strong understanding of MHPSS in child protection programming, including good practices for children and families in the justice, childcare, and social welfare systems is an asset. 
• Expertise focused on role of MHPSS in prevention and response to intimate partner violence in families with a member in the armed forces is highly desirable.  
• Experience with MHPSS system strengthening approaches, including advocacy, policy advisory, and technical support to governments is an asset.   
• Demonstrated experience in developing and facilitating MHPSS training and workshops and provision of clinical/technical supervision to trainees and other service providers, including using remote modalities is required.  
• Knowledge of and ability to train in scalable psychological interventions and other MHPSS global tools (e.g., EASE) is an asset.     
• Demonstrated ability to design and conduct MHPSS assessments, evaluations and evidence reviews, and to craft technical and guidance documents is required.  
• Strong research and analytical skills, including the ability to use data as evidence is required. 
• Previous work experience with UNICEF, other UN entities, NGOs, governments or other implementing partners on child protection and related thematic areas is an asset.   
• Adherence to the UN’s values and ethical standards, understanding of UNICEF’s mission and mandate, sensitivity and adaptability to diverse contexts is required. 
• Excellent spoken and written English is required, with another UN language or major language used in the ECA region an asset. 

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/579786

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