JOB DESCRIPTION

Deadline for Applications

October 11, 2025

Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

B

Family Type (not applicable for home-based)

Family

Staff Member / Affiliate Type

UNOPS IICA1

Target Start Date

2025-09-16

Terms of Reference

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Officer is a member of a multidisciplinary team and contributes to ensuring that UNHCR”s mental health and psychosocial support programmes optimally contribute to reduced suffering and improved mental health and psychosocial well-being among forcibly displaced and stateless populations, and as such contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
MHPSS activities do not constitute a separate sector within the work of UNHCR and partners but are mainly realized within existing sectors and work fields such as health, nutrition, education, community-based protection, child protection, and GBV. The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer supports providing effective guidance and appropriate capacity for MHPSS interventions within UNHCR and partners.
The incumbent provides effective and timely technical and strategic guidance to UNHCR senior management and partners, including the design and scope of UNHCR’s responses in mental health and psychosocial support, catalyses the engagement of other actors, supports resource mobilisation efforts including the private sector, and monitors the response. S/he identifies problems, proposes solutions proactively and engages in developing, implementing, and overseeing MHPSS strategies, including in the inter-agency context. The incumbent advances the Global Public Health Strategy and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) concepts and applies a humanitarian-development nexus lens to UNHCR’s MHPSS programming.
The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer is normally supervised by protection office.

Relevant Job Experience
Essential

• Experience with evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support programming, including data collection and analysis, to inform sound decision-making.
• Experience in preparing training materials around mental health and psychosocial support.
• Experience with doing capacity building around MHPSS (training and workshops).
• Work experience with technical tools on mental health integration in primary health care, scalable psychological interventions (brief evidence-based psychotherapies) and community-based psychosocial work.

c. Desirable
• Experience with MHPSS in humanitarian or refugee settings, preferably both in acute emergencies and protracted situations.
• Experience in humanitarian settings.
• Experience with coordination and stakeholder engagement to achieve public health goals.
• Experience with health information systems.
• Experience with the provision of quality-assured medicines and medical supplies.

Standard Job Description

Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Officer is a member of a multidisciplinary team and contributes to ensuring that UNHCR”s mental health and psychosocial support programmes optimally contribute to reduced suffering and improved mental health and psychosocial well-being among forcibly displaced and stateless populations, and as such contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

MHPSS activities do not constitute a separate sector within the work of UNHCR and partners but are mainly realized within existing sectors and work fields such as health, nutrition, education, community-based protection, child protection, and GBV. The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer supports providing effective guidance and appropriate capacity for MHPSS interventions within UNHCR and partners.

The incumbent provides effective and timely technical and strategic guidance to UNHCR senior management and partners, including the design and scope of UNHCR’s responses in mental health and psychosocial support, catalyses the engagement of other actors, supports resource mobilisation efforts including the private sector, and monitors the response. S/he identifies problems, proposes solutions proactively and engages in developing, implementing, and overseeing MHPSS strategies, including in the inter-agency context. The incumbent advances the Global Public Health Strategy and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) concepts and applies a humanitarian-development nexus lens to UNHCR’s MHPSS programming.

The Associate Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer is normally supervised by a Senior Public Health Officer or in the absence thereof, by operations, programme or protection staff.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Provide support and recommendations on the implementation of MHPSS programmes, in a multi-sectoral and coordinated manner in cooperation with government, UN agencies, NGOs, and other humanitarian and development partners, with due consideration to the approaches outlined in the Global Compact on Refugees, MHPSS-related pledges linked to the Global Refugee Forum, and in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG3.
• Support the development of quality mental health and psychosocial support interventions, embedded in public health programming, based on UNHCR’s operational guidance for mental health and psychosocial support and in line with international minimum standards, including inter-agency guidance such as the IASC Guidelines for MHPSS in Emergency Settings (2007), the Mental Health Standard in the Sphere Handbook (2018), and the Minimum Service Package for MHPSS (2022), towards greater inclusion and access of refugees to national services for MHPSS.
• Promote strong programmatic ties between units such as public health, protection, and education, and establish close working relationships with personnel in these areas to enhance the integration of MHPSS into their work.
• Promote the use of internal guidelines and procedures to improve the efficiency and quality of MHPSS activities within the overall operational response.
• Support multi-sectoral coordination outside and within UNHCR in all matters related to MHPSS for displaced populations, and work with stakeholders, including Ministries of Health and other line ministries, UN agencies, NGOs, development actors, and academic institutions in the development of MHPSS programs, including multi-year, multi-partner solutions strategies and funding appeals such as regional refugee response plans or other humanitarian appeals.
• Support the integration of MHPSS into emergency preparedness and response planning.
• Support capacity strengthening around MHPSS and act as a resource person in workshops and trainings.
• Support the assessment and monitoring of country-level mental health programmes against standard UNHCR and international indicators to ensure that they are evidence-based and implemented in a comprehensive and cost-effective manner.
• Help promoting the quality of MHPSS services and provide technical advice to personnel within UNHCR and partners involved in MHPSS services.
• Support the documentation of better practices and lessons learnt for dissemination.

