Case Management and Psychosocial Coordinator (International Position)

Case Management and Psychosocial Coordinator

Location: Lviv, Ukraine (with 60% travel to project locations in Eastern and Southern part of Ukraine)

Reporting line manager: Protection Advisor

Duration:12 months with possible extension.

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary starting from EUR 3,900 plus Risk Allowance EUR300, medical insurance, and repatriation insurance and accommodation provided. Visa fees covered. Contribution to the luggage transportation up to €250. R&R (5 working days) every 8-12 weeks with an allowance of €1,000. Annual leave of 28 days per calendar year.

Starting date: As Soon As Possible

Scope of work:

The Case Management and Psychosocial Coordinator will be responsible for the technical oversight of the CARE’s case management (including IPA) and Psychosocial program in Ukraine, through direct implementation and partner capacity building and monitoring. With supervision of the Protection Advisor, the incumbent will be responsible for ensuring high quality, effective case management and psychosocial support. The incumbent will be responsible for building capacity of national GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator, and the implementing partners in case management and psychosocial support. S/he will be responsible for providing technical guidance and support to the implementing partners, local authorities, and other service providers, when needed. One of the key responsibilities of the incumbent will be to provide on the job coaching and mentoring to the National GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator for smooth transition to localization approach. The position holder will also support representation, project planning, coordination, conducting/supporting assessments, support fundraising, recruitment, and procurement. The holder is expected to assess, monitor, and document gaps in existing services and innovate ways to strengthen the case management system as part of the wider social protection scheme within the targeted locations, and to support capacity strengthening for the local actors.

We are looking for a candidate that not only has experience in GBV and GP case management and psychosocial support in hostile/complex areas, has strong experience in capacity building of team and partners, and good facilitation and coordination skills but also someone who is quick to learn, adapt and can show agility in a fast-moving context. We encourage candidates with experience in emergency set-up to apply, and particularly welcome applications from female candidates.

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development Confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls and the areas of gender equality, diversity and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its Members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union and with other external stakeholders.

Context in Ukraine

On 24th February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas controlled by Russian forces as well as cities under siege. Aerial attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with 6.24 million displaced within Ukraine and 7.68 million refugees having fled to neighboring countries. By October 26, OCHA had counted 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Amid the upcoming winter, which is anticipated to be the worst in decades, at least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, in addition to preparing the population for the approaching winter, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to secure access to recently liberated and recaptured areas in the East and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

CARE UKRAINE

As a new actor in Ukraine, CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs, local authorities, and INGOs with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women-Led and Women’s Rights organizations (WLOs/ WROs), who are at the forefront of the response, in order to strengthen their voice and leadership in the overall humanitarian response and decision making. By January 2023, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with fourteen local/national organizations (including six WLOs/WROs). As a result of these partnerships, over 600,000 people have been reached across Ukraine, including in areas along the line of contact. CARE Ukraine has four established offices in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa and is currently in the process of opening additional field antennas.

Role Responsibilities:

1: Ensure quality case management and psychosocial support services

• Contribute to the improvement of protection sector strategy with a focus of case management (including IPA) and psychosocial program activities in Ukraine, covering geographical and technical areas of focus informed by the presence and activities of the other protection components and other sectors of CARE.
• Conduct protection/GBV assessments to identify protection/GBV needs and maximize available information and opportunities for program development and coordination.
• Oversee the implementation of the case management and psychosocial program, monitor effectiveness, and take actions to improve the quality of the case management and psychosocial services.
• Assess the needs and capacity gaps in the current case management and psychosocial support system and in consultation with CARE and partner team, take necessary actions to address the gaps
• Implement case management and reporting formats and tools and guide CARE and partner team on it
• Incorporate the protection/GBV services in a holistic case management and psychosocial support system, including recreational activities and outreach activities
• Ensure that all case management and psychosocial interventions are in compliance with CARE’s protection strategy, GiE framework, international law and protection standards and national policies
• Identify appropriate locations and orientation for services, including Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSSs) and community centers where case management and PSS services will be provided
• Ensure that program is driven by women, girls and most vulnerable people and planned with community stakeholders
• Support the preparation of timely program and donor reports on case management project activities for CARE’s direct implementation and review partners case management reports
• Support recruitment of staffs, including drafting of job descriptions and conducting of technical and competency-based interviews.
• Support Country Office (CO) in development of high quality proposals and associated budgets related to case management and PSS program

2: Capacity building of CARE and partner team in case management and psychosocial programming

