Education Specialist (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support), P3, FT, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), New York, Post #109510, Req: 562066

The Education Specialist among other relevant aspects will support planning processes to address the specific child protection and mental health and psychosocial needs of girls and boys -- including adolescents – as well as teachers, persons living with disabilities and minority groups, and will provide technical guidance and operational support to programmes on interpretation, application and understanding of policies, strategies, processes, best practices and approaches on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support related issues.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, EDUCATION

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. We support quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so no one is left behind. ECW works through the multilateral system to both increase the speed of responses in crises and connect immediate relief and longer-term interventions through multi-year programming. ECW works in close partnership with governments, public and private donors, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and other humanitarian and development aid actors to increase efficiencies and end siloed responses. ECW urgently appeals to public and private sector donors for expanded support to reach even more vulnerable children and youth. ECW is a UNICEF hosted fund, administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations; operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

The incumbent will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Chief Educatoin P5 in the ECW secretariat, which is currently hosted by UNICEF.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the job

• Support planning processes to address the specific child protection and mental health and psychosocial needs of girls and boys -- including adolescents – as well as teachers, persons living with disabilities and minority groups.
• Support the further development and implementation of child protection and mental health and psychosocial support guidance material.
• Ensure that the perspectives, capacities and needs of the most marginalized are reflected in programming under the First Emergency Response, Multi-Year Resilience Programmes and Acceleration Facility windows.
• Provide technical guidance and operational support to programmes on interpretation, application and understanding of policies, strategies, processes, best practices and approaches on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support related issues.
• Plan, internally and with external partners to track and follow up on mental health and psychosocial support monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators and other ECW system indicators and measurement to assess/strengthen performance accountability.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Support to inclusive programme development and planning

• Support country-level partners in the preparation, design and updating of analyses for the ECW-facilitated Multi-Year Resilience Programmes (MYRPs) to ensure that current and comprehensive data on education issues with regards to specific protection and mental health and psychosocial support needs of girls and boys -- including adolescents – as well as teachers, persons living with disabilities and minority groups is available to guide the development, implementation and monitoring of these programmes.
• Help supervisor set priorities and ensure sufficient technical support for the provision of protective education in emergencies programming and effective mental health and psychosocial support. Keep abreast of trends in the education in emergencies field to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery.
• Participate in strategic programme discussions (both at HQ level and in the field) on the planning of education in emergencies and protracted crises programmes.
• Contribute to defining the ECW annual work plan in the area of programming on mental health and psychosocial support, including proposing priorities/targets and performance measurement. Monitor work progress in line with defined schedules and performances standards.
• Support in-country MYRP-development teams to establish specific goals, objectives, strategies and implementation plans for child protection and mental health and psychosocial support-based MYRPs using results-based planning terminology and methodology.
• Work closely and collaboratively with internal colleagues and existing partners to discuss strategies and methodologies, and to further develop ECW’s specific guidance on mental health and psychosocial support. With key partners, including the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) and the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR), start work on developing child protection standards for ECW.
• Provide technical and operational support throughout all stages of programming processes and to ensure integration, coherence and harmonization of programmes with other actors and achievement of results as planned and allocated.

Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results

• Plan and collaborate with internal colleagues and external partners to track monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators and other ECW/UN system indicators to assess/strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in education in emergencies programmes.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with governments, UN agencies and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results. Contribute to the preparation and assessment of monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and weaknesses in programme management with specific emphases on mental health and psychosocial support and child protection issues.
• Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained to feedback in planning and timely interventions to achieve goals.
• Actively monitor programmes/projects with a focus on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support through field visits and surveys, and exchange information with stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems, and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
• Monitor and verify the optimum and appropriate use of programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets) confirming compliance with organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity, ensuring timely reporting and liquidation of resources.
• Prepare regular and mandated programme reports for management, donors and partners to keep them informed of progress.

Technical and operational support

• Provide technical guidance and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and country office partners and donors on interpretation, application and understanding of ECW policies, strategies, processes and best practices and approaches on child protection, mental health and psychosocial support and inclusive education and related issues to support programme management, implementation and delivery of results.
• Participate in relevant child protection and mental health and psychosocial support meetings including programme development and contingency planning to provide technical and operational information, advice and support.
• Provide remote and direct field technical support, expertise and capacity building to ECW Secretariat and Country partners in programme planning and implementation, cost-effectiveness analyses, programme scale-up, and methods and tools for programming on mental health and psychosocial support, with a special focus on Education in Emergencies.
• Draft child protection and mental health and psychosocial support talking points, briefs, best-practice case examples and other strategic programme materials for management’s use.

Networking and partnership building

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with relevant government counterparts, national stakeholders, global partners, donors, and academia through active networking, advocacy and effective communication to build capacity, exchange knowledge/expertise and to reinforce cooperation to achieve sustainable and broad results on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support for education in emergencies and protracted crises programmes.
• Prepare communication and information materials for ECW advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships and support fund raising for education in emergencies and protracted crises programmes.
• Participate and/or represent ECW in appropriate inter-agency discussions on mental health and psychosocial support for education and child protection issues to collaborate with inter-agency networks on planning and preparation of programmes/projects ensuring organizational position, interests and priorities are fully considered and integrated as appropriate.
• Continue fostering partnerships with ECW’s current mental health and psychosocial support partners with the aim of aligning programming, policy making, guidance and standard setting with ECW Strategic Plan and child rights international standards.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

• Apply and introduce innovative approaches and good practices to build the capacity of partners and stakeholders and to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results with regards to child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in education efforts.
• Track research developments in the area of mental health and psychosocial support, collate and analyze data including from ECW country programme experience (lessons learned, best practices, reviews and evaluations) so as to inform ECW’s annual reports, the revision of results frameworks, capacity building and reporting.
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, and implement best practices in child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in education in emergencies and protracted crises management. Assess, institutionalize and share best practices and knowledge learned.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of policies and procedures to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy of sustainable programmes and projects.
• Organize and implement capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders to promote sustainable results on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in education and related programmes/projects.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in psychology, counselling, social work or other field related to the work of the ECW Fund.
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in the field of education in emergencies, with specific work experience related to both child protection and mental health and psychosocial support.
• Experience working in emergency situations is considered as a significant asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF and ECW's active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable FEMALE CANDIDATES from PROGRAMME COUNTRIES are highly encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

The appointment for this position is limited to EDUCATION CANNOT WAIT, a UNICEF hosted fund. While UN staff regulations and rules, as well as UNICEF policies and procedures, apply to you during your appointment, certain provisions therein may apply to you differently due to the limited scope of your appointment. In particular, you will not be subject to rotation exercise as per the Executive Directive on Staff mobility and rotation (CF/EXD/2015-002) or any revision thereof. In addition, during your appointment in ECW, you will not be considered eligible for conversion to a Continuing Appointment as per UNICEF Administrative Instruction on Continuing Appointment (CF/AI/2017-002) or any revision thereof. In the event that your post is abolished, the priority granted, and other support provided to staff on abolished posts in staff selection processes will only be extended to posts within ECW and not to other posts in UNICEF.

UNICEF candidates: To return to a UNICEF appointment outside ECW, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF-hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF-hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.

External Candidates: To secure a UNICEF appointment outside ECW, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.