Starting Date : As Soon As Possible
Location : Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Duration of Mission : 9 months
Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political and non-religious international aid organization. Our teams are committed to supporting civilians’ victims of marginalization and exclusion, or hit by natural disasters, wars and economic collapses, by answering their fundamental needs. Our aim is to provide emergency relief to uprooted people in order to help them recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency. The association leads in average 200 projects by year in the following sectors of intervention: food security, health, nutrition, construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures, water, sanitation, hygiene and economic recovery. PUI is providing assistance to around 7 million people in 21 countries – in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and France.
Find out about our history and values.
Afghan mission is the oldest PUI mission, with first medical intervention launched in 1979 just after the Soviet Invasion.
Since then, the country has mostly been in conflict, with national armed groups and international forces, causing mass casualties and massive movements of population, within or out of the country. In 2018, 372 000 people have been internally displaced (bringing the total number of displaced people to 2.6 million at the end of 2018). The same time, there has been an influx of more than 3.3mln Afghan returnees from Iran and Pakistan. This high number of returns is putting pressure on host communities that are already strained by the conflict.
The achievements realized by the international community following the post-2001 intervention are now jeopardized by the intensification of conflict and violence and fragile governance. Indeed, due to the increase of the attacks, casualties, displacements and consequently, of the acute needs, the United Nations reclassified Afghanistan conflict from a protracted one to an active one. Many armed groups (mainly Islamic State of Afghanistan) are threatening the Government of Afghanistan, struggling to impose its vision of development, despite continuous extended military, financial and political support, nationally and internationally.
Insecurity, economic concerns, governance issues and increased pressure on the delivery of services are pushing many Afghans to risk their lives fleeing to Europe, as they see no future in Afghanistan. Afghan refugees represent the third largest refugee group worldwide and the second largest contingent of asylum seekers to the EU.
In this scenario, with elevated pressure on aid actors, the capacity to deliver aid to the most in need in remote areas is jeopardized. Access on field remains one of the biggest challenges in Afghanistan, especially in some provinces, including Nangarhar and Kunar. The humanitarian crisis is looming as actors are overstretched and resources oriented to other crises. A high capacity to deliver aid is then required in such a complex environment where humanitarian needs are huge.
PUI strategy is to address the fundamental needs of the Afghan population in respect with all humanitarian principles. Indeed, neutrality and impartiality are key principles to respect in order to enable humanitarian access to the affected populations.
PUI has a strong health expertise in the country that can be used as an entry point to implement an integrated approach to support the population to regain their most basic needs and also to their self-sufficiency. Indeed, such problems as malnutrition and undernutrition request a multi sectoral and comprehensive response in order to decrease the prevalence of the phenomenon.
Since the beginning of 2013, PUI in Afghanistan started interventions on emergency preparedness and medical interventions for conflict-affected populations As Afghanistan became the world’s deadliest conflict in 2018 with 59% annual increase in terrorism-related deaths,, it is indeed crucial to have health staff prepared and equipped for mass casualties, and also to implement responses to population displacements.
Due to the violent recent history of the country and the constantly high number of security incidents in the country, PUI is developing an advocacy plan for development of Psychosocial First Aid (PFA) in the country in order to support the development of such activity countrywide. In order to better integrate its health activities, PUI also conduct WaSH activities in the health facilities.
The main programmatic objectives of the mission for 2019-2021 are:
PUI is planning to address the needs of conflict-affected IDPs and populations in general, drought-affected IDPs, to improve access and quality of health and nutrition services as well as to tackle the PSS needs of the humanitarian workers who are exposed to traumatic events in their daily work. A specific focus is given on women’s health and their access to quality health services.
Find out more about our response to the crisis.
As part of our actions in Afghanistan, we are looking for a Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support Advisor in Jalalabad.
The Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support Advisor will be working under the responsibility of the Health Coordinator in Jalalabad and will be in direct contact with the HQ Protection technical advisor and MHPSS techical advisor. He/She will be in charge of the development, implementation, monitoring and standardization of PUI MHPSS and protection activities in Afghanistan. Depending on the security situation he/she will be mainly based in the liaison office in Jalalabad (Nangarhar province, 2/3 time) with frequent trips to Kabul coordination office for coordination purposes and liaising with stakeholders at national level (1/3 time).
Programs: He/She will ensure implementation, oversight and monitoring of the activities related to psycho-social counseling of the program in the frame of PUI emergency response in Eastern Region; He/She will develop PUI internal capacity on MHPSS & protection related topics (Afghan Mission and at organization level) by development of internal curriculums and human resources capacity building. He/She will be in charge of developing PUI protection and MHPSS department, enlarging the scope of activities implemented. He/she will develop and/or reinforce the quality assurance process for MHPSS activities following national and international standards.
Representation: He/She will liaise with stakeholders in Afghanistan working on mental health and psycho-social support and protection.
Strategy / Advocacy: He/She will ensure representation and lead advocacy process by national partners in Afghanistan (MoPH, International and National NGOs, local authorities) for development of protection and MHPSS response. As well as support the Health Coordinator in the design and inclusion of MHPSS activities in PUI programs and strategy.
TRAINING AND EXPERIENCES
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Required Personal Characteristics:
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This vacancy is archived.