• Develop and deliver a capacity building plan (individual and organizational) to address the learning needs for CARE and partner staff
• Build capacity of GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator in case management, safe referrals, psychosocial support and psychological first aid
• Provide on the job coaching and mentoring to GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator on gap analysis, monitoring and ensuring quality of the case management and psychosocial support system, IMS, developing and contextualizing tools, guidelines, SoPs, checklists and other supporting materials, and cluster coordination and reporting and advocacy
• Provide guidance and technical support to GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator to develop an individual and organizational technical capacity assessment tools to assess learning needs and capacity gaps of implementing partners in case management and psychosocial support and overall protection/GBV programming in coordination with Knowledge and Capacity Development team
• Provide technical guidance to CARE and partner staff to the case management and supervision, Case Workers, as well as direct psychosocial counselling to beneficiaries with complicated cases
• Conduct ToT, training, workshops on case management, PSS, PFA and other identified leaning needs and gaps
• Organize regular coordination meetings, case conference and supervision with CARE and partner team to identify the challenges, opportunities and needs related to case management and psychosocial support
• Develop/review/contextualize/update the case management and PSS tools, guidelines, SoPs, checklists and other supporting materials
• Coordinate and collaborate with other protection/GBV partners and conduct joint capacity building initiatives
• Coordinate with CARE regional, global and other country offices to establish cross learning opportunities

3: Manage GBVIMS and PIMS and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL):

• Manage the GBVIMS and PIMS, ensuring timely and quality reporting and all data protection mechanisms are in place both at the field level and digitally.
• Provide 1:1 and group support to response team including Case Workers in close coordination with implementing partners in accurately populating case management files
• Attend all GBVIMS, PIMS and Case Management Task Force, MHPSS working group coordination meetings at national and sub-national level with GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator
• Review monitoring and evaluation systems for case management interventions in collaboration with the MEAL team
• Contribute to development and analysis of protection and multi-sectoral need assessments done internally withing CARE and externally through Clusters. Ensure the assessment findings inform CARE’s and partner’s case management, IPA and psychosocial support interventions
• Support the preparation of timely program and donor reports on case management and PSS project activities
• Support MEAL team to gather lessons leaned for the project(s) and program as a whole, and to put together case studies to inform future programming and strategic directions
• Lead regular program monitoring and apply learning for continuous improvement of case management, psychosocial support and overall protection/GBV programming
• Integrate case management including PSS system and monitoring and evaluation system to strengthen the accountability.

4: Self-care and staff support sessions

• Conduct “self-care” assessment with all GBV team staff
• Develop “self-care” monthly/quarter event calendar and roll out any initiatives with support from GBV Coordinator and Protection Coordinator
• Provide one-to-one (1:1) check in’s with each GBV and protection field staff members

5: Coordination, Representation and Advocacy

• Develop, maintain and improve constructive coordination, including referral pathways, with various stakeholders and service providers at the national level, including the Government, UN and (I) NGOs, and support field teams to maintain coordination with the local level stakeholders
• Represent CARE and take a proactive role in the respective clusters and their working groups related to case management
• Participate in CARE International’s global and regional coordination platforms
• Support coordination efforts with other service providers to establish and strengthen referral pathways
• Support CARE’s visibility within the relevant coordination forums and working groups
• Act as focal point and support on all research requests/visits (internal and external)

Additional Responsibilities:

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by the Protection Adviser as reasonable within their level of skills and experience.

Key Internal Contacts

• GBV Coordinator
• Protection Coordinator
• Gender in Emergencies Team
• Women Voice and Leadership in Emergencies (WVLiE) team
• Sexual Reproductive Health team
• Area Programme Managers and Project staff in designated area
• MEAL team

Key External Contacts

• Protection Cluster and GBV Sub-Cluster and technical working groups
• Local authorities
• Protection/GBV actors

Qualifications, experience and technical skills

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in social science, Psychology, Gender studies, Human Rights, International Humanitarian law, Social work and other related disciplines
• Min of 5 years’ relevant work experience in GBV/GP case management, PSS or related field in emergency set-up
• Excellent understanding of protection/GBV issues in emergency situations and strong knowledge of humanitarian principles, guidelines and laws
• Strong technical understanding of Protection/GBV in Emergencies.
• Ability to identify the case management and PSS gaps in the given context to inform a holistic response.
• Experience of managing IPA, cash for protection activities
• Proven experience in case management, PSS, IPA, PIMS, protection monitoring, documentation and analysis of protection data
• Experience of and commitment to working through systems of community participation and accountability.
• Awareness of the current humanitarian situation and local context in Eastern Ukraine.
• Experience in building relationships, fostering interagency coordination and experience of representing an organization to external stakeholders.
• Experience in designing and facilitating training and capacity building, and coaching and mentoring skills.
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills and discretion with confidential information.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, managing staff effectively and working in team.
• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling CARE’s values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.
• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Ability to work independently and proactively, manage a complex and diverse workload and to work to tight deadlines.
• Knowledge of institutional donors and experience of developing proposals, and excellent report writing skills.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy.
• Strong level of written and spoken English, Ukrainian and Russian will be added value
• Excellent computer skills, including experience of Microsoft Office (Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word).
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Demonstrated commitment to gender equality, the decolonisation of aid, empowerment of WROs/WLOs, and feminist principles.
• Demonstrated commitment to creating an environment within CARE’s workplaces, programming, and communities where CARE works that is free from sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and child abuse (SHEA-CA), including commitment to the principles of confidentiality, survivor-centered approach, and Do No Harm.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of CARE, particularly concerning gender equity in emergency programmes.

.

Accountability:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices.