Programme Management Advisor (Psychosocial Wellbeing)

The Department of Safety and Security (DSS) is responsible for providing leadership, operational support and oversight of the security management system to enable the safest and most efficient conduct of the security programmes and activities of the United Nations System.

This position is located in the Critical Incident Stress Management Unit (CISMU) within the Division of Specialized Operational Support (DSOS), DSS. CISMU coordinates the management of stress and critical incident stress UN system wide to promote the psycho-social wellbeing of all UN personnel and their dependents and ensure that their psycho-social needs are addressed. It has specific responsibilities in emergency preparedness, emergency response and hostage incident management.  Furthermore, it addresses and promotes staff psychosocial wellbeing issues in coordination with Medical Services, HR Services, UN Counsellors from other UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes, senior leaders and line managers UN system wide.

The Programme Management Advisor should be a Health professional preferably a mental health professional with strong programme management as well as Monitoring & Evaluation skills, strong public health expertise including formal graduate level training in biostatics, epidemiology or international public health.

Under the administrative supervision of the UNOPS Senior Programme Manager or designated individual, the incumbent will work operationally and technically under the Chief of CISMU and will be required to perform the following duties.

Policy and Evaluation Activities: 

• Formulate proposals for development strategies, policies and measures for presentation to different stakeholders.

• Manage strategic project activities for psychosocial wellbeing including collaborating with project leads to implement project activities, achieve milestones, and manage project resources

• Serve as a subject matter expert on psychosocial wellbeing to assure visibility and accessibility of tools, training, and organizational dialogue on this subject.

• Manage critical policy work, including drafting and reviewing drafts of policies, guidelines and Standard Operations Procedures that build upon DSS vision and Operational Strategy for its Integrated Security Workforce (ISW).

• Create and implement metrics to measure and assess psychosocial wellbeing. Provide recommendations and advice on how to improve the metrics.

• Coordinate the development, implementation and evaluation of the DSS Staff psychosocial wellbeing project. S/he monitors and analyzes project development and implementation; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed and proposes corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties; identifies and tracks follow-up actions.

• Closely work on policy development on staff psychosocial wellbeing, including the review of  existing policies and analysis of issues and trends, preparation of evaluations or other research activities and studies; drafting circulars and guidelines to address stigma on mental health within UNDSS to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of staff; coordinating the presence of counsellors in the departmental activities including the meetings and training activities targeting Security Professional and UNDSS personnel at large; drafting an orientation booklet on UNDSS personnel psychosocial wellbeing including but not limited to the description of the UN psychosocial system, the services available to staff, procedures to get the services (in the field and at Headquarters), to navigate the system, and to take care of self before, during and after assignment.

• Undertake outreach activities liaising with Designated Officials, Security Professional, field stress counsellors; the Executive office, the Human Resource officers, the Division of Regional Operations Desk officers, conduct training workshops, seminars, etc.; make presentations on assigned topics/activities.

• Lead or participate in field missions, including provision of guidance to external mental health professionals, consultants, UN officials, CISMU partners and other parties and drafting mission summaries, etc.

Research and Capacity Building Activities: 

• Monitor new trends, keep abreast of industry best practices and proactively identify opportunities to innovate.

• Responsible for developing new models in the area of psychosocial wellbeing for cross-functional integration of business areas. For this the incumbent is required to work closely with different stakeholders inside and outside the organization to think out of the box and develop models that can be implemented. 

• Manage and coordinate the information gathering and maintain evidence for  research analysis and present information gathered from diverse sources. 

• Develop comprehensive survey initiatives; design data collection tools; review, analyze and consolidate trends and other relevant insights into reports concerning, identify problems/issues and prepare conclusions.  

• Review the CISMU current research platform and indicators.

• Manage the establishment of a training program relevant to the Integrated Security Workforce (ISWF) psychosocial wellbeing for use by the Counsellors.

• Build, manage and coordinate the capacity of CISMU Regional and the field Counsellors with using the newly designed research Monitoring Evaluation Platform and reporting tools and supporting with launching and/or finalizing the implementation of the psychosocial wellbeing project activities including the research activities in their respective regions.

Documentation and Systems Activities:

• Prepare various written outputs, e.g. draft background papers, analysis, sections of reports and studies, input to publications, etc. Prepare quarterly reports on activities conducted, program implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

• Liaise and work with Office of Information and Communication Technology (OICT) to upgrade, update the CISMU database and monitoring evaluation and reporting platform

Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent degree) in clinical psychology or a medical doctorate with certificate of specialization or completion of four years of residency in psychiatry; A valid certification to practice at national level in clinical psychology or psychiatry is required. 

• Additional advanced degree or full certification in a broad range of related fields, such as in Public Health, Epidemiology or statistics, Monitoring Evaluation or a related field is highly desirable. 

• A health professional with a Doctoral degree familiar with mental health programming with a postgraduate degree in public health, biostatics or epidemiology may be considered after review of the profile

Required

• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in health program/project management preferably in mental health. 

Desirable (The following experience is optional. Candidates who do not have it are welcome to apply):

• Experience in developing staff psychosocial wellbeing programmes, conducting research; designing, managing databases including data processing and analysis (comfortable with dbase, SPSS, STATA or Epi Info or other epidemiological/ statistical software packages). 

• Experience in developing, managing mental health programs/project, or developing monitoring and evaluation programs, identifying or developing relevant psychosocial wellbeing or mental health indicators

• Experience in interfacing with stakeholders and communicating complex concepts in compelling presentations

• Fluency in English (read, write, speak) is required;
• Knowledge of another UN official language is desirable.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Background Information - Sustainable Development Cluster 

Based in New York, the Sustainable Development Cluster (SDC) supports diverse partners with their peacebuilding, humanitarian and development operations.

The SDC’s services include grants management, development and special initiatives support, and technology support to the UN and UN agencies.

The SDC is part of the New York Service Cluster that supports the United Nations Secretariat, as well as a broadening community of other New York-based United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral partners in the delivery of UNOPS mandate in project management, infrastructure management, and procurement management.