Regional MHPPS Expert Consultant

TOR – Regional MHPPS Expert Consultant

West, Central and North Africa (WCNA) Regional Office of SOS Children’s village international

Localisation:Dakar ,Lomé or Casablanca

Background: challenges and goals

SOS Children’s village international in West, Central and North Africa Regional Office in partnership with the Global Programme Expert Group (GPEG) on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) builds on the Global MHPSS Hub pilot project (2020-21) hosted by the International Officer is aiming to achieve the SOS Care Promise and the Child Safeguarding Strengthening Action Plan by Integrating mental health and psychosocial support services into each programme of the Region.

Research and experience demonstrate that children and youth who have lost, or who risk losing, parental care face greater psychosocial vulnerabilities compared to their peers and are more likely to develop mental health disorders that may persist into adulthood. These risks increase for children living in alternative care. Nevertheless, these can be counteracted through MHPSS interventions that foster protective factors, such as resilience. For this reason, is to promote the resilience, as well as psychological wellbeing, of the children and youth SOS works with and for. To achieve this, the (WCNA) Regional Office of SOS Children’s village international in partnerships with the GPEG will promote a set of evidence based MHPSS interventions, constituting a MHPSS Minimum Service Package (MSP), targeting not only children and youth, but also caregivers and their communities. Concomitantly, the SOS Children’s Village International national staff needs will also be a priority.

Your role: MHPSS as Expert

Under the supervision of the MHPSS Focal Point, as Regional Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Expert you will be responsible for leading the planning and implementation of the MHPSS Minimum Service Package (MSP) initiative led by the West, Central and North Africa Regional Office of SOS Children’s village international and in partnership with the Global Programme Expert Group on MHPSS.

You will support, train, supervise, coordinate and oversee MHPSS key staff, social workers and community outreach facilitators who will engage in carrying out MHPSS MSP interventions including PM+, caregiver support, trauma informed care, PFA, focused MHPSS support for, children, families, and co-workers.

You will support key staff in documentation, analysis and reporting of MHPSS data collected through the implementation of the MSP initiatives. You will also conduct field visits to different countries in the region to monitor and support MHPSS activities and interventions and ensure quality of MHPSS interventions.

Last, but not least you will participate in different MHPSS coordination forums and coordinate MSP initiative with partners at national and regional levels.

The MHPSS Expert is mostly located in one of the regional countries West, Central and North African (WCNA) countries, with travel to the different field locations to provide support and supervision (up to 30%).

**Your main tasks and responsibilities**

* Lead adaptation and contextualization of MHPSS MSP interventions developed for children, young people, Child and Youth Care Practitioners, families, co-workers, and community.
* Facilitate the planning and rollout of MHPSS training and interventions in the WCNA Region
* Assist in developing MHPSS implementation guidelines and tools to facilitate effective delivery of MHPSS services.
* Provide MHPSS training and regular in-service coaching to national MHPSS workers in MSP interventions as indicated above.

* Conduct systematic supervision and oversight of National MHPSS team 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.
* Compile, analyse and report on MSP implementation progress to MHPSS Focal Point.
* Conduct regular field visits to provide technical support and supervision to National Associations in West North and Central Africa workers.
* Develop/adapt quality assurance tools and rollout to MHPSS teams
* Ensure compliance of MSP interventions to MHPSS minimum standards and best practices in the field
* Participate 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. Social work, public health or related fields may be considered

* At least 5 years of working experience in MHPSS programs in the region
* 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 the field of MHPSS is required
* 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
* Networking and coordination skills including representation of GPEG in coordination meetings with clusters and Technical Working Groups
* 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 SOS mandate
* Willingness to undertake frequent travels (up to 30% of the time) within the programme area
**Job Location: ** Regional Office or Regional country office

**Contract**: 1-year fixed term consultancy contract – renewable up to end of 2024 upon successful appraisals.

**ideal Starting date**: March 20, 2023 immediate