MHPSS Coordinator at SOS Children Villages

Position Summary

• The MHPSS Coordinator will lead the planning, implementation, and supervision of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions within SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria’s humanitarian and emergency response project.
• The role ensures that children, young people, families, and communities affected by crises receive quality, evidence- based, and culturally appropriate psychosocial care in line with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) MHPSS Guidelines and SOS Children’s Villages’ child care and protection framework.
• The Coordinator will work closely with child protection, education, health, and livelihood teams to ensure an integrated and holistic response.

Responsibilities
Programme Leadership and Coordination:

• Lead the design, implementation, and scale-up of MHPSS activities within the humanitarian project.
• Ensure MHPSS interventions, such as Psychosocial First Aid (PFA), Problem Management Plus (PM+), Team Up, Referrals Pathways to clinical services, and other structured individual and group support activities are in line with international standards (IASC Guidelines, Sphere Standards, WHO mhGAP).
• Integrate child-focused MHPSS activities and relevant care approaches such as Trauma-informed Care, Child-friendly Spaces, Child Safeguarding and Protection and Caregiver Support Groups into the emergency response.
• Coordinate MHPSS activities across project sites, ensuring consistency and quality of interventions.
• Represent SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria in MHPSS and Protection cluster meetings, inter-agency working groups, and donor forums.

Capacity Building and Supervision:

• Train and supervise SOS MHPSS Hub Members, Lay Counsellors, Social Workers, and Volunteers in evidence-based interventions (e.g., Problem Management Plus, Psychological First Aid, TeamUp).
• Provide technical supervision and mentoring to trained MHPSS Field Workers delivering group-based and individual psychosocial interventions.
• Facilitate self-care and well-being initiatives for frontline workers to reduce burnout and secondary trauma.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in psychology, Social Work, Mental Health, Public Health, or related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Minimum of 3 years experience in MHPSS programming, with at least 2 years in humanitarian or emergency response.
• Strong knowledge of IASC Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergency Settings and humanitarian standards.
• Experience in program design, coordination, and implementation in crisis-affected contexts.
• Proven track record in capacity building, training, and technical support.
• Strong program management, coordination, and organizational skills.
• Excellent facilitation, training, and mentoring abilities.
• Strong communication, negotiation, and advocacy skills with diverse stakeholders.
• Proficiency in monitoring, evaluation, and reporting tools.
• Ability to adapt to rapidly changing emergency contexts.
• Commitment to child safeguarding, protection, and humanitarian principles.
• High emotional intelligence, empathy, and cultural sensitivity.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to foster collaboration in multi-sectoral responses.
• Resilience, flexibility, and ability to work in challenging environments.