National Consultant - Mental Health and Psychological Support (MHPSS)

Purpose of Consultancy

To support the WHO Country Office Romania in providing technical support to develop, implement and monitor the WHO workplan for Mental Health and Psychological Support (MHPSS) in the context of the Grade 2 Emergency in Romania and to support WHO with the co-ordination of the MHPSS Technical Working Group.

Background

In 2023, WHO Country Office Romania (WCO) will have to achieve a balance between supporting delivery of universal access to care and public health, responding promptly and adequately to emergencies, and ensuring healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages. WCO will be working to the country cooperation strategy, aiming to strengthen the health systems and ensure access to health care for all.

Deliverables

Under all the pillars of the Strategic Response Plan (SRP), the consultant will work with local and national authorities to strengthen access to healthcare for refugees, support health care workers to provide care, and identify gaps.

Output 1: Provide technical support to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate the WHO workplan for Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in the context of the Grade 2 Emergency in Romania

• Provide technical support and country relevant inputs for the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of WHO's Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) workplan and activities in the context of the Grade 2 Emergency in Romania (development of concept notes, proposals, budget, workplan, and logical frames).

• Provide technical support to the design and delivery of MHPSS capacity-building actions (training of trainers, specialized training, awareness-raising initiatives, orientation seminars, mini-trainings, briefings, and project reviews).

  • Organize the capacity building activities for the, including schedule of workshops, organize workshops (facilitators, agenda, materials), logistics and coordination with partners for delivery.
  • Facilitate the MHPSS workshops.
  • Prepare a summary report of results and next steps.
• Providing technical support & monitoring and evaluate third-party projects under WHO (call for proposals, project implementation).
• Provide technical support to develop/adapt WHO / Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) MHPSS tools, guidelines, and resources.
• Manage the translation of WHO / IASC MHPSS materials from English to Romanian to ensure the quality of the translation and dissemination through WHO channels (such as Institutional Repository Information Sharing (IRIS), IASC, and WHO webpage).
• Provide technical support for including the MHPSS component in other pillars of the WCO Romania response to the emergency. MHPSS is a cross-sectional topic for communications, Gender Based Violence (GBV), Prevention of Sexual Exploitation & Abuse (PSEA), Protection, and other technical activities.
• Updating WHO Regional Office (RO) for EURO and Head Quarter (HQ) MHPSS respected departments (Mental Health Flagship Team, World Health Emergencies Emergency Operations Team at WHO EURO and IASC MHPSS Reference Group) with Romania MHPSS activities.

Output 2: Support WHO with the Co-coordination of the Romania MHPSS sub-Working Group

• Coordinate the Romania Inter-agency MHPSS sub Working Group as a platform for sharing of information and activities of national and international organization including ministries at national and provincial levels, academia, NGOs, professional organizations, and Donor Community that providing MHPSS activities to respond the emergency.
• Develop / update the technical and operational aspects of MHPSS sub Working Group, including ToR, workplan, member list, service mapping, assessments, capacity-building plan, and organization of events. Provide technical support to WHO MHPSS team to develop and maintain MHPSS service mapping in Romania by contacting partners in close collaboration with Information Management Officer.
• In coordination with the communication team, maintaining the communication channels of MHPSS TWG through social media platforms (e.g., Telegram chat, Newsletter, Google Group, FB group, and similar).
• Conducting MHPSS WG meetings (agenda, invitation, meeting minutes, maintaining the participants' list, contact with partners when and if required, keep the OneDrive updated, etc.).
• Provide technical support to MHPSS TWG within interagency coordination structure, the Government of Romania, the Romanian MHPSS network, academia, NGOs, professional organizations, and donor community.
• Support UNHCR Inter-agency team on Refugee Response Plan regarding MHPSS (developing narrative, coordinating MHPSS data collection from sWG members, sharing achievement/challenges for mid-term and end of the year report).
• Represent/provide updates on the MHPSS sWG in the Refugee Coordination Forum structure and other related WG meetings (protection, health, CP, GBV, and education) and keep the MHPSS sWG webpage updated in UNHCR data portal.
• Support the Emergency MHPSS consultant at regional office level with the collection of subregional MHPSS service mapping data for Romania.
• Drafting of other relevant technical documents as required.

Qualifications

Educational Qualifications

Essential:

• First University degree in Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, Counselling, or a related field from an accredited academic institution

Desirable: • Public health qualification will be an added plus. • Knowledge of the mental health situation in Romania. • Familiarity with the national stakeholders in MHPSS. • Good understanding of the national mental health care system in Romania. • Knowledge of IASC guidelines and recommendations and knowledge of WHO MHPSS technical packages.

Experience

Essential: • One year of relevant professional experience, some in mental health in humanitarian emergencies area.• In-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of the IASC Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings guidelines and associated products (e.g., IASC Assessment toolkit, IASC Who is Where, When, Doing What in MHPSS: 4W Tool, IASC Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for MHPSS in Emergency Settings, CCCM booklets). • Strong networking capacities for constructive relationships with all humanitarian actors (e.g., MOH, OCHA, ICRC, Health/Protection Coordination Leads, UN agencies, INGOs, and NNGOs), Donors, and relevant Government Line Ministries. • Ability to work independently, under pressure.

Desirable: • Work experience with WHO or another UN agency or other recognized international organizations. • Coordination, project management, and information management experience.

Skills/Knowledge

Required: • Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development. • Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines. • Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel. Desirable:

• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various MS Office applications (Excel, Word, etc.), email/internet, and office technology equipment.

Languages

English: Expert knowledge Romanian: Expert knowledge

Location

On site: WHO Country Office, Romania (Bucharest).

Travel

The consultant is expected to travel.

Remuneration

a. Remuneration: 18,313 lei per month. (The pay band reflects the NO-A salary scale of the country, matched to the labour market in Romania.) b. Locally contracted consultant c. Expected duration of contract: 5 months (1 November 2023- 31 March 2024)

Additional Information

• This vacancy notice may be used to identify candidates for other similar consultancies at the same level.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test may be used as a form of screening.
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