Psychosocial support consultant for Gambella refugee operation

The purpose of this assignment is to review existing materials, develop and/revise, roll-out and monitor and report on results of a training package on psychosocial support services for frontline workers to build on the resilience and address the needs of the most distressed children among the refugee population in the Gambella camps

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Justification

Children arriving in the Gambella camps since September 2016 have been participating in the CFS activities implemented by UNICEF partner agencies. Para social workers have been engaged from the refugee community to interact with the children and engage them in creative pursuits to enable to them overcome memories of traumatic experiences. Although to some extent this has been dealt with at the psychosocial support service center attached to the Child Friendly Spaces, the continued difficult situation at the family levels with whom they are living in the camps brings back these issues and they continue to go through the same distress once again. This requires a much broader intervention at the community level to engage the caregivers of such children and also special skills to be able to identify, manage difficult cases and refer them to specialized services. This requires technical support in the area of PSS, tools which can be used creatively to identify special cases and expansion of the services to the families of those cases.

 Specific Tasks

In coordination with the Child Protection section of UNICEF Ethiopia Country Office, UNICEF Gambella Field Office, UNHCR (at country and regional office level) and NGO partners, the consultant is responsible for reviewing, developing, implementing and monitoring and reporting on the results of a training programme for front line workers engaging on psychosocial support services for children in refugee camps. The key areas in which s/he will contribute towards are as below:

1.  In line with the latest evidence/good practice at international levels, child protection working group guidance and reference documents at Gambella level, and lessons learned from the experiences in Gambella and related contexts to-date, develop a conceptual framework and outline for the training of trainers of child protection officers and para social workers implementing psychosocial support services in refugee camps.
2. Conduct a consultative meeting with UNICEF, UNHCR, International Medical Corps(IMC), Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), Plan International Ethiopia, Save the Children, and other agencies providing PSS services in Gambella camps to present the framework and outline and receive feedback to agree on the final plan.
3. Develop the framework and outline into a training of trainers package with tools which can be rolled out by the child protection officers and para social workers in the camps.
4. Draft the selection criteria for trainees of this package with support from UNHCR, UNICEF and other existing partners in the camps.
5. Roll out the training of trainers for trainees from all 7 camps with practical exercises in 4 camps in Gambella (Nguenyyiel Kule, Jewi and Tierkidi) with support from the Programme Officers of implementing partners and UNHCR officers in the camps to the selected trainees.
6. Conduct an assessment/evaluation of the training to assess the area where future support is required to strengthen the programme.
7. Based on the evaluation provide on the job support to selected practising trainees to be able to strengthen their practice.
8. Draw up a plan of action for follow up and mentoring of para social workers and their supervisors to continue the activities as per the plan by both UNICEF and UNHCR focal points for child protection in the region.

 Methodology

 The Consultant will apply the principles laid down under the IASC guidelines for MHPSS to draw up the concept and design of the training programme on PSS. Taking into consideration the different age groups of children in the seven refugee camps there will be age and gender appropriate facilitation contents and tools for the para social workers to learn from and use in the community.

 The activities planned will not only cover areas to be covered within safe spaces/child friendly spaces for children but also adolescent age groups and families of the those children who need specialised attention and service to overcome difficult experience or state of hopelessness, and those who have faced conflict situations or participated in such acts.

 The consultant will take positive learnings from existing practices, tools and methodologies adopted by different implementing partners and also add value to these with additional technical inputs on those where there are serious gaps in service quality and timely response.

 Expected Deliverables

• Conceptual framework and training plan for para social workers by 15^th March 2017
• Training package with tools based on final design by 6^th April 2017
• Training for selected trainers/specialists frontline workers and managers completed in Gambella by 30^th April 2017

• On the job technical assistance to trainees and supervisees in Gambella - ongoing for 2 months in 4 camps

• Conduct assessment /evaluation of the roll out of the services- 30th May 2017
• Develop mentoring and follow up action plan for the para social workers and their supervisors for the 3 camps with identified focal persons to sustain the capacity of the service- 15th June 2017

 Reporting

 Under the guidance, supervision and direction of the Social Welfare Specialist (L4) and Chief Child Protection and in consultation with Chief of Field Office and Child Protection Officers in the UNICEF Gambella office, the Consultant will provide detailed work plan for the set of tasks in keeping with the timeframe indicated in section 5 of this Terms of Reference (ToR). For each deliverable, the Consultant will provide a draft work plan for review and revision. Only a final document reviewed and endorsed by the Section will be accepted as a deliverable.

 The UNHCR Gambella office will be fully kept informed and consulted during the period of consultancy to prepare the logistics & content of the training and follow up at the camp level for on the job training.

 Expected background and Experience

•  Advanced University degree in social sciences, clinical psychology, community health, education, international relations, or other related subjects.
• Strong understanding of Child Protection concepts, especially in the area of psychosocial support services.
• Prior experience in Child Protection Programming, experience in Emergency programming is desirable including a good understanding of the refugee situations and response.
• Minimum five years' experience in an emergency context preferably in INGO/UN at middle management level.
• Experience of working in emergency and non-emergency situations especially in partnership with local Government.
• Excellent coordination skills and ability to work effectively with other UN agencies and Government
• Good communication skills and fluency in English language
• Very good computer skills.