TITLE:  Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Advisor

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Quality and Impact (PQI)

LOCATION: Mogadishu/Hargeisa/Garowe

GRADE: 2

CONTRACT LENGTH: One Year

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

COUNTRY OFFICE OVERVIEW:

Save the Children has been working in Somalia for more than 70 years. The Country Office has over 600 staff across 15 field offices. In 2024 we reached more than 3.2 million people through our humanitarian and longer-term development work in Health, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Education, Child Poverty Reduction, Child Protection and Child Rights Governance. The Country Office has a large and diverse funding portfolio - managing over 80 active awards. In 2024 our portfolio was $109.2M from a range of governmental/institutional donors, including GPE, FCDO, MFA, DANIDA, Danish Embassy, SIDA, SDC, NORAD, EU, ECHO, GAC, GFFO AFDB & WB. However, MHPSS portfolio in Somalia is currently integrated across various sectors, including CP, Education, and FSL. However, this integration is ad-hoc and relies on project-specific resources rather than a cohesive country-level framework. There is no standardized approach, resulting in variable technical quality and weak systems for measuring child-level MHPSS outcomes. This position aims to establish a strong, coordinated, and quality-assured MHPSS system across the country office.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The MHPSS Advisor will use their technical expertise, in-depth contextual understanding, and relationship-building skills to define and deliver our strategic vision for high quality, integrated MHPSS programming in Somalia, in line with global standards and latest research. This builds on a growing and increasingly well-documented recognition of the critical MHPSS needs and of the gaps in available national and local services, NGO responses, referral mechanisms and documentation for this constantly growing challenge.

The main purpose of this role is to provide strong technical leadership in Somalia on Mental health & Psychosocial Support. The aim is to enhance the quality of MHPSS work delivered by SCI and its Partners across sectors and themes, bringing measurable and lasting changes in the lives of children. 

The role will lead CO-level MHPSS integration in strategy development and will oversee integrated MHPSS technical design and implementation of high-quality programmes that deliver change for children in both emergency and development programming. The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development. It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners. The role will work closely with operations colleagues and with partners in building their capacity and building ownership and agency of local organizations. This role includes a focus on external representation on priority issues around mental health promotion, prevention and access to the care, and the strengthening of an effective and sustainable MHPSS continuum. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Head of Protection, Gender and Inclusion

Staff directly reporting to this post: No direct reports but technical support and coordination of in-country relevant staff

Role Dimensions: The role will work in close coordination with Somalia Country Office Thematic Advisors and with MHPSS Technical working groups in Country and SC Globally.

The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and

external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the Country Office Programme

Development & Quality team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors, Global Advisors. technical counterparts in other organization, donors, academia etc. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Strategy and Leadership

·         Provide overall strategic and technical steer to MHPSS programming in Somalia, in line with CSP strategic priorities, humanitarian response priorities, and aligned with Regional MHPSS Steer and Global MHPSS Strategic Framework

·         Lead on the development of a country-level MHPSS strategy framework and/or multi-sectorial, integrated action plans, informed by up-to-date appraisal of MHPSS assets and resources, needs and gaps in country, and building on accessible entry points for integration of MHSS across sectors

Programme Development

·         Support programme development and lead on the identification and design of MHPSS initiatives or components across sectors and themes, at Country or sub-Country level.

·         Select appropriate MHPSS intervention packages, informed by evidence and relevant to the context and identified needs, across sectors

·         Ensure that sufficient resources are earmarked to build capacity, monitor, quality-assure, capture evidence and learning, and strengthen quality and needs-based MHPSS programming.

Programme Quality and Technical Support

·         Provide overall technical oversight of programme delivery; identify core strengths and areas for improvement, and build and implement relevant capacity support, training, coaching, mentoring and technical supervision plans across sectors.

·         Lead on the development or contextualization of MHPSS training modules, implementation tools and technical resources, informed by evidence and aligned with regional and global guidance

·         Actively participate in MHPSS service providers mapping and partner scooping exercise to identify strong service providers/ local partners with MHPSS experience for referral pathways and future partnerships.

