Staff Counsellor, P-4, Fixed Term Position, Kabul, Afghanistan, #00132067

Organizational Context

UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office (ACO) operates in a complex humanitarian and development setting, delivering programmes for children and women affected by conflict, climate emergencies, and poverty. These conditions place sustained pressure on personnel, leading to demanding workloads, frequent emergencies, and evolving security risks.

Job Purpose

The Staff Counsellor, P-4, leads the design and implementation of a comprehensive staff mental health and psychosocial support programme aligned with UNICEF's Duty of Care framework and MHPSS strategy. This role provides confidential counselling and psychosocial support to personnel and eligible dependents, focusing on prevention, early intervention, critical incident response, recovery support, and resilience-building. The Staff Counsellor also serves as the technical lead for mental health preparedness and response during emergencies, security incidents, and organizational transitions, working closely with senior management, Security, People and Culture, and Medical Services to ensure coordinated and confidential psychosocial support. The position utilizes a continuum-of-care approach encompassing prevention, early intervention, and clinical support, offering individual and group counselling, leadership consultation, psychosocial risk assessment, wellbeing programming, and organizational support.

Responsibilities

The Staff Counsellor is responsible for strategic leadership in organizational wellbeing and psychosocial risk management, developing and implementing prevention strategies to enhance workforce resilience and support organizational development. This includes providing leadership consultation and coaching, and offering support during organizational change. The role involves delivering individual and group psychosocial support services, including confidential counselling and team interventions. A key responsibility is managing emergency psychosocial response and critical incident support, acting as the technical lead during crises. Furthermore, the Staff Counsellor will engage in partnerships, capacity building, and knowledge management related to staff wellbeing and mental health. This includes conducting psychosocial risk assessments, developing and delivering wellbeing programmes, and providing organizational support to mitigate stress and enhance coping mechanisms. The position ensures a continuum-of-care approach, from prevention to clinical support, for all UNICEF personnel and eligible dependents in Afghanistan.

Work Experience

A minimum of 8 years of national and international professional experience in staff support, human behavior and performance, psychological research methods, assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders, cross-cultural communications and training, employee wellbeing, occupational health, counseling, organizational development, emergency response, and psychosocial risk management is required. Experience within the UN system or international development is preferred.

Skills

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Staff Counselling, Crisis Intervention, Psychosocial Risk Management, Organizational Wellbeing, Resilience Building, Leadership Consultation, Critical Incident Stress Management, Cross-cultural Communication, Emergency Response, Programme Design and Implementation, Confidentiality

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