REPSSI (the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative) is a renowned pan African organization that has been supporting governments and non-governmental organizations to provide holistic psychosocial care and support to children and their families in East and Southern Africa for 18 years now. REPSSI works in 13 countries and aims to enhance the psychosocial and mental wellbeing of girls, boys, youth their families and communities to be able to respond to challenges such as HIV and AIDS, conflict, poverty, climate change, environmental disasters and social strife.

REPSSI is implementing a 3-year project entitled “Mental Health Capacity Building Project for Service Delivery Providers in Mantapala Refugee Settlement” in Nchelenge district of Luapula Province. The funding support for this project is received from the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of the Federal Republic of German through terre des hommes Deutschland e.V (Tdh). The project implementation period is 2023 to 2026.

Job Summary

REPSSI seeks to appoint an experienced Project Officer. The successful candidate will (a) facilitate the strengthening of skills of social workers that work with Forcibly Displaced Children and Youth (FDCY) to promote inclusive and cohesive communities; (b) plan and execute the Forcibly Displaced Children and Youth (FDCY) Mental Health and Psychosocial care and Support (MHPSS) project according to set deadlines and within budget, this includes coordinating the efforts of project partners and stakeholders to deliver MHPSS services to families of FDCY in a refugee settlement; and (c) define and review the project deliverables and oversee quality control throughout the life cycle of the project. The position reports directly to the Programmes Manager, REPSSIZambia.

Key Responsibilities

1.Project Coordination and Management

• Promote REPSSI culture that reflects core values of service, Integrity, Collaboration, Excellence, Innovation, and Diversity
• Planning a structured PSS programme for forcibly displaced children and youth
• Create demand for MHPSS services through mental health awareness campaigns, providing multi-layered support as well as improving stakeholder mapping, coordination, and referral pathways
• Promote the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of duty bearers, community and religious leaders in and around a refugee settlement through debriefing sessions.
• Contribute to the Creation of an effective regional forum that will be for knowledge exchange, drives advocacy on the FDCY MHPSS agenda and influence policies
• Strong relationship building, diplomacy, and networking skills; ability to effectively build internal and external relationships.
• Facilitate Child and youth participation
• Promote Family and community involvement and wellbeing
• Strengthen processes to increase children’s safety, wellbeing, confidence and agency

2. Ensure effective Monitoring, Learning and Impact Assessment (incl Technical Risk Management)

• In liaison with the Programme Manager, country M&E team, and partners conducts project reviews and create a recommendations report in order to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements, areas for change within REPSSI resources
• Develop best practices and MHPSS tools for project execution and management
• In liaison with M&E officer develop and deliver project progress reports, required documentation, and presentations
• Work with M&E team in managing project research activities
• Conduct routine monitoring
• Host donor monitoring missions

3. Ensure a fully functional Project team that delivers on Expected Objectives

• Work with national representatives of the respective sectoral government agencies that are responsible for FDCY.
• Delegate tasks and responsibilities to appropriate project implementing partners
• Establish a supportive network of peers, supervisors and other colleagues who collaborate to provide PSS in a refugee settlement.
• Receive status reports from the project team analyse results, and troubleshoot problem areas.

4. Manage the Project Resources and Fundraising to ensure Project sustainability

• Produce the project annual budget and monitor expenditure
• Comply with donor conditions and reporting requirements
• Risk management of the project
• Participate in the development of a strategy and work planning for resource mobilization
• Participate in implementation of innovative fund raising and new opportunities identification
• Coordinate the gathering and sharing of information on existing and emerging donor opportunities in liaison with the Programme Manager to secure project funding
• Participate in the development of persuasive, focused and effective program proposals
• Review and analyse information and prepare reports/documents on activities related to funding partners and fundraising
• Prepare policy and analytical briefs for the Programme Manager on strategic partnerships and resource mobilization issues
• Coordinate with communications/advocacy staff to identify, write and disseminate promotional materials, launch campaigns and handle public relations events

3.Advocate for PSS and communicate Project Activities

• Represent or ensure appropriate representation of REPSSI in a refugee settlement
• Develop and maintain close relationships with all relevant government departments, UN agencies and NGO counterparts on project related matters
• Proactively support REPSSI’s publicity and communications aims
• Contribute to ensuring that the country office provides information to update the website and actively participate on REPSSI social media as required
• Advocate and market the REPSSI brand and services in country of operation

Minimum Qualifications and Experience

• Relevant educational background (Degree) in preferably Social Work, Psychology, Sociology, Development Studies, or any other social sciences.
• Fluent in English, both spoken and written; proficiency in language(s) and willingness to learn the languages spoken by the target community.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook); ability to use the internet and other digital tools for data entry, research, and problem-solving purposes.
• Ability to work and communicate effectively in a multi-cultural environment.
• Self-starter with excellent problem-solving skills combined with the proven ability to prioritize and manage time effectively;
• A good understanding of the situation of forcibly displaced children, youth and their families
• Minimum three (3) years of relevant work experience
• Practical field experience in Humanitarian and development contexts
• Practical experience in training and/or facilitation of groups
• Experience in programme design, implementation, M&E and research for psychosocial support
• Experience in conducting field-based baseline assessments
• Experience in international, regional and/or national networking and knowledge management
• Work experience with large NGOs, government departments and/or international cooperating partners