MHPSS First Aid, Support and Referral Helpdesk for Civil Society Organisations

Background

SOUTNA is a 24-month civil society strengthening programme implemented by Cordaid in Iraq across Baghdad, Erbil, Basra and Ninawa. It works with 180 civil society organisations (CSOs), selected in three cohorts, and runs CSO Resource Hubs in the four governorates. Under Activity 1.4, SOUTNA sets up three specialised helpdesks for CSOs: digital security, legal advice and protection, and psychosocial first aid.

Purpose

To provide accessible, confidential and timely psychosocial first aid, brief supportive interventions, wellbeing guidance and safe referral to specialised services for staff and volunteers of SOUTNA cohort CSOs, and for other civic actors referred by the SOUTNA team.

Objectives

• Provide rapid first-line psychosocial support and PFA.
• Support stress, burnout, secondary stress and wellbeing needs.
• Provide safe referral to qualified mental-health, medical and protection services.
• Strengthen CSOs' ability to recognise psychosocial needs and respond appropriately.
• Coordinate with legal and digital-security helpdesks where cases overlap.

Scope of Services

Individual support

• Confidential listening, emotional support and stabilisation.
• Psychosocial first aid following stressful or distressing events.
• Brief supportive sessions on coping, grounding, stress and burnout.
• Follow-up where appropriate and agreed.

Group support

• Stress, resilience and burnout-prevention sessions.
• Group PFA after critical incidents where safe and appropriate.
• Staff wellbeing and psychosocial-risk discussions.
• Basic PFA/peer-support orientation.

Organisational support

• Practical recommendations for psychologically safer working practices.
• Simple wellbeing, critical-incident and referral procedures.
• Manager guidance on supportive responses while respecting confidentiality.

Referral

• Maintain/contribute to a vetted referral directory.
• Refer specialised psychological, psychiatric, medical or protection needs.
• Support informed referral and, where appropriate, follow-up.
• Escalate urgent safety concerns under the agreed protocol.

Awareness

• Short Arabic/Kurdish sessions on MHPSS, PFA, burnout, coping and referral.
• Practical guidance for managers and focal points.

Service Levels

Eligibility and Provider Profile

• Individual psychologists, counsellors, social workers, MHPSS practitioners and other appropriately qualified professionals may apply.
• Small practices, NGOs, consultancies, clinics and companies may apply.
• One qualified practitioner or a small team is acceptable; a large institutional structure is not required.
• Relevant professional registration/licensing must be provided where applicable.
• Experience in Iraq and/or humanitarian, civil-society or comparable high-stress settings is required.
• Practitioners delivering PFA and brief support must have regular clinical supervision. Applicants state who provides it and how often.
• Arabic is required; Kurdish capacity is strongly preferred for Erbil.
• Applicants must accept Cordaid safeguarding, PSEAH, confidentiality, anti-fraud and code-of-conduct requirements.

Flexible delivery, service requests and verification

• The service is on-demand; no minimum volume is guaranteed.
• Cordaid may contract one or several providers by location, specialisation, language, availability and value for money.
• Applicants may offer the full scope or selected service categories.
• Services may be delivered remotely, at SOUTNA hubs or another agreed safe location.
• Travel is undertaken only when requested/approved.
• Services are requested only through SOUTNA. A cohort CSO contacts its hub focal point, and the SOUTNA team issues a written service order stating the case code, service level and agreed number of units. Work done without a service order is not paid.
• For confidential cases the service order carries only the case code. The provider keeps the identity of the person or organisation served in its own records and does not pass it to Cordaid.
• Each completed service is documented in a short service record, signed by the provider and confirmed by the requesting CSO focal point or, for confidential individual sessions, by the service user against the case code. The confirmed service record is the basis for payment.
• With the consent of service users, Cordaid may run spot checks to verify delivery and quality.

Safeguarding / Security Boundaries

• Work only within professional competence.
• No diagnosis, medication or specialised therapy unless appropriately qualified and contracted.
• Use informed consent and protect confidentiality, subject to lawful/emergency safeguarding exceptions.
• Immediately escalate imminent serious harm, self-harm, violence, abuse, exploitation, acute psychiatric crisis or medical emergency through the agreed protocol.
• Follow the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and WHO Psychological First Aid guidance.
• Any service to a person under 18 requires a child-safe approach and the consent of a parent or guardian, unless seeking that consent would put the child at risk. Such cases are escalated through the agreed protocol.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

• All case information is confidential and handled on a need-to-know basis.
• Collect only information necessary to provide the service.
• Use coded/anonymised case records where possible.
• Report relevant safeguarding or security incidents through the agreed Cordaid channel.
• Use secure communication, storage and file-transfer methods appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
• Psychological and health information is treated as special-category data: written informed consent, identities stored separately from case notes, and no case notes shared with Cordaid.

Expected Deliverables

• Service availability/contact protocol.
• Referral directory and escalation protocol.
• Anonymised/coded service log.
• Short session/activity records for payment and monitoring.
• Periodic anonymised service summary and trends.
• Awareness materials/session content where requested.

Service Standards

Financial Proposal

Applicants shall submit unit-based rates in USD, inclusive of applicable taxes and directly associated costs. No fixed monthly retainer or minimum service volume is guaranteed. Services will be requested on an as-needed basis, and payments will be made only for cases received, services delivered, and outputs accepted by Cordaid, at the agreed unit rates.

The agreed rates shall apply to the relevant service units outlined below. Any travel or other reimbursable costs must be approved by Cordaid in advance and supported by appropriate documentation.

Evaluation

Only offers scoring at least 56 of the 80 technical points go forward to financial evaluation. The lowest compliant financial offer receives the full 20 points and other offers are scored in proportion to it. Where applicants offer only some service categories, Cordaid compares prices within each category. Cordaid may interview shortlisted applicants before final selection.

Contracting and Payment

Payment will be made against accepted services delivered at agreed unit rates. Cordaid may contract multiple providers and may stop assigning services where quality, safeguarding, confidentiality, availability or value-for-money requirements are not met.

General Conditions

• Conflicts of interest must be declared before accepting a case.
• Providers shall comply with Cordaid Code of Conduct, safeguarding, PSEAH, anti-fraud and data-protection requirements.
• Providers shall not use SOUTNA/Cordaid information for unrelated purposes.
• Cordaid and its authorised auditors may inspect relevant records as required.
• Cordaid may suspend or terminate services for serious quality, safeguarding, security, confidentiality or compliance concerns.
• Payments are subject to any tax deductions Cordaid is legally required to make in Iraq or the Kurdistan Region.
• Cordaid may cancel this call or decide not to contract, without obligation to applicants. Applicants bear their own costs of preparing an offer.

Application Requirements

Technical proposal, maximum 8 pages, covering services, methodology, response model and referral/escalation.

CV(s) of proposed specialist(s), qualifications and relevant experience.

Professional/company registration or licence where applicable.

Two relevant references, where available.

Unit-rate financial proposal using the table above.

Signed declaration covering independence, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, safeguarding and acceptance of Cordaid policies.

Declaration of honour that the applicant is not in any situation of exclusion and is not on any international sanctions list. Cordaid screens all selected providers before contracting.

 You can apply through the link: Application Form

For further information or any additional inquiries, please feel free to contact us by email: project_soutna@cordaid.org