Staff Counsellor, P-3, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Contract

This is a P-3 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 120,483 USD and 157,764 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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, hope

Due to the context of DRC with political instability and recurrent health emergencies, UNICEF staff members are frequently exposed to high levels of day to day, cumulative stress, including those stressors related to their workload as well as the demands related to living and working in highly unstable and insecure environments.

Under the supervision of the Chief HR and the technical guidance/supervision of the UNICEF Regional Counsellor, the Staff Counsellor will develop and implement a stress management programme aimed atattending to the psychological needs of UNICEF staff management in DRC. The work will be done from the preventive and curative perspective at the individual, team and organizational levels. The main objective of the stress management programme is to mitigate the impact of chronic stress on staff, to raise awareness about trauma, stress and stress management, to facilitate the provision of assistance to staff/family experiencing trauma and/or work related and/or personal problems, to facilitate the provision of immediate support following a traumatic incident, to promote social support and other strategies aimed at improving the overall well-being of UNICEF staff in DRC.

The Staff Counsellor will work in close coordination with Country Management Teams, Emergency Coordinators, HR, Staff Association, Peer Support Volunteers (PSVs), the UN Medical Clinic and UN Staff Counsellors. Frequent field missions within DRC are required.

How can you make a difference?

1. Under the guidance of the Regional Staff Counsellor and in collaboration with the Country Management Team and HR, facilitate the development, implementation of a Stress Management Programme addressing the psychosocial needs identified with an aim of improving Staff Well-Being in DRC. This includes:

• Assisting in developing the programme framework;
• Developing strategies for implementing the framework;
• Monitoring the impact of the framework on the country level;
• Lobbying and providing input for improvement.

2. Facilitate the provision of effective psycho-social support to staff leadership, managers and individual staff prioritizing emergency locations with the aim to mitigating stress and boost protective factors by:

• Providing support and advice to the leadership and managers in offices on healthy work practices and approaches on how to effectively support staff and encourage resilience. Recommend suitable staff support strategies to managers during and following emergencies and other crises.
• Providing staff with individual and/or group counselling as needed (i.e. assessment, short-term intervention, referral);
• Contributing to identification of creative ways of building a network of external mental health providers available to provide services to staff.
• Coordinating the Peer Support Volunteers (PSVs) Programme for DRC office.
• Coordinate with UNDSS, agency counsellors and PSVs, to ensure the provision of adequate psychosocial support during emergencies.
• Assess and monitor psycho-social needs and issues affecting the wellbeing of staff.
• Design and provide training and awareness raising activities for staff and managers on trauma as well as strengthening healthy workplace practices to the extent possible.

3. Provide Critical Incident Stress Management to groups- and/or individual staff following critical incidents. A holistic approach to critical incident management is used and may include services such as practical support, psycho-education, psychological first aid, strategic advice to leadership, family support and individual or group interventions. The Staff Counsellor will be responsible for:

• Contacting the affected staff member(s) and offering information about typical stress reactions, support- and referral information;
• Facilitating appropriate traumatic stress interventions, following a critical incident or traumatic event;
• Recommending and arranging for individual and/or group follow-up support to staff and their dependents.
• Regular Reaching out and visits to staff in field offices.
• Provide pre and post-deployment briefings/debriefings to new staff.

4. Monitoring and oversight:

• Providing on a regular basis statistics and trends on issues related to staff well-being, whilst maintaining confidentiality.
• Alert the HR Manager on trends that may be of concern in offices or offices requiring targeted support or Managerial intervention.
• Capture lessons learnt and best practices for dissemination as appropriate.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in counselling, clinical psychology or a field related to mental health. Additional training or certification in Trauma and Stress Management is an added advantage.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in staff support, mental health, cross cultural communications, counselling and related areas preferably gained within the UN system or international development/humanitarian aid sector.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English and French is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) or Swahili is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

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 http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female are encouraged to apply.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

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 may also be 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.