SOS Children's Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.
Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.
Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment.
Location: Vienna (Austria), Innsbruck (Austria), Dakar (Senegal), Skopje (Macedonia), Nairobi (Kenya), Faridabad (India), Lome (Togo), Casablanca (Morocco), La Paz (Bolivia), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Amman (Jordan), Tallin (Estonia)
Duration: Unlimited, Full-time position
Mission
SOS Children’s Villages strives to create and ensure a safe environment for everyone who engages with us internally or externally. An environment that does not expose children, young people and adults to harm, sexual exploitation and abuse. It also aims to manage its financial and other assets free from fraud and corruption.
The main high-level purposes of the Safeguarding and Anti-Corruption and Asset Protection team area are as follows.
a) To lead and champion the safeguarding priority, the strategies and action plans in order to ensure that safeguarding, anti-Corruption and asset Protection are mainstreamed across all parts of the Federation.
b) To support management in the General Secretariat and the Member Associations in the implementation of policies, practices, capacity building, awareness raising and other activities for prevention of harm, sexual exploitation, abuse, fraud and corruption wherever people engage with SOS Children’s Villages.
c) To run the incident management process and support management response and actions when dealing with allegations made. It does this in conjunction with the independent audit and investigations unit and liaises with the SOS Children’s Villages Ombuds system.
d) To monitor, evaluate and report on progress to Governance, Leadership and Management in delivery of strategies, outcomes and learning.
e) To participate in, share with and learn from external networks in order to improve internal practice and to influence sector-wide thinking and initiatives, and to facilitate relevant knowledge management.
The purpose of the position is to build and continuously strengthen the Federation’s capability in Adult Safeguarding. SOS Children’s Villages employs 37,000 staff globally and interacts through its programmes with many thousands of adults, either as caregivers or in other roles (e.g., partner organisations). The provision of direct alternative care - predominantly by more junior female staff -, and organisational and societal gender power imbalances, means that SOS Children’s Villages has specific and elevated safeguarding risks which differentiate it from other INGOs.
Working jointly with the Head of Child Safeguarding and as required other Safeguarding functions under the leadership of the Global Director of Safeguarding, the Head of Adult Safeguarding develops, implements and strengthens integrated strategies, policies, processes, tools, training, systems and monitoring processes with specific focus on adults. The Head of Adult Safeguarding works with all layers and entities across the Federation in order to enable governance, leadership, management and staff to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities including protection of complainants, witnesses and support to survivors.
The incumbent oversees and coordinates incident management for the International Office and as required supports International Office Regions, and/ or the Member Associations in their running of best practice incident management. The incumbent reports progress, outcomes and overall incident management picture for adult safeguarding. The incumbent ensures further development on the basis of lessons learnt including specific recommendations as it regards the portfolio for a safe implementation of programs. They support the Global Director of Safeguarding in their leadership of the Federation wide network, support the equivalent teams and individuals in the International Office Regions (IORs), GSC-run entities/programmes and as requested Member Associations through, but not limited to expert advice and/or best practise guidance.
Tasks & Responsibilities
- Jointly championing Safeguarding
- Champions and enables mainstreaming of Safeguarding across the organisation’s staffing, functions, geographies and its programmes including supporting and constructively challenging individuals in Leadership and Management roles.
- Helps leaders (governance and management) understand and address power imbalances, especially in relation to gender, that are needed for the creation of a safe environment.
- Contributes to the development and implementation of Federation safeguarding strategies and supports General Secretariat and Member Associations leadership in implementation of those.
- Jointly builds the capacity of the safeguarding network (International Office and International office Regions teams, focal points in the General Secretariat and Member Associations), as well as management and other staff across the Federation.
- Champions and role-models the organisational values, behaviours and Code of Conduct
- Works with other leaders to ensure strong integration of safeguarding principles and approaches with child rights-based, child and youth participation, programmatic, fundraising and other relevant approaches.
- Supporting management and others across the Federation to build a safe environment for children, youth and adults - with especial focus on adults:
- Contributes to the development of a full suite of aligned global policies, standards, processes, tools and systems for use by leaders, managers and staff across the Federation for Child, Youth and Adult Safeguarding with specific focus on adults.
- Jointly develops awareness-raising, training and other tools to help all staff understand what a safe environment is, their responsibilities and how to implement the SOS Children’s Villages safeguarding approach.
