Global Safeguarding and Protection Lead at Girl Effect

Context of the Role

We are looking for a Head of Safeguarding who will lead the development and delivery of safeguarding across the organisation. This is an exciting new role for Girl Effect as we transition from having global Headquarters in London, to a networked model with hub offices in Nairobi and Mumbai.

The post holder will lead our safeguarding thinking and practice across Girl Effect. This includes supporting the ongoing development, implementation and monitoring of organisational safeguarding policies and processes; providing in-depth support to country safeguarding teams to embed high quality safeguarding standards throughout our work; and to work with other teams and Senior Leadership across Girl Effect to ensure our safeguarding approach responds to dynamic and evolving needs across the organisation. 

What You’ll Do

Ensure Girl Effect’s safeguarding policies and procedures meet international safeguarding standards and are driven by the principles of girls agency and meaningful youth participation across the organisation. This includes:

Policy and processes

• Support the ongoing development, implementation and monitoring of safeguarding policies and procedures across Girl Effect, 
• Promoting a culture where the safety of children and young people is at the heart of everything we do
• Ensure appropriate reporting and response mechanisms and procedures are in place and followed, and that these reflect the relevant legal and cultural contexts.
• Support teams to ensure that Girl Effect has strong measures in place to ensure digital safety and data protection, including compliance with GDPR.
• Ensure country context mapping; including legal framework, cultural context and available referral services, is conducted in all countries of operation and that this is updated annually.
• In collaboration with in-country Safeguarding teams, build relationships with referral services and develop referral pathways to ensure that Girl Effect provides safe and effective signposting to children and young people in need of protection.
• Support Safeguarding teams to conduct an annual safeguarding self-assessment, and resulting work plan to address gaps and reduce organisational risk
• Ensure that confidential records of safeguarding concerns are maintained, and that appropriate follow-up is conducted.
• Lead the management of serious safeguarding concerns including reporting to the Charity Commission and relevant donors.
• Keep Girl Effect’s Senior Leadership and Board of Trustees up to date on safeguarding case management and procedures through quarterly safeguarding reports. 

Team Planning and Management:

• Working with the safeguarding team to develop yearly team objectives interlinked to the organisations strategy 
• Team members objectives and appraisals 
• Oversight and management of the safeguarding budget and forecasting 
• Managing staff contracts and extensions 

Support to county-level Safeguarding teams:

Girl Effect has offices in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi, India, Kenya and Tanzania. 

• Line management of  global safeguarding managers (remotely) 
• Providing technical backstopping and support to country-level Safeguarding teams/leads to ensure the policy is embedded, adapted and delivered against.
• Provide capacity building to country Safeguarding teams/leads, ensuring they have the skills and confidence to deliver safeguarding in their respective country contexts, including digital safety, privacy and security and safe digital and offline engagement of children and young people.
• Support the safeguarding teams in sharing best practice 

Training and technical support: 

• Develop training materials and systems to help all staff implement safeguarding policies and procedures across all countries, brands, products and channels
• Build the capacity of country safeguarding teams, ensuring they have the skills and confidence to deliver safeguarding in their respective country contexts, including digital safety privacy and security and safe digital engagement of children and young people.
• Working with the Senior Safeguarding Manager to build the organisation’s expertise on digital safeguarding, and embed this across teams and countries.

Management and governance: 

• Provide regular reports on safeguarding risks, progress and learnings to the Executive team, CEO and Board, including escalating high risk/priority information appropriately and supporting compliance with the UK Charity Commission’s requirements for safeguarding. 

Programme design: 

Support the integration of safeguarding into the programme life cycle.  Collaborate with the programmes team and/or product design teams to ensure that safeguarding is integrated into the design and delivery of activities.

Who You Are

Education and qualifications (Essential)

• University degree in social work, social sciences or related discipline

(Desirable)

• Vocational training courses e.g. Managing safeguarding Investigations, NSPCC, Child Protection Training the Trainer, Other safeguarding related  specific training 

Experience and skills (Essential)

• Experience in developing, enhancing and/or implementing organizational Safeguarding policies and procedures in an international development organisation 
• Knowledge and experience of applying child protection and safeguarding approaches into international development programming
• Experience leading safeguarding or child protection from a global or regional context 
• Experience managing and supporting staff and partners in how to  implement Safeguarding measures across different countries and cultures 
• Experience of women, girl or youth centred programming
• Experience in case management of safeguarding, child protection or GBV concerns 

(Desirable)

• Experience or an understanding of digital safeguarding risks and mitigations
• Experience identifying networks and building relationships with other agencies
• Experience working with children and young people 
• Experience in youth participation 

Personal Characteristics (Essential)

• Innovative and confident to think beyond compliance and identify safeguarding systems to empower adolescent young women
• Ability to be flexible within a fast-paced, changing environment
• Commitment to realising the potential of girls and to the vision and values of Girl Effect 
• Proactive, solution-focused approach
• Confident to support teams from a global hub
• Strong interpersonal skills and awareness, particularly in cross-cultural contexts/teams 
• Ability to manage conflict and handle sensitive issues confidentially
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Good teamwork skills
• Ability to mentor and support staff remotely and apply global policies to local contexts.