For positions in country operations:

• Promote, in close coordination with other humanitarian actors, the technical integrity of MHPSS services and help ensuring that they are aligned with standards and policies of the Ministry of Health and other line ministries, UNHCR, or with internationally recognized guidance and the most up-to-date standards and policies.
• Support promoting engagement of UN partners around MHPSS, including inter alia the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations International Children”s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and UN Population Fund (UNFPA), including through joint assessment missions and supporting the development or updating of country-specific plans of action to delineate the roles, responsibilities, and contributions of other actors.
• Promote community participation in designing and implementing MHPSS programmes, fostering ownership and empowerment, ensuring inclusion of vulnerable groups, establishing two-way communication, and building on local capacities and resources.
• Support compliance with, and integrity of, all relevant Administrative Instructions and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in conjunction with project control and programme staff and in line with delegated authorities, including flagging to senior managers when these are not in line with global guidance or not being followed.

For positions in regional bureaux:

• Support the coordination of MHPSS across the regional bureau and with country operations.
• Provide technical advice and support to country operations, including missions, in all aspects of MHPSS service delivery, including emergencies and in line with UNHCR’s policy and guidance.
• Contribute to assessment and analysis of MHPSS data and provide relevant support on the technical quality of programming in the country operations.
• Provide inputs for MHPSS strategies and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the operations and coordinate the review and clearance with HQ.
• Promote effective collaborative approaches around MHPSS across the departments in the bureaux and with HQ.

For positions in headquarters:

• Collate information that supports the development of organisation-wide guidance, policies and tools, related to MHPSS, including policy documents, technical guidance, evaluations, lessons learnt, communication and visibility materials, reports, and synthesis.
• Support the provision of technical advice and support, including missions, to bureaux and country operations in pursuit of greater inclusion and access to national services for mental health and psychosocial support.
• Assist in MHPSS related knowledge management, training and learning as well as sharing analytical products and tools with bureaux and country operations to inform policies, programmes and opportunities for inclusion into national public health systems.
• Assist the development of better practices and lessons learnt and academic articles for dissemination.
• Support effective collaborative approaches across the team and in between divisions and bureaux.

• Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making is risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s).
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

For P2/NOB – 3 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 2 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 1 year relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education

Clinical Psychology; Psychiatry; Clinical Social Work;

Psychiatric nursing ; or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses

Not specified.

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

Experience with evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support programming, including data collection and analysis, to inform sound decision-making. Experience in preparing training materials around mental health and psychosocial support. Experience with doing capacity building around MHPSS (training and workshops). Work experience with technical tools on mental health integration in primary health care, scalable psychological interventions (brief evidence-based psychotherapies) and community-based psychosocial work.

Desirable

Experience with MHPSS in humanitarian or refugee settings, preferably both in acute emergencies and protracted situations. Experience with UNHCR.

Functional Skills

WB-Psychosocial risk assessment and recommendation of mitigating measures

CL-Needs Assessment and Response Analysis

WB-Community Services-Social Work

CL-Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community

PR-Community-based Protection – Community engagement and capacity building

MD-Health Information Systems (HIS)

MS-Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) development

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

Competency Requirements

All jobs at UNHCR require six core competencies and may also require managerial competencies and/or cross-functional competencies. The six core competencies are listed below.

Core Competencies

Accountability

Communication

Organizational Awareness

Teamwork & Collaboration

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Client & Result Orientation

Managerial Competencies

Managing Resources

Empowering and Building Trust

Managing Performance

Cross-Functional Competencies

Analytical Thinking

Planning and Organizing

Stakeholder Management

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination, and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

Required Languages

,

,

Desired Languages

,

,

Additional Qualifications

Skills

CL-Multi-stakeholder Communications with Partners, Government & Community, CL-Needs Assessment and Response Analysis, MD-Health Information Systems (HIS), MG-Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) development, PR-Community-based Protection – Community engagement and capacity building, WB – Community Services/Social Work, WB – Psychosocial risk assessment and recommendation of mitigating measures

Education

Bachelor of Arts: Clinical Psychology, Bachelor of Arts: Clinical Social Work, Bachelor of Arts: Psychiatric nursing, Bachelor of Arts: Psychiatry

Certifications

Work Experience

Other information

Women are strongly encouraged to apply in order to promote gender balance within UNHCR.
Applicants may be subjected to an assessment (written or oral interview).This position requires Functional Clearance

Remote

No