The Position:

The Clinical Management of Rape and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CMR/MHPSS) Specialist is part of the UNFPA’s Programme Support Unit and works closely with the first responder Global Emergency Response Team (GERT). As such, her/his primary responsibility is to support UNFPA in responding to sexual violence including during emergencies. The specialist will work under direct supervision from the Head of the Programme Support Unit in the Humanitarian Response Division, who will closely coordinate with the Emergency Response Coordinator to prioritize emergencies as relevant.

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 on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

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.

Job Purpose:

The overall purpose of the Humanitarian Response Division (HRD) is to facilitate the delivery of the UNFPA mandate by leading emergency response and supporting humanitarian preparedness actions in increasingly complex humanitarian situations, within globally agreed frameworks (2030 Agenda, Grand bargain, Commitments, Sendai, Framework, etc.)

The HRD leads in leveraging and increasing effectiveness, efficiency, and capacity of UNFPA staff and partners to scale up UNFPA’s role as a key global humanitarian leader.

The ability to timely deploy emergency response staff is a critical factor for effective emergency response.

The GERT team represents first responders in a continuum of humanitarian deployments (deployed prior to surge with the purpose of setting the ground for an effective and coherent emergency response). Although the selected expert work will largely be planned in order to increase UNFPA capacity in CMR in humanitarian settings, the selected expert might be requested to deploy in the second wave of responders following an emergency or a specific request for support from the Country or Regional Office. Deployments will not exceed a month.

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

• Clinical degree including clinical psychology, and proven clinical experience in CMR- IPV and/or clinical psychology
• Advanced university degree in social sciences, psychology, public health or other relevant fields.

Knowledge and Experience:

• At least 7 years of demonstrated experience leading MHPSS/CMR interventions in humanitarian response in different country contexts
• At least 5 years field based experience working in a scale up, rapid onset humanitarian emergencies
• Demonstrated experience and technical proficiency in designing, adapting and delivering capacity building interventions (in person, remote, webinars, etc.) for a wide variety of practitioners in different contexts and with varying levels of capacity. Preference for those with specific experience in developing and delivering SRH, CMR or MHPSS related trainings.
• Good understanding of the survivor-centered approach and previous experience in provision of direct support with rape and IPV survivors
• Experience of working across multiple humanitarian sectors and proved knowledge of the humanitarian architecture and coordination mechanisms.
• Good ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with local health systems

Languages:

Fluency in English is required; knowledge of other official UN languages, preferably French and/or Spanish, is desirable.