Protection Officer – Psycho-social Support (PSS)

Join as a Protection Officer focused on Psychosocial Support to improve humanitarian solutions.

DRC - Danish Refugee Council

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Application deadline in 5 days: Thursday 24 Apr 2025 at 21:59 UTC

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Overview

Join as a Protection Officer focused on Psychosocial Support to improve humanitarian solutions.

You have:

  • At least 6 years knowledge and experience in the field of PSS, including trauma, resilience & recovery, PSN, child development and work by extension with parents & caregivers.
  • Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. Must be a licensed clinical psychologist.
  • Excellent knowledge and experience in using key tools and approaches relating to PSS with displacement-affected populations, including the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies.
  • Proven capacity to technically support, train and coach staff, including developing training materials from scratch.
  • Experience in Eastern Africa working in emergency response or protracted crises and understanding of the psychological impacts of displacement on IDPs, Returnees refugee populations is beneficial.
  • Ability to work effectively as an integral part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural team.

Contract

This is a DRC - National contract. More about DRC - National contracts.

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, we are excited to invite you to join our team as a Protection Officer – Psychosocial Support. If you are a skilled and motivated professional ready to make a difference, we want you on board! Together, we’ll work to deliver impactful humanitarian solutions in challenging environments.

About the job

The Protection Officer– Psychosocial Support is responsible for overseeing the PSS program strategy for DRC Unity State, in addition to ensuring high impact programming. The Protection Specialist – Psychosocial Support will advise on program design and implementation, innovative approaches, staff training and capacity building, with the aim of building a cohesive, well-coordinated and high-quality PSS response across multiple locations.

Geographic scope: Area (Unity State): This role has an area focus and ensures compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the area. The role contributes to the development of area strategies, which are translated into action plans and day-to-day tasks. Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Responsibilities

The Protection Officer – Psychosocial Support:

  • Leads the technical design of the PSS program, in collaboration with the Protection Manager. This includes assessing the current PSS needs in each site or proposed area of operation, assessing the PSS response capacities of DRC in each base and identifying intervention niches for the organization.
  • Conducts regular quality assessments of DRC South Sudan’s psychosocial programming, and provides recommendations to improve structure, quality and programmatic harmonization.
  • Develops high quality PSS manuals in English and translated into local languages, based on the identified needs in each base and the strategic priority areas outlined in DRC’s Strategy.
  • Provides high quality capacity building for PSS staff on core methods and practices relating to structured psychosocial support and group activities and individual one-on-one support, including methods for working with children and the elderly/PSN
  • Provides structured technical supervision for PSS field staff, including the Protection Team Leaders, PSS Officers and PSS Assistants /case workers through regular field visits and mentoring.
  • Provides technical support to the Protection Specialist (Partnerships and Capacity Building) relating to the oversight of PSS activities undertaken by partners.
  • Strengthens program learning, monitoring and documentation on PSS, in collaboration with the M&E team.
  • Represents DRC at the GBV/PSEA/AoR and MHPSS working group
  • Develops and strengthens relationships with networks and other stakeholders working on MHPSS/GBV/PSEAH to ensure linkages and alignment for DRC programming
  • Contributes to future project development and proposal writing for projects relating to PSS.
  • Contributes to the quality of staff care for DRC South Sudan staff and volunteers by facilitating trainings in self-care, stress management and personal resilience.
  • Provides capacity building for DRC South Sudan staff on protection topics, as requested by the Protection Manager.
  • Any other activities, as requested by the Area Manager and the Protection Manager

Required

  • At least 6 years knowledge and experience in the field of PSS, including trauma, resilience & recovery, PSN, child development and work by extension with parents & caregivers.
  • Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. Must be a licensed clinical psychologist.
  • Excellent knowledge and experience in using key tools and approaches relating to PSS with displacement-affected populations, including the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies
  • Proven capacity to technically support, train and coach staff, including developing training materials from scratch.
  • Experience in the Eastern Africa working in emergency response or protracted crises and understanding of the psychological impacts of displacement on IDPs, Returnees refugee populations is beneficial
  • Ability to work effectively as an integral part of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural team.

Potential interview questions

Describe a time when you had to assess PSS needs in a challenging environment. What steps did you take? This question assesses your practical experience in conducting needs assessments. Outline the steps you took, the stakeholders involved, and the outcome.
How do you ensure the quality of a psychosocial support program? The interviewer seeks to understand your approach to maintaining high standards in programming. Pro members can see the explanation.
Can you explain the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies? Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
Share an example of how you’ve built capacity in staff for psychosocial support. Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
What strategies do you use to work with children and vulnerable populations? Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
Describe your experience in writing project proposals related to psychosocial support. Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
How do you approach collaboration with local stakeholders in humanitarian responses? Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
Explain a challenge you faced while providing technical support to field staff and how you overcame it. Pro members can see the explanation. Pro members can see the explanation.
Added 4 days ago - Updated 9 hours ago - Source: drc.ngo