Founded in 1971, Médecins Sans Frontières is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides emergency medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of healthcare professionals, logistics, administrative, and other personnel, all guided by our medical ethics and our principles of impartiality, independence, and neutrality.
MSF WaCA, created in 2019, is the first MSF headquarters in Africa and responds to the desire to reinvent the MSF movement after 50 years of humanitarian actions around the world, for greater access to care, greater responsiveness and proactivity for greater medical coverage for affected populations worldwide.
Why Join Us?
You are preparing to become a member of the extended MSF family, with over 50 years of emergency medical work that earned it the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
We are an inclusive organization that considers social and professional well-being a right for all, and that offers an environment that takes into account the diversity of each of its members.
MSF WaCA claims an African anchoring that considers the local expertise with which it contributes in the implementation of its activities and makes each member a key actor in the new dynamic of humanitarian action in the world.
We are looking for: PSYCHOLOGIST
Department: Human Resources
Line Manager: Staff Health Manager
Functional Manager: Staff Health Manager
Work %: 100%
Position Based in: Abidjan with field missions (30%)
Mobility: All MSF WaCA intervention zones
Contract: Renewable fixed-term contract
Start of contract: As soon as possible
Context
The Psychosocial Service of the Staff Health Unit (SHU), within the HR department of MSF WaCA, is responsible for defining and implementing the psychosocial support required by staff working for MSF (international and national staff). The psychosocial support offered consists of a set of preventive measures aimed at reducing risks to the well-being and direct mental health interventions for MSF workers.
The psychologist from the SHU psychosocial service works within this preventive framework on individual or group support activities.
Main responsibilities
- Definition of the health strategy and policy for the psychosocial component
Develops the psychosocial strategy, stress management policy for MSF WaCA in alignment with the SHU and HR department strategy.
Draft guidance documents, standard operating procedures and tools necessary for the development of support for staff on mission and working at headquarters in collaboration with psychosocial actors from other MSF sections or operational centers.
2. Briefings
The SHU psychologist provides coordinators and colleagues in charge of the team with information on stress prevention and management:
- The heads of mission
- Project coordinators
- Medical coordinators (Comed), and logistics,..
- Medical Referents (PMR/MTL)
- Human Resources Coordinators
- Human Resources Managers
- Psychologists (project and staff)
- International staff deployed at headquarters
3. Debriefing individual
Provide a number of emotional debriefings for international staff returning from projects and, if necessary, refer them to a mental health professional external to MSF.
4. Support terrain
· The psychologist responds to requests for individual and/or collective support from the field by providing remote front-line psychosocial support for staff working on projects and/or by referring them to external professionals.
· Provide assistance by providing advice, sending tools and suggesting actions to take.
· In collaboration with the medical coordinators of the various projects, participate in the analysis of psychosocial risks and the implementation of the psychosocial support strategy for staff according to the evolution of the projects and the context.
Research and modeling of psychosocial support
· Collects and compiles the different types of support provided by the psychologist to staff (national and international) in WaCA projects.
· Analyzes the different types of support already deployed, their advantages and their constraints.
· Identifies new types of support to consider and field test.
· Compile WaCA project support requests into a comprehensive periodic report.
· Uses the findings of field visit reports to inform the modeling of psychosocial support for missions.
5. Field visits
· Conducts project visits to support the implementation of psychosocial prevention strategies.
· Conducts project visits for direct interventions (direct support to staff) as needed.
· Prepares or receives a final report from the psychologist (if external visit) who carried out the visit. Analyses this report and draws lessons from it.
Stress Management Support (SMS)
· The psychologist may be required to carry out a field visit as part of crisis management or critical incident monitoring.
· Ensure psychosocial support to staff in the event of an emergency, crisis or critical incident.
· The decision to send an SMS team is taken by the HR department in consultation with other departments and must be validated by the head of the staff health unit.
· A visit report is required at the end of the visit and a debriefing meeting is organized with the entire SMS team concerned.
6. Build and strengthen a network of psychologists in Côte d’Ivoire, WaCA headquarters, and in WaCA’s various intervention areas
In collaboration with its counterpart psychosocial team leaders working in MSF Operational Centers (OCs), ensures a network of reliable and quality psychologists in the WaCA intervention countries (Nigeria, Niger, Ivory Coast, Chad, Ghana, DRC, etc.), ready to cover the needs of staff when needed.
7. Formation
· Develops an action plan to achieve the objective of consistency of stress management modules in MSF WaCA training.
· Establishes regular contact with the Learning and Development (L&D) unit within the movement.
· Work towards a coherent vision of stress management modules across the entire MSF WaCA training program:
· Develop and lead training modules or webinars:
· On well-being, prevention of psychosocial risks and prevention and management of stress for MSF staff active in projects.
· On the prevention and management of stress with the various personnel health stakeholders in the projects.
8. Statistics and activity report
· Collect data on the activities of the psychosocial service by regularly recording its activities.
· Prepare a monthly report.
· Participate in the analysis of SHU data and activities during quarterly review meetings.
9. Representation
At the request of the staff health manager, the psychologist participates in internal or external meetings to represent the psychosocial service of the MSF WaCA health unit.
Position requirements
Formation
· At least a Master’s degree in clinical psychology.
SKILLS
· Team spirit, adaptability and ability to work with multicultural teams
· Good organizational skills, flexibility and autonomy
· Excellent communication and training skills
· Good self-knowledge and ability to manage stress
· Ability to analyze, reflect and write
· Ability to collaborate with various professional profiles
· Knowledge of the concepts of prevention of psychosocial risks at work
· Ability to work in uncertain and unstable contexts
Required professional experience
· At least five (5) years of experience in the psychosocial and/or mental health sector.
· Humanitarian experience in the field and in developing countries, preferably with MSF or other humanitarian NGOs, is an asset.
· Experience in managing psychosocial projects.
· Individual and/or group clinical experience
· Previous experience in staff support
LANGUAGES
· Very good oral and written command of English and French
Computer skills
· Office Suite (mainly MSF Word, Excel and Powerpoint, Outlook, Sharepoint)
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MSF offers equal recruitment and development opportunities without any form of discrimination based on gender, religion, sexual orientation, geographic or ethnic origin, physical disability or any other discriminatory factor.
Women who meet the criteria are strongly encouraged to apply.
NB: This job description provides a framework for the main responsibilities and activities of the position. It is not exhaustive. Therefore, the responsibilities and activities of the position may differ from those described in this job description due to organizational and operational needs.
Deadline: August 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM GMT
Only selected candidates will be contacted.
How to apply
Kindly apply via this link: Medecins Sans Frontières-WaCA – PSYCHOLOGIST