National Post: PSS Programme Officer IC, Kabul, Afghanistan

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments to accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon the UN Member States, organizations, and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the natural and human-induced disaster on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recovering lost gains, and realizing our goals. In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these national norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

The Position:

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results. Specifically, under the purview of this ToR UNFPA is seeking a female candidate to serve as a PSS Programme Officer, ensuring the quality implementation and monitoring of PSS interventions throughout the provinces of Afghanistan. It is crucial to have a qualified female national staff with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the PSS programme, as well as the culture, context, and societal norms of Afghanistan, to ensure the programs are culturally sensitive and acceptable. Considering the nature and purpose of this position, female candidates and persons living with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

You would be responsible for:

UNFPA is seeking a national PSS Programme Officer consultant to support the UNFPA country office, PSS Programme.

The GBViE Programme Assistant will: 

The aim of this consultancy is to support the PSS/GBViE Unit in overseeing the PSS programme implementation. The consultant is expected to provide technical support to the implementing partners and frontline staff in PSS interventions including PSS group activities, case management, and support IP staff capacity development. The PSS Programme Officer, national consultant is also expected to support the PSS/GBV team lead in strategic and innovative programme development and technical monitoring of the programme at the provincial level. 

The PSS program officer, national consultant will work closely with the GBViE Programme Specialist (GBViE Team Lead), MHPSS specialist and other relevant colleagues and perform the following activities. 

Major activities and Expected Results: 

1. Technical Assistance to the UNFPA’s PSS interventions: 

• Ensure adherence to the PSS guiding principles throughout all UNFPA supported PSS Programme interventions in the MCHCs, PSCCs and PSS teams. 

• Provide technical input to the Implementing Partners (IPs) in the timely completion of project reports, including monthly, quarterly, final and any other required, ensuring reports are of an acceptable standard. 

• Support the IPs key programme staff to ensure that activities run effectively and make best use of project resources. 

• Coordinate closely with the field office team to ensure a strategically integrated approach to programmes. 

2. Capacity Development: 

● Conduct and/or oversee facilitation of PSS related capacity building initiatives for implementing partners following inter agency guidelines. 

● Provide technical oversight of PSS case management and psychosocial support services in the Mother and Child Health Center (MCHC), Psychosocial Counseling Center (PSCC), PSS Clinics, PSS Teams, PSS corners at the Family Health Houses (FHHs), ensuring regular planning and debriefing sessions with field staff to facilitate staff care, and foster innovative and quality programming. 

● Conduct and/or guide assessment of current PSS interventions in collaboration with PSS/GBV unit to ensure cultural sensitivity and relevance. 

● Work with implementing partners to Identify training needs for PSS counselors, medical doctors, community mobilizers, early childhood educators and data collection officers and plan to meet the identified needs through training, workshops, mentorship and on-the-job training.

● Maintain training logs to track all training provided to/by partners, including information on post-assessments to assess effectiveness of training. 

3. PSS Programme implementation and Administration Support: 

● Plan and participate in the regular technical monitoring visits to PSS Service Delivery Points (SDPs) at provincial level 

● Monitor new trends/or changes in context of project locations and support PSS team to develop strategies/measures to address and mitigate risks. 

● Monitor and prepare periodic reports on implementation status of PSS programmes. 

● Support PSS/GBV unit to prepare donor reports, external and internal and external SitRep, programme meetings reports and routine presentations; 

● Support the implementation of priorities in the Implementing Partner’s (IP)s work plans including PSS activities. 

4. Coordination and Representation: 

● Identify concerns related to and guide adherence to PSS referral mechanism by all relevant organizations and agencies in Afghanistan. 

● Develop and maintain effective working relationships with relevant stakeholders including implementing partner organizations and agencies, ensuring that only appropriate PSS service information is shared. 

● Strengthen the collaboration and synergies with RH, the humanitarian unit, A&Y, AAP and PSEA units and area offices. 

● Represent UNFPA in MHPSS coordination structures and maintain linkage between MHPSS Working Group and GBV Sub-cluster to support information sharing and skills transfer. 

5. Monitoring and Evaluation: 

● Ensure the IP staff are adhering to the WHO guidelines of ethical data collection. 

● Support the PSS/GBV unit in reporting activities in the field for progress/after action reports and document lessons learned and challenges. ● Support IP in planning and conducting safety audits. 

● Conduct FGDs with beneficiaries to ensure service provision is adequate and feedback is incorporated in UNFPA’s PSS Programming. 

6. Knowledge management: 

● Collate, prepare and draft good practices on PSS Programme as necessary 

● Ensure that partners are abreast with best practices from UNFPA PSS programming in other similar contexts to enable knowledge sharing and possibility of replication with the context of Afghanistan.

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in social sciences, psychology, social work, law, gender studies, human rights or related fields. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be considered in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Knowledge and experience:

• Minimum 4 years of progressive humanitarian experience; at least 1 of which should be field-based or in the emergency context. 
• Experience in conducting training or facilitating capacity building 
• Awareness and demonstrable knowledge of how protection concerns humanitarian settings and ability to describe context-specific prevention and response actions. 
• Knowledge of training tools and methods and proven experience delivering training on PSS and related topics in humanitarian settings. 
• Demonstrated organizational skills: the ability to work independently and productively with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of issues related to confidentiality, data safety and other ethical concerns related to the sharing of sensitive data between humanitarian agencies.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to liaise with people successfully and effectively in a wide range of functions in a multicultural environment.

Language requirements: 

• Fluency in English is essential. 
• Dari and Pashto are required as the working language in Afghanistan.

Inputs/services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner (e.g. support services, office space, equipment), if applicable: 

The consultant is expected to provide all necessary equipment to complete the assignment (computer, software, phone, access to internet, etc.). 

UNFPA will provide all relevant background information and documentation regarding the regional and country contexts, as well as play a coordinating role in facilitating the onboarding meetings for the consultant. 

Disclaimer: 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Fraudulent notices, letters or offers may be submitted to the UNFPA fraud hotline http://www.unfpa.org/help/hotline.cfm

In accordance with the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, persons applying to posts in the international Professional category, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.