Psychologist - Consultant at Search For Common Ground’s International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno

Position Summary
Search Nigeria is seeking a Psychologist who will support the Project Manager in the programming, responsibility of the realization and the follow-up of the protection activities, guarantying protection services for the beneficiaries Project:

• Supporting the Socio-Economic Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups including the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in North East Nigeria.
• This position is based in Maiduguri with frequent visits to the different working local government areas (LGAs) in Borno.

About the Project

• In the past decade, states in the North East region of Nigeria have faced frequent attacks by Boko Haram militants leading to widespread displacement, violations of national laws, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
• Children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, have suffered the worst impacts as pre-existing problems of access to social protection, education and healthcare increase, new threats emerge, and the systems to protect children fails.
• This project aims to ensure that children verified and separated from CJTF receive a comprehensive child protection package including counseling, psychosocial support and socio-economic reintegration, and that their communities understand the importance of their separation and reintegration.
• Search will work closely with the children, their families and communities, and CJTF to address the psychosocial and economic needs of the children and to influence the attitudes of communities and CJTF so they understand the negative impact of associating with armed groups on children and prevent the CJTF from using children.
• By increasing resilience of children associated with CJTF and increasing their employability, this project will facilitate lasting reintegration of these children and amplify positive narratives around their role in communities as productive civilian actors and agents for peace.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Identify the psychological problems of the beneficiaries and put in place the necessary means to answer effectively to the needs
• Establish the psychological and psychosocial criteria of vulnerability and structure a process of detection of the main psychosocial risks
• Create fact sheets and procedures for setting up and evaluating emotional and listening debriefing activities Set up and run the collective emotional debriefing system (training of members, setting up and running meetings, gradually capitalizing on experience)
• Maintain a database of referrals for psychological, medical and community orientations
• Organize and structure collective friendly spaces
• Train the project teams and local partners on approaches, methodology and tools to understand how victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and other forms of violence are affected by their involvement in armed conflict
• Train and / retrain teams on the proper use of situation assessment and management tools
• Train project staff and community animators on the individual and collective psychological and psychosocial management of the victims;
• Organize technical meeting with his/her team and other stakeholders
• Direct case management
• Propose and supervise the psychosocial and recreational activities to set up, for children and adults.

Qualifications
Education:

• Master's Degree in Psychology.

Required Experience:

• At least 3 years of working experience with INGO on Child Protection area. Experience working with children associated with armed group it’s an advantage
• At least 3 years’ experience in clinical psychology and / or psychopathology (victimology, medical emergency cell, etc.
• At least 5 years’ experience working with highly traumatized individuals/ groups most especially women and children, and a solid understanding of psychosocial trauma interventions.

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Proven interest & commitment to humanitarian and development principles and a demonstrable understanding of conflict/post conflict development contexts
• Experience in data collection, analysis, and report writing
• Excellent in English (oral and written)
• Experience in designing and conducting training in INEE and Child Protection issues especially in the areas of human rights, gender, capacity building, added advantage, SGBV
• Ability to plan, organize work, communicate and reports effectively (both in writing and verbally)
• Proven ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines
• Team player, effective communicator, successful negotiator, creative and analytical thinker, active learner, able to work in a multicultural environment
• Excellent communication skills, calm, with a good sense of humour
• Excellent sense of confidentiality
• Excellent listening and empathy
• Proven commitment to accountability practices
• Ability to function effectively under stressful conditions such as heavy workloads, and deadlines.
• Excellent Microsoft Office applications skills (Excel, Word, Power point, Emails, Skype, Web researchers)

Added Advantage:

• Practical experience working with victims/survivors of conflict.
• Language Skills: (Native/Fluent/Basic)
• English Language (Fluent)
• Hausa (an added advantage)
• Kanuri (an added advantage)