Consultant - Psychotherapeutic Debriefing and Supervision for GBV Field Staff at CARE International

CARE International is a global leader within a worldwide movement dedicated to saving lives and ending poverty. We work in over 94 countries around the world to provide over 1000 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Psychotherapeutic Debriefing and Supervision for GBV Field Staff

Location: Borno
Job Type: Contract
Specialization(s): Non-Profit / Volunteering

Job Summary

• To provide counseling supervision, professional development, management of burnout, and establishing effective support to clients.

Background

• CARE International in Nigeria is an international NGO that promotes and supports lifesaving interventions to the challenges faced by displaced persons all over the world. CARE launched formal operations in Nigeria in early 2017 and commenced operations in the North-East in August 2017 and has since been able to reach over 940,000 individuals with much-needed food and nutrition assistance, livelihood support, and sexual reproductive health (SRH) services, Gender-based violence, and women economic empowerment interventions. Gender is integrated throughout all sectoral programs including GBV prevention, risk mitigation, and response. CARE is currently active in Yobe and Borno States in North-East Nigeria. In Yobe State, CARE has worked in collaboration with WFP since November 2017 on food distribution and blanket supplementary feeding program (BSFP). CARE has been operational in Borno State through its SRH, GBV, and cash programming since September 2017. Currently, CARE's donors in Nigeria are, among others, Global Affairs Canada (GAC), USG Department of State, WFP, UNFPA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Arthur Blank Foundation, and private donors.
• Since 2019, CARE through funding from Global Affairs Canada has been implementing a “Lifesaving Protection (GBV), SRHR and WASH Assistance for crisis-affected women, men, boys and girls in Borno State, Nigeria”. The project has GBV prevention and Response components as well as Sexual reproductive health services is designed to enhance access to services and an overall reduction of the incidence and prevalence of GBV among internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in Bama and Dikwa local government areas. The GBV response component of the project is composed of 4 caseworkers and 4 Psychosocial support assistants, while the prevention team is made up of 2 GBV Officers, 2 GBV Assistants, and 2 Community Engagement officers. The GBV field team is directly supervised by 2 GBV Officers with remote technical support from a Project Manager and a Gender and Protection Sector Manager Based in Maiduguri. Further, the GBV team is in charge of the management of the 4 women and girls safe spaces; 2 in each LGA.

The Need:

• North-East Nigeria has been the epicenter of conflict as a result of repeated attacks by Non-State Armed Groups (NSAG) for the last over a decade. From 2020, there have been multiple crises including the outbreak of COVID19 that interrupted the provision of life-saving GBV services for some time and access to services in the deep field locations. This was coupled with an upsurge of insecurity orchestrated by NSAG leading to a continuous wave of population displacement mostly affecting Borno state. As a result of these attacks and heightened insecurity, humanitarian flight services suspended their operations to Dikwa since March 2021, and a significant reduction of humanitarian footprints in all neighboring LGAs including the Bama local government area. In Dikwa most humanitarian organizations withdrew operations since April 2021. Despite all these happenings, CARE is still on the ground providing food assistance and GBV prevention and response services through a strategy of engaging staff from the local community and working with a local NGO to oversee the implementation of these activities. The scale-down of humanitarian organization's presence in Dikwa and Bama due to the deteriorating security has triggered serious protection issues and concerns among populations. For instance, sexual violence is on the increase with the latest GBVIMS data showing that sexual violence is the third leading type of GBV reported in recent months. This is alarming considering last year's reports indicated rape to be the 4th most reported concern in this location.
• All GBV field staff including caseworkers, psychosocial support workers, community engagement officers, and GBV prevention assistants are based in the LGA and provide these services within the established women and girls safe spaces as well as in the community through awareness-raising with GBV protection committees and volunteers. These direct interactions with survivors of GBV mostly as the first point of contact during case management expose them to vicarious trauma, acute stress, and burnout. Moreover, clients suffer from multiple needs that stretch the GBV workers in an attempt to assist them.
• According to the Interagency Minimum Standards for GBV in emergencies, GBV Programme staff, and particularly community-based staff, face unique threats to their resilience and safety due to the pressure and stress of working on GBV in these emergency contexts. Organizations have a legal and moral obligation to protect and enhance staff safety and well-being. This includes taking meaningful actions to reduce risks to physical and psychological health and safety. “Duty of care” constitutes a “non-waivable duty on the part of the organization to mitigate or otherwise address foreseeable risks that may harm or injure its personnel”. Since great stress can also stem from insufficient support from the organization and management, managers have a fundamental role in creating and sustaining a healthy work environment. As such, CARE is committed to providing regular supervision to provide technical and psychosocial support for all staff delivering GBV response services while recognizing that their support needs are different and are based on individual experiences of stress and trauma.