·         Lead and coordinate the development of a country-level, multi-sectoral MHPSS quality assurance and accountability framework. This initiative will be led by the MHPSS Advisorand implemented in collaboration with sector technical leads (Survival and Nutrition, CP, Education, and FSL), MEAL, and regional/global MHPSS advisory support. This is not currently an inter-agency process but will align with inter-agency MHPSS working group standards to ensure harmonization and scalability across partners.

·         Lead and facilitate internal MHPSS accountability reviews, including periodic technical audits, case review processes, and analysis of MHPSS outcome tracking, ensuring that findings inform program improvement.

Technical Capacity Building of Staff and Partners

·         Monitor, mentor and coach MHPSS technical competencies of SCI and Implementing Partner staff through regular onsite observation, technical consultations, technical supervision and evaluations

·         Build and implement relevant capacity strengthening plans across sectors based upon identified competencies and gaps (i.e., support training, coaching, mentoring and technical supervision and monitoring plans across sectors)

·         Build the capacity, knowledge, understanding and confidence of programme teams and partners to achieve the required quality standards of the MHPSS work by developing, adapting, and sharing relevant tools, designing training modules and supporting the implementation and understanding of quality benchmarks including on the job technical mentoring.

Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development

·         Support in ensuring appropriate staffing within the operations component of the project team, within budget parameters.

·         Advocate for, and technically support, the setup of an appropriate technical supervision system for staff delivering MHPSS supports across sectors and levels of MHPSS care

Representation & Advocacy & Organizational Learning

·         Act as a focal point for Somalia on MHPSS related activities and represent SCI in relevant groups and fora, including relevant donor meetings as required.

·         Help shape broader sector strategies through influence of and leadership within inter-agency coordination forums, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed. 

·         Document lessons learnt, best practice and case studies to shape in-country strategies and program approaches, and contribute to broader sector learning.

·         Pro-actively identify advocacy opportunities, case studies and research opportunities which link with wider organizational strategic objectives, and turn these into action.

·         Lead on organizational level program policy innovation, learning or representation initiatives in consultation with relevant internal stakeholders

Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

·         Coordinate the design of MHPSS assessments and supervise their implementation.

·         Work with the MEAL TA and MEAL team to formulate/select MHPSS indicators and to develop indicator tracking plans for all grants, inputting into the development of additional M&E tools as necessary to monitor project progress

·         With the MEAL team, ensure ethical, safe, appropriate, timely and accurate data collection against agreed indicators to enable both internal and external reporting 

Safeguarding

·         Ensure full compliance of Child Safeguarding Policy at field level and especially with SC engaged personnel.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving results together with children and role modelling Save the Children 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
• Creates a managerial environment in-country to lead, enable and maintain our culture of child safeguarding

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for self and team, takes responsibility for own personal development and encourages team to do the same
• Widely shares personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future oriented, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with own team, colleagues, members, donors and partners
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to 

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency
• Always acts in the best interests of children

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Essential

•          Advanced degree in Psychology, Mental Health or a related field

•          Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in a similar capacity

•          Excellent knowledge and experience in using key tools and approaches, including the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies

•          Significant experience working in emergency response, protracted crises or fragile state contexts (experience from the ESA region is a strong advantage)

•          Proven capacity to train, supervise, and coach staff in MHPSS technical skills and coordination, based on evidence-based approaches and intervention packages

•          Ability to write clear and effective assessment and project reports

•          Excellent communication and influencing skills with experience in advocacy

•          Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy

•          The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances

•          Experience of representation and ability to represent Save the Children effectively in external forums

•          Commitment to the aims and principles of Save the Children. In particular, a good understanding of the Save the Children mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support

•          A high level of written and spoken English

Desirable

•          Experience or knowledge of working and living in relevant regions/contexts

•          Experience of contributing to successful funding proposals for donors

•          Academic background and/or professional experience in the provision of Child and Adolescent MHPSS services.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At SCI, we uphold the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all our employees. In our commitment to fostering a more inclusive workplace and addressing gender gaps, we have implemented additional efforts aimed at supporting female qualified candidates: -

·         Maternity leave (6 months)

·         Annual Leave 30 working days

·         10% *gross salary. (female allowance)

·         1.5 flexible working hours for lactating mothers

Application process

All interested and qualified candidates can apply for the position through the link below: link:

Job Posting Link: Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Advisor

Application closing date is 28th December 2025