Presentation of the mission
| Special Talent Exchange Program | Gender Equality |
| Funding Organization | United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) |
| Objective of the Project | Strengthened capacity of public sector and civil society partners to advance gender equality and prevent to and respond to gender-based violence in development and humanitarian settings |
| Time of the Consultancy | April – June 2021 |
| Place of the project: | Islamabad – Pakistan |
Presentation of the context
2-1- Context
Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP) for better, more inclusive policies that adequately and systematically address the needs and rights of persons with disabilities. STEP advocacy strategy on inclusive development concentrates on strengthening the inclusion of persons with disabilities particularly focusing on women and girls with disabilities facing double discrimination, sexual harassment and gender-based violence. STEP’s advocacy is embedded in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and its “Leave no one behind” principles, as well as in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). STEP with UNFPA support aims at providing evidence, analyses and recommendations to policy makers to help them implement the commitments they have made and the legal human rights obligations they are accountable for.
Evidence shows that the current COVID-19 pandemic has increase the risks and vulnerabilities of y women and girls with disabilities, which include:
- Double discrimination as a result of their gender inequalities and disability women and girls with disabilities’ face increase vulnerability including violence.
- The breakdown of economic structures, health care, family and community support, educational opportunities, housing, transportation and other infrastructures increase the vulnerability of women and girls with disabilities. They may find it harder to flee or be left behind, making them more vulnerable to attack.
- The loss of assistive devices, caregivers, and protection networks as a result of lockdown make women and girls with disabilities more dependent on others and at greater risk of exploitation.
- The affected women and girls with disabilities face increased levels of sexual and gender-based violence in and out of the home, especially those with intellectual and mental disabilities. This is a result of factors such as stigma and discrimination, being seen as ‘easy’ targets, extreme poverty, social exclusion and isolation, loss of protective mechanisms, and limited mobility. Women and girls with disabilities are also largely excluded from gender-based violence prevention programs, including the variety of women’s empowerment initiatives aiming to break the cycle of vulnerability to violence.
As a result STEP together with UNFPA, support aims to provide tele-psychosocial and GBV referral services to women and girls with disabilities. To this end, STEP is seeking services of senior consultant for the capacity building of PSS and GBV referral counselors.
Presentation and Deliverables
The main objective of this training is to ensure that a strong training package is delivered to Project field team to transfer knowledge of high quality regarding psycho-social support and mental health thus empowering psychosocial support workers in dealing with cases of needing psychosocial support, GBV and making responsible referrals. and issues related to mental health, displacement, emergencies and GBV.
The consultancy service is to provide training and support to psychosocial counselors who are providing psychosocial counselling services to women with disabilities.
The training aims to
- To build participants understanding on survivor center care and minimum standards of working with GBV survivors.
- To build participant awareness of the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 on women with disabilities on communities.
- To enhance participant understanding of the psychosocial support concept in COVID-19 and similar crisis.
- To highlight the special vulnerabilities (and their dynamics) faced by women with disabilities in crisis like COVID-19.
- To highlight the role of personal attitudes and self-awareness in providing psychosocial support to women with disabilities.
- To develop and improve participant communication and support skills for working with vulnerable individuals including women with disabilities.
- To enable participants to identify and refer to social services including mental health professional’s individuals requiring more specialized treatment and care.
- To improve participant skills in identifying and managing their own stress effectively
Following are the tasks to be undertaken by the consultant,
- To plan the workshop in line with the workshop objective
- To share outline with STEP and UNFPA for approval of the workshop deliverables.
- To develop the material of the workshop in English and URDU.
- Informed by the training develop training module for psychosocial support for women with disabilities with special focus on GBV.
- To share all presentations and reading material with STEP
- To prepare brief report assessing the participants capacity and need for future training to deliver psychosocial support to communities, recommendations for STEP.
- Evaluations of the workshop daily and overall.
- Pre-Post test with participants.
- Conduct training on providing psychosocial support to persons with disability. Support de-briefing and individual mentoring sessions with the trained psychosocial support workers and provide guidance on challenges faced.
- Develop ethical protocols for psychosocial support workers to maintain highest standard of confidentially and do no harm policy.
- Build capacity of the psychosocial support workers on how to document the sessions with their callers and how to follow up, referral building and making referrals.
- Orient psychosocial support workers on sexual harassment policy of STEP.
- Submit a monthly and end of assignment report.
- Submit periodical reports assessing the skills set and use of training for psychosocial support workers.
- Develop change stories where possible for dissemination and advocacy on importance of psychosocial support for persons with disability. of 1500 words at the end of the assignment.
Requested profile
- Master’s degree in psychology/social sciences; a qualification in, or/and experience of training on psychosocial support with special focus on GBV, working in gender equality and /or domestic violence projects.
- Minimum ten (10) years of professional of relevant experience or other relevant activities which demonstrate a deep understanding of the psychosocial counseling/peer counselling.
- Excellent drafting and communication skills; good editorial capacity;
- Experience in staff development preferably in a developing country environment a plus;
- Ability to work under pressure in a multicultural and complex environment.
- Excellent command of written and spoken English and Urdu.
Send your applications on Office@step.org.pk
Application Deadline: 15 April 2021