- Works with staff across the Federation managing related functions e.g., Care Giving, Organisational Culture).
- Incident Management
- Ensures that the International Office team and international Office Regions are running robust adult specific, Incident Management for GSC-managed entities (countries, programmes, International Office and International office Regions teams) and supports Member Associations to run high quality, best practice incident management processes.
- Supports management in its role to ensure protection of complainants and support to survivors.
- Works with Audit and Investigations team to ensure high quality, comprehensive and aligned compliance audits and investigations.
- Ensures learning is used to improve incident management processes.
- Where appropriate, liaises with the Ombuds in its role to protect the rights of adult survivors.
- Monitoring, evaluation, learning and reporting in regard to adult safeguarding. Working with the Head of Child Safeguarding
- Reports progress on implementation of strategies and outcomes.
- Supports monitoring and evaluation of safeguarding approaches, strategies and outcomes.
- Gathers and shares learning across the Federation via management and the internal safeguarding network.
- Participates in external networks to share and learn from best practice across the sector and similar organisations.
- Management of staff and other resources
- Manages a diverse and collaborative team of Adult Safeguarding experts and advisors at the International Office and indirectly in regions, based in different locations and virtually connected.
- Manages budgets when delegated by the Global Director of Safeguarding.
Requirements
Essential:
- University degree or equivalent recognized professional certification (or registered professional), preferably in relevant fields such as Social Sciences, Humanitarian or International Development, Psychology, Social Work, or International Law or other relevant studies combined with sound applied experience in adult social care and/or safeguarding-related field
- At least 10 years of working in the safeguarding function, team or network in a complex global organisation, delivering direct or indirect care and with significant numbers of staff
- A minimum of 10 years of progressive local and global relevant safeguarding experience including designing and/or implementing relevant initiatives such as training, awareness building, tools and process development, monitoring and evaluation
- Previous experience in leading and driving project and/or management of strategic initiatives in related subject areas across a global organisation preferably in an international NGO setting and with multiple stakeholders' requirements
- Previous experience in developing and enabling the utilization of successful monitoring, evaluation, learning and knowledge management culture, processes, tools and systems
- Experience in designing culturally sensitive training concepts and related materials, and communications with a view of capacity building for a range of audiences
- Sound understanding and experience in creating, developing and implementing high quality policies, procedures and guidelines in a complex, diverse organisation
- Experience in case management including conducting investigations and managing the process of resolving complex safeguarding issues
- Strong and up-to-date understanding of safeguarding donor requirements (preferred), and of safeguarding legislation across multiple jurisdictions
- Demonstrated ability to influence management and staff at all levels
- Expert team management skills with the ability to lead a diverse and inclusive globally distributed team and enable every team member to reach their full potential.
- Very high ability to take difficult decisions about complex issues using judgment and experience
- High ability to be results orientated with and to prioritize safeguarding, setting realistic goals and translate them into actionable plans
- Strong ability to maintain the highest standard and quality of work, managing stress effectively whilst prioritizing multiple tasks and competing deadlines.
- Expert ability to act as a role model for the organisation and live its values, inspiring and learning from others
- Strong skills in collaboration and removing barriers to participation, sharing decision making and building partnerships, being inclusive and mindful of diverse perspectives and experiences, respecting and valuing every person equally
- Being a participant in safeguarding networks
- Availability for frequent travel to Member Associations and GSC-managed countries and regions
- Ability to handle very complex and rapidly emerging clusters of cases, occasional unsocial working hours
- Excellent oral and written command of English language skills (fluency in French, Arabic or Spanish would be an asset)
- Valid work permit for the chosen location
- Strong willingness and ability to relocate to the chosen location, including openness to traveling outside of the assigned duty station
Desirable:
- Experience working for an international care giving organisation
- Experience in co-creation of strategy, policies, processes etc. with meaningful youth participation
We offer
- A diverse range of interesting tasks in a leading INGO and a multicultural working environment
- As a responsible employer we provide a range of training schemes and encourage educational enhancement
- A salary that will be commensurate with experience and qualifications
- Home-office possibility
If you are interested in this position, please submit your detailed application in English by the 10th of February, 2023 at https://careers-sos-kd.icims.com
Please note that due to the high number of applications, SOS Children's Villages is only able to contact shortlisted candidates.
Successful candidates will have to submit a criminal record certificate, current within the last three years. In accordance with the organisation’s child protection policy, these positions will be subject to criminal record checks.