Psychologist / Protection Officer at COOPI - Cooperazione Internazionale

Overall Responsibilities

• The psychologist/protection officer is responsible for supporting implementing the minimum measures for mainstreaming protection and Psycho-social support services as outlined by the Humanitarian Principles, the SPHERE Standards, and the Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines.
• The Protection Officer/Psychologist is mainly responsible for PSS, mainstreaming gender and protection across the various components and activities of the DRR and Social Protection Project in Sokoto an Kaduna State.
• S/he will create and develop protection and Gender integration and Psycho-social support activities in line with the priorities determined by COOPI.
• S/he will ensure performance tools are available for local staff, in order to guarantee smooth implementation of the programs, while taking into consideration the local cultural context.
• He will be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and follow-up of the Gender mainstreaming, general protection and Psycho-social support services activities of the project.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the direct supervision of the Program Manager and Project managers, the Protection Office/psychologist will perform the underlisted tasks:

• Work closely with the project team and the beneficiaries to ensure activities are being implemented in a gender sensitive manner.
• Prepare, organize and conduct the protection-oriented Focus Group Discussions and Gender Discussion Meetings during project implementation and Forster Psycho-social support services referrals.
• Ensure equal participation of women and men in the activities and ensure to have an appropriate complaint and feedback mechanism to collect the communities’ feedback in a gender sensitive manner and ensure that the programme includes these feedbacks throughout the project implementation
• Meet regularly with the program team to fine-tune programming, ensuring activities are implemented using a gendered lens whilst mainstreaming PSS.
• Ensure Do No Harm approach is applied in all activities conducted with the site and host communities.
• Supports project staff to mainstream gender in beneficiary identification and verification.
• Ensures gender is mainstreamed in various stakeholder meetings and capacity building.
• Prepares and forwards to the Program Manager and Protection Manager monthly work plans and progress reports for the entire Child Protection project based on set indicators for the 5W matrix and any other required reporting to partners and donors;
• Collects and documents success stories and photographs for reports;
• Lead all implementation of psychosocial activities including Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience (STAR) training to target beneficiaries along with providing basic level emotional regulation exercises to release trauma stress patterns;
• Ensure that COOPI’s psychosocial support models are delivered effectively;
• Provide psychosocial support education and supervision to staff members and case managers;
• Attend Psychosocial Review Meetings and provide support to beneficiaries involved;
• Ensure that case managers are making referrals for psychosocial critical incidents, such as child safety concerns, risk of suicide or self-harm to Search identified clinical actors and;
• Attend coordination meetings with other INGOs/ NGOs, sector working groups to help link COOPI Nigeria with other organizations doing similar work.
• Work with government partners and other relevant stakeholders to develop, implement and monitor referral pathways for those in need of mental health and psychosocial support.
• Lead and participate in psychosocial support capacity building for government partners and other relevant stakeholders
• Strengthen community capacity to identify, address and support residents in need of psychosocial support and resources.
• The Psychosocial Specialist will also support and debrief staff on psychosocial recommendations from noted issues that arise during his/her work, identify and address professional development needs

Networking and partnerships:

• Establish and maintain collaborative relations with relevant donors, partners, project stakeholders and other organizations
• Maintain effective relationships with Protection, GBV and CP clusters and related working groups at national level
• Ensure that main protection concerns are brought to relevant stakeholders to advocate for the respect of human rights and minimum protection standards.

Required Profile

• Have a University Degree in one of the following fields: Psychosocial Peacebuilding, Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work or relevant fields.
• A Master’s Degree is preferred.

Experience and Skills:

• Minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience working in a humanitarian organization or with displacement affected populations.
• Have facilitated/ co-facilitated psychosocial support trainings to key stakeholders that include refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), security, local and community leaders with excellent command of trainees in relevant fields.
• Experience in capacity building of staff and or case managers in mental health and psychosocial support.
• Basic understanding of trauma and how to help participants manage the effects of trauma that often arise during workshops due to their personal experience of societal violence.
• Demonstrate leadership skills, active listening skills, initiative and personal discipline, etc.
• Have good computer skills and mastery of MS Office tools.

Qualities

• Adhere to COOPI values and abide by the code of conduct and other policies.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information.
• Mastery of English (fluency in spoken and written languages).
• Have a knowledge of a local language preferably Hausa and Fulani.
• Candidates from and or living Sokoto will be prioritized.