Education Specialist (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) at UNICEF, New York, United States

Deadline: 1 June 2023

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is currently seeking applications from eligible applicants for the post of Education Specialist (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) in New York, United States.

UNICEF works for a world in which every child has a fair chance in life.

Key Jobs Responsibilities

The Education Specialist (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) will perform the following functions:

• Support to inclusive programme development and planning
  • Support country-level partners in the preparation, design and updating of analyses for the ECW-facilitated Multi-Year Resilience Programmes (MYRPs) to ensure that current and comprehensive data on education issues with regards to specific protection and mental health and psychosocial support needs of girls and boys — including adolescents – as well as teachers, persons living with disabilities and minority groups is available to guide the development, implementation and monitoring of these programmes.
  • Help supervisor set priorities and ensure sufficient technical support for the provision of protective education in emergencies programming and effective mental health and psychosocial support. Keep abreast of trends in the education in emergencies field to enhance programme management, efficiency and delivery.
  • Participate in strategic programme discussions (both at HQ level and in the field) on the planning of education in emergencies and protracted crises programmes.
• Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results
  • Plan and collaborate with internal colleagues and external partners to track monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators and other ECW/UN system indicators to assess/strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for child protection and mental health and psychosocial support in education in emergencies programmes.
  • Participate in monitoring and evaluation exercises, programme reviews and annual reviews with governments, UN agencies and other counterparts to assess progress and to determine required action/interventions to achieve results. Contribute to the preparation and assessment of monitoring and evaluation reports to identify gaps, strengths and weaknesses in programme management with specific emphases on mental health and psychosocial support and child protection issues.
  • Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained to feedback in planning and timely interventions to achieve goals.
  • Actively monitor programmes/projects with a focus on child protection and mental health and psychosocial support through field visits and surveys, and exchange information with stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems, and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
• Technical and operational support
  • Provide technical guidance and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, UN system partners and country office partners and donors on interpretation, application and understanding of ECW policies, strategies, processes and best practices and approaches on child protection, mental health and psychosocial support and inclusive education and related issues to support programme management, implementation and delivery of results.
  • Participate in relevant child protection and mental health and psychosocial support meetings including programme development and contingency planning to provide technical and operational information, advice and support.
  • Provide remote and direct field technical support, expertise and capacity building to ECW Secretariat and Country partners in programme planning and implementation, cost-effectiveness analyses, programme scale-up, and methods and tools for programming on mental health and psychosocial support, with a special focus on Education in Emergencies.
  • Draft child protection and mental health and psychosocial support talking points, briefs, best-practice case examples and other strategic programme materials for management’s use.

Eligibility Criteria

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in psychology, counselling, social work or other field related to the work of the ECW Fund.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience in the field of education in emergencies, with specific work experience related to both child protection and mental health and psychosocial support.
• Experience working in emergency situations is considered as a significant asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

How to Apply

Applicants must submit their applications through online process.

For more information, visit UNICEF.