Staff Care and Wellbeing Consultant

Purpose of consultancy:

The purpose of the Staff Care and Wellbeing consultancy is to assist UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office in ensuring the provision of confidential staff care and wellbeing support to staff in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNFPA APRO supports programmes in 36 countries in the Asia Pacific region, including 14 Pacific Island Countries and Territories through the Pacific Sub-Regional Office. COVID-19 has been confirmed in all Asian countries with UNFPA Country Offices with the exception of DPRK. Within the UNFPA’s Pacific sub-region, Fiji is the only country with confirmed cases (as of May 1). While the peak of the epidemic has passed in China, other countries are now at the beginning stages of a rapid surge or in the midst of the epidemic. All affected countries in the Asia Pacific region have experienced significant challenges to ensuring sufficient resources for timely prevention, surveillance, detection, diagnosis and supportive care in the fight against COVID-19.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, where movement is restricted, people are confined, and protection systems weaken, women and girls are at greater risk of experiencing gender-based violence. In some context, our own staff have experienced these heightened risks of GBV or are supporting family members who are subjected to intimate partner violence. While UNFPA country offices are supporting GBV risk mitigation and response programming across our operation areas, it is also committed to ensuring the wellbeing and care for agency staff in the response through provision of confidential briefings and counseling from specialized personnel with adequate experience in providing counseling support to survivors of GBV.

In additional to individual staff care, UNFPA APRO is also keen to seek expert advice to develop and implement a regional strategy for the provision of timely and quality psychosocial support to UNFPA staff and personnel impacted by GBV. UNFPA APRO is also committed to developing a training package for managers/supervisors on how to support staff members experiencing GBV.

Scope of work:

The Staff Care and Wellbeing Consultant will be responsible for the following:
Develop and implement a strategy for provision of timely and quality psychosocial support to UNFPA staff and personnel impacted by GBV in the context of the COVID 19 crisis
Develop and/or adapt information materials, briefings and training for management and staff on how to support and respond to personnel affected by GBV.
Develop a training package for managers/supervisors on how to support staff members experiencing GBV, including IPV.
Provide confidential counseling support to staff members who may reach out.

Duration and working schedule:

The Staff Care and Wellbeing Consultant will be engaged for 30 work days (approximately 10 days per month) from October to 31 Dec 2020.

The payment will be made on a monthly basis against satisfactory completion of tasks and deliverables and acceptance by UNFPA.

Place where services are to be delivered:

Home based. No travel is envisaged for this consultancy. Delivery dates and how work will be delivered:
The consultant will work on full time basis and will be responsible for delivering the following over the course of the consultancy:

• Development of strategy for UNFPA to support staff experiencing violence
• Provide confidential counseling support to staff members who may reach out
• Regular briefings and information sessions with personnel and staff
• Updated information on available GBV response services and referral information developed for staff based in Bangkok and provide support to COs to do the same.
  The Staff Care and Wellbeing Consultant will develop a detailed work plan with timeline on all the planned deliverables and schedule monthly calls with the APRO RD, DRD and HRSP.

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:

Key milestones will include the following:

• Preparation of initial work plan.
• Monthly monitoring reports
• Final report and recommendations

Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements:

Education: Advanced degree with specialization in areas such as clinical psychology, clinical social work or mental health. It is desirable to possess a Master’s in Public Health.

Professional Experience:

• At least 7 (seven) years of specialized experience in community based psychosocial support interventions particularly as it relates to GBV, and experience in this field at international level in a humanitarian context.
• Demonstrated knowledge of IASC Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergency Settings
• Demonstrated experience on Counseling skills and clinical supervision of lay counsellors
• Demonstrated knowledge of reproductive health issues and/or protection issues in humanitarian settings, and of humanitarian emergency operations and roles/responsibilities of humanitarian actors.
• Proficiency in English and in other official languages or the UN required/desirable.
• Strong Training and supervision experience required

Core Competencies:

• Ability to work within a team structure or in isolation, flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and working with limited resources .
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work within different cultural environments

Language: Fluency in English is required (oral and written).

REMARK: The consultant should have required ICT and equipment to deliver the work