Assessment of MdM’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Emergency...

SUBJECT: Assessment of the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Emergency Response

(MHPSS ER)

COUNTRY: occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), West Bank (WB).

CONTEXT

ORIGIN OF THE REQUEST

The assessment of the MHPSS Emergency Response implemented by the MdM Consortium composed of the three MdM Chapters: MdM-FR (lead), MdM-ES and MdM-CH, in the West Bank, was added to the programme as one of the activities, in the programme modification that was submitted early 2024 and approved by DG ECHO in April 2024. This request came from the programme team who was willing to assess the continued relevance and effectiveness of the intervention, to adapt it to the changing context, and to meet the evolving needs of the affected population.  The dynamic context observed in the West Bank throughout 2023 and into early 2024, following the program’s launch on January 1, 2023, has significantly influenced the quality of the support provided.

BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME

MdM has been working in the oPt since 1996, implementing health activities in the Gaza Strip and in the eleven governorates of the WB. MdM’s programme in the oPt, implemented by three MdM Chapters - MdM-FR, MdM-ES and MdM-CH, aims at fostering access to quality medical and MHPSS services, through both, responding to emergencies and strengthening local capacities, to ensure that health and protection systems can sustainably meet the needs of the populations. MdM works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), Health and Protection Clusters, MHPSS Technical Working Groups at central and at governorate level, local and international partners and the supported communities. MdM relies on its technical expertise, its knowledge of the context and its experience working in the oPt to ensure providing tailored quality MHPSS and medical services to people in need.

In 2012, MdM-FR started implementing MHPSS ER interventions in the WB in coordination with the Protection Cluster, following occupation-related incidents involving settler violence (SV), Israeli forces’ excessive use of force, displacement of populations, demolitions, and other consequences of the decisions made by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA). This featured providing emergency MHPSS to affected people, managing cases, and referring people in need to other service providers, including to local authorities, to the Protection Cluster and to the West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC). In the last five years, MdM-CH has expanded the MHPSS ER in East Jerusalem through establishing partnerships with community-based organizations to support ex-detainee children and adolescents. From June 2021 to the 31st of December 2022, MdM Chapters deployed the MHPSS ER in the WB, in area B and C, under the umbrella of the WBPC. They provided emergency MHPSS to people in need and made referrals to specialized mental health services, as well as to different partners for multisectoral support, thereby ensuring complementarity with the services of the WBPC. Building on this first response, MdM developed its MHPSS ER programme further in January 2023 with the start of the MHPSS ER programme implemented by the MdM Consortium formed by the three MdM Chapters.

Funded by DG ECHO and co-funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation (AECID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and MdM core and private funds, the MHPSS ER programme implemented by MdM in the WB started on the 1st of January 2023 and is expected to end on the 30th of June 2025. Entitled “Reinforce the protection and enhance the resilience of Palestinian individuals and communities, affected by critical occupation related events, through health crisis management and preparedness and emergency mental health and psychosocial response across the West Bank”, this programme aims at reaching the following objectives:

Principal Objective: “Contribute to mitigate and alleviate the impact of critical occupation related incidents on the health and wellbeing of Palestinian men, women, boys, and girls across the West Bank”.

Specific Objective: “Prevent, mitigate and respond to the mental health impact that critical occupation-related incidents have on communities, men, women, boys and girls in the targeted areas of the West Bank”.

The MHPSS ER implemented by the MdM Consortium represents the Result 1 of the programme entitled: “The MHPSS needs of affected Palestinian individuals and communities experiencing critical occupation-related incidents are addressed in a timely manner in the targeted areas of the West Bank”. The MHPSS ER aims at providing emergency MHPSS to Palestinians living in a coercive environment, marked by increased human rights violations due to SV, demolitions and other consequences of the decisions made by the ICA and the Israeli forces’ excessive use of force, both at individual and community level, to allow them to cope with the coercive environment they live in, which is inducing a persistent context of fear, due to a permanent risk of violence. MdM Chapters – MdM-FR, MdM-ES and MdM-CH, work together as an MdM Consortium, to provide emergency MHPSS to people affected by critical occupation-related incidents, in line with the MdM’s MHPSS ER protocol of intervention. The MHPSS ER services provided by MdM encompass the provision of emergency MHPSS to people in need in the immediate aftermath of critical occupation-related incidents, including Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Basic Psychosocial Support, the provision of group and individual Problem Management Plus (PM+) or group and individual counselling and referrals to external actors for specialized mental health services as well as for multisectoral support based on the needs identified. The programme was designed to complement the action of the WBPC and is implemented in close coordination with the Protection and Health Clusters and the MHPSS Technical Working Groups at central and at governorate level. The three MdM Chapters also work with an array of local and international partners across the WB, providing specialized mental health services and multisectoral support through tailored referral pathways, to respond to the overall impact that occupation-related incidents have on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of communities. Finally, MdM also works with a large network of community focal points. The MHPSS ER programme is implemented in the eleven governorates of the WB with a geographical division of the covered area between the three MdM Chapters. MdM-FR covers the North of the WB, MdM-ES the central region and MdM-CH the South of the WB. They all apply the same intervention protocols.

Details on the areas covered by each MdM Chapter:

The MdM MHPSS ER team operates through the MdM offices in Bir Zeit, Nablus, Jericho, and Bethlehem. All the MHPSS ER interventions are provided by a team of MHPSS professionals.

The programme aims at reaching a total of 23,000 beneficiaries, including 9,797 men, 6,879 women, 3,698 boys and 2,626 girls approximately, through the provision of comprehensive MHPSS services.

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES AND TARGET AUDIENCE

OBJECTIVE AND AIM

SCOPE

The assessment will cover since the beginning of the MHPSS ER programme, which has been implemented in the eleven governorates of the West Bank since the 1st of January 2023. It will cover the different steps of the MHPSS ER intervention, in line with the intervention protocol of MdM: reception of triggers related to critical occupation-related incidents, provision of emergency MHPSS during the first and second visits through Basic psychosocial support and Psychological First Aid (PFA), provision of PM+/counselling interventions if needed and system in place for referrals.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The assessment will be used by the programme team of the three MdM Chapters implementing the MHPSS ER to adapt the intervention to the needs of the supported populations and for quality improvement purposes. The validated assessment report will also be shared with the donors contributing to funding this programme (DG ECHO, AECID and SDC), with the relevant clusters and partners.

APPLICATION FILE

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

Applicants are invited to submit a complete file of between 10 and 15 pages (excluding CVs) via email to: [email protected] with the subject line “Assessment/ECHO/Sep24”. Applications filed in any other manner will not be taken into consideration. The file is considered complete if it includes the following 3 elements:

Technical proposal including:

Financial proposal including:

Sworn statement confirming (the absence of) any conflicts of interest.

The deadline for applying is 23/09/2024 at 17:00 (JSM time).

For more information, please see the annex (Terms of Reference).