OMBUDS BOARD

SOS Children’s Villages International (SOS CVI) is the umbrella organization for the global federation of SOS Children’s Villages. As a non-governmental social development organization, we support children without parental care and families in difficult living conditions through services in care, education, health and emergency relief, and we advocate for the rights of children and young people, in alliance with a great diversity of partners. We work in 136 countries and territories, reaching over one million children, young people, families and caregivers each year.

To support us with this important responsibility and duty we are now looking for five committed professionals to make up the:

OMBUDS BOARD

Location: Global (virtual, remote)

Duration: Four-year term

Type of contract: Board appointment

Mission:

To realise SOS Children’s Villages’ commitment to establishing an Ombudsperson system for children and others affected by abuse, SOS Children’s Villages International is implementing an Ombuds Office across all member associations and the General Secretariat that is independent from SOS Children’s Villages International. The Ombuds Office is comprised of National Ombuds; Regional Ombuds; Global Ombuds; Representatives: Staff and Children and Young People; and an Ombuds Office Coordinator. All roles and qualities are informed by children and young people. The Ombuds Office is selected by and accountable to the Ombuds Board.

SOS Children’s Villages' Leadership Selection Committee of the International Senate is establishing an Ombuds Board comprised of five leading professionals. Board members must be available about 40 hours per year on a pro bono basis and serve a four-year term.

Requirements:

• Leading  persons  from outside SOS Children’s Villages who are interested in making a significant contribution to  safeguarding in one of the largest global child-focused NGOs, on a pro-bono basis.
• Highly respected and independent individuals who are not engaged with SOS Children’s Villages as a staff or board member. They are known for their commitment, passion and experience in standing up and taking action regarding the rights and protection of children and young people. In addition individual board members have strong expertise in one or two of the areas below.
  • A child rights expert with at least eight years’ legal and policy experience.
  • A social service worker with at least eight years’ frontline social work or psychosocial experience in alternative care or family strengthening.
  • An ombuds professional with at least 10 years’ international experience as an Ombuds
• A Master’s degree in a relevant area such as law, social work, psychology, sociology, child rights, or child and youth studies. A PhD or advanced degree or diploma is desirable.
• Professional proficiency in English. The ability to speak and work in additional languages (particularly French, Spanish, Arabic or Russian) is strongly desired.
• Experience serving on the board of a large international organisation or equivalent governance and leadership experience.
• Highly skilled in executive oversight and managing risk across numerous cultural contexts.
• Comfortable working in a virtual  office context.
• Educated in children’s rights, safeguarding, and related issues, including international laws, conventions, declarations, and regulations relevant to children and young people.
• A person who respects and understands children and young people.
• An attentive listener, problem solver, adviser, and an influential mediator with good observational skills and strong communication skills.
• A strong understanding of how to build a strong organisation and team, with the skills and experience needed to encourage and support those responsible for implementation.
• Committed to respect confidentiality and to act independently and impartially without bias.

Main activities of the Ombuds Board:

• Select the Global Ombudsperson and maintain an overview of their onboarding and training. This includes supporting and advising them as needed and/or upon request;
• Meeting with the Global Ombudsperson every quarter during scale-up to monitor progress and with the Global and Regional Ombuds every year for Ombuds Office review and planning. After significant scale-up progress, meeting every six months with the Global Ombuds and annually with Global and Regional Ombuds.
• Annually evaluating SOS Ombuds office against a set of objectives and key Performance Indicators.
• Approving the SOS Ombuds annual reports, which include themes identified from Inquirers, recommendations for SOS CVI, and a summary of outcomes of Inquiries.
• Receiving and considering written input from the CEO and Programme Audit Committee regarding the effectiveness of the Ombuds structure.
• Responding to any concerns and retaliation against the SOS Ombuds Office. This includes taking disciplinary measures against the Global Ombuds due to issues related to: character; professionalism; conflict of interest; lack of impartiality and confidentiality; corruption or efficiency. These measures will be guided by the Global Ombuds contract and legal instruments.

We offer

• The opportunity to make a significant, positive contribution to innovating child safeguarding
• The opportunity to be part of developing an ombudsperson approach for, and informed by, children and young people across the globe.

What We Stand For: **

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a caring and protective environment, which promotes its core values, and prevents and addresses child abuse and exploitation. We strongly condemn all forms of child abuse and exploitation, be it within or outside of our organization, and always respond to any case of proven, alleged or attempted abuse within our sphere of influence according to its nature. Efforts ensure that mechanisms are in place to raise awareness, aid prevention, encourage reporting and ease response. They range from human resource development actions such as training and counselling to measures such as suspension, dismissal, and legal action.

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our staff, the children and young people and the communities that we work for. The organization prohibits harassment, exploitation and abuses by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, child, young people, community, contractor, applicant, or other individual with whom SOS Children’s Villages employees come into contact by virtue of their work. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our prevention and protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse policy.

In addition, SOS Children’s Villages apply a zero tolerance concerning any fraud situation. The organization does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following before 23 January 2023 at midnight CET at OMBUDS BOARD (F/M/D) in Vienna | Careers at IO Vienna (icims.com)

• current curriculum vita (CV)
• letter of interest highlighting