Join UNICEF in Advancing Child Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

UNICEF Ukraine

Welcome to UNICEF Ukraine - YouTube

For every child, the right to the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing

This role will be part of the Deputy Representative Programme’s Office. The incumbent will work under the direct supervision and overall guidance of the Deputy Representative Programmes and will collaborate closely with all Programme sections, including dedicated MHPSS specialists or focal points in Health, Child Protection, ADAP, and Education at national level and subnational level, to provide strategic and technical guidance to support the MHPSS intersectoral agenda and related thought leadership across UNICEF programme areas, including its leadership areas in the Ukraine Country Programme 2025-2029 ( Better Start, Better Care, and Better Learning and Skills). The incumbent will also engage key partners ( government counterparts, WHO, UNHCR, other UN agencies, CSOs, subject matter experts, academic research institutions, to assist in ensuring that quality MHPSS services are developed, monitored and effectively scaled up and integrated for children, adolescents, and caregivers.

While this position is Kyiv-based, the incumbent should expect to travel to field locations throughout Ukraine as per programmatic needs and in coordination with UNICEF field teams and partners.

How can you make a difference? 

Join UNICEF in Advancing Child Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)

As UNICEF drives cross-sectoral progress in the development, monitoring, and roll-out of targeted MHPSS interventions, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape the integration of these critical programs across the UNICEF Ukraine programme. You will contribute to creating evidence-based MHPSS interventions, tools, and training materials, supporting their implementation and evaluation in diverse settings. Key responsibilities include providing technical guidance and support to ensuring quality and sustainability in MHPSS initiatives and promoting UNICEF’s leadership across various sectors in the field of MHPSS and offers the chance to make a meaningful impact on the well-being of children and families in Ukraine.

The role involves extensive program coordination, planning, and management, with a focus on enhancing mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for children and families in humanitarian and recovery interventions. Specially, the role will entail the following tasks:

Support coordination across sectors in relation to the implementation of the existing MHPSS Strategy across UNICEF programmes as related to UNICEF Ukraine leadership areas (Better Start, Better Care, Better Learning and Skills) In collaboration with Partnerships, Communication and Advocacy teams, Provide Support on high-level advocacy opportunities related to MHPS. Represent UNICEF in high-level or technical forums to elevate the organization’s technical leadership in MHPSS for children and families. Support resource mobilization efforts for MHPSS; and formulation of joint work plans with other UN agencies/ partners as relevant.  Coordinate and technically support the rollout and scaling up of MHPSS interventions, ensuring they incorporate the latest scientific and practice-based evidence. This includes work on interventions like mhGAP for mental health in primary healthcare settings and EASE. Lead innovation and knowledge management efforts, collating evidence on their effectiveness, and ensuring that knowledge is shared and used to improve practice at national and subnational levels.  Provide technical assistance across UNICEF programmes, including support to partners, on MHPSS programming, driving a cross-sectoral agenda. Work closely with the Health, Education/ECD, Adolescents, Child Protection and Planning sections at in the CO (inclusive of FO colleagues) to ensure that key tiers of service delivery, partnerships, and capacity building across progamme sectors address MHPSS needs of children and young people.  Contribute to existing partnerships and initiatives on MHPSS supported by UNICEF Ukraine , and identify opportunities for new and strengthened strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with governments (national and subnational level), UN agencies, CSOs, inter-governmental bodies, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, research institutes and private sector to advance initiatives aimed at scaling up and scaling deep mental health and psychosocial programming focusing on children and young people in Ukraine.  Serve as a resource person to provide technical advice, support and guidance for the development and dissemination of best practices on addressing mental health and psychosocial needs of children, adolescents, caregivers, and families, internal and external (including UNICEF partners at national and subnational level). Support evidence generation, lessons learned and programmatic evaluation exercises therein.  Serve as a resource person, provide technical guidance and support for UCO capacity building interventions on MHPSS programming across UNICEF programmes, including those lead by programme sections such as Education, child protection, ADAP, Health and SBC.  Other tasks as assigned.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education:

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: child psychology or psychiatry, clinical psychology or psychiatry, social work or, or another relevant technical field.

Work Experience: 

A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in mental health, psychosocial support, child psychology, MHPSS and/other related areas. Experience in programme design, development, planning and monitoring required. Experience in working in international organizations, and in humanitarian and recovery contexts. 

Skills Language Requirements: 

Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.  Experience in intervention development, research and evaluation, developing comprehensive training and professional development plans for intervention delivery, and knowledge management experience are desirable assets. Knowledge of additional UN Language or local language is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (, application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF’s Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

UNICEF staff members holding fixed-term, continuing, or permanent appointments who are considered to be on abolished post status may apply for this temporary position and, if selected with a start date before 31 December 2025, may take it up as a temporary assignment, in line with UNICEF guidance on separation due to the abolition of posts or staff reduction. They will retain their fixed-term entitlements but will not hold a lien to their abolished post. For other scenarios where a Temporary Assignment may be possible, please refer to Additional guidance on IP to IP temporary assignments after completion of the full (accessible to internal staff only).

The conditions of a temporary assignment, including relocation entitlements, will depend on the status of the staff member’s original appointment and may be limited in accordance with applicable UNICEF policies, procedures, and practices in force.

This position is based in Kyiv and the incumbent will be expected be work on-site. However, depending on the security conditions and advisory, s/he will be required to relocate within Ukraine.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.