Purpose of the Activity:

• The overall purpose of the activity is to take staff through a debriefing/supervision exercise which is meant to enhance the effectiveness of staff in handling work-related stress as well as effectively deals with burnout and develop professional resilience and development.

Key Objectives
This is with the following key objectives:

• Improve the team’s competency.
• Develop team cohesion as well as share their experiences in a supportive environment.
• Enhancing self-care practices to prevent professional stress and burnout.
• Allow caseworkers to effectively deal with burnout and vicarious trauma.
• Enhance strategies of working together and supporting one another.
• Create an enabling environment for feedback on the challenges of the job.

The Objective of Supervision:

• The activity will assist in achieving improved stress management, dealing with burnout, peer support, personal development, and professional resilience.

Key Activities
The activity is expected to cover the following key areas:

• A meeting with the team to create rapport by establishing objectives and expectations of the group.
• Reviewing four key questions which include;
• What were we trying to accomplish? Where did we hit (or miss) our objectives? What caused our results? What should we start, stop or continue doing?
• Individual/specialized supervision for caseworkers based on need
• A group supervision exercise with caseworkers.
• Psycho-education session on coping mechanisms and personal Vis a viz professional development.
• Recommendations briefing to all staff and preparation of a report documenting the activity and way forward.

The Supervisor will be responsible for the following.

• Prepare and deliver the services as per this TOR
• The supervisor will cater for their own accommodation and meals while in Maiduguri
• Documentation
• The supervisor will provide the schedule of the 4 phased 2-3 days per phase sessions to ease planning at the activity site.
• The supervisor will be required to write a report on the activity and submit it before final payment.

Expected Outputs
This exercise has the following expected outputs:

• Group challenges and develop opportunities for growth identified.
• Self-care practices to prevent and manage professional burnout enhanced.
• An opportunity to reflect on our work in relation to best practices provided.
• Group supervision exercise for the team.
• Teamwork and cohesion are promoted.

Terms and Conditions of the Consultancy

• The Consultant will be under the direct management of the CARE Project Manager- GBV & SRH; GAC project
• The supervisor team will be bound by the CARE code of ethics, during the debriefing period.
• The supervisor shall not incur any expenses on behalf of CARE other than those specified and agreed upon in the contract.
• Payment will be made after training and submission of the report.
• The supervisor shall be responsible for their own insurance and medical cover, including that of an accompanying colleague (if any) while traveling and during their stay in Maiduguri.

Duration of Consultancy:

• The consultancy period shall be 8-12 days; spread out on a quarterly basis.
• Contact and communication:
• The Supervisor will maintain official communication with the Project Manager during the exercise.

Qualifications of the Supervisor(s)
The supervisor will have competencies in the following areas:

• Advanced Degree in Counseling Psychology from recognized institutions.
• Over 10 years in psychosocial counseling, training, and counseling supervision
• Experience working in conflict and post-conflict communities is an added advantage.
• Understanding the common North East Local languages and culture of Hausa, Kanuri, and Shuwa is an added advantage.

Application Closing Date
11th August, 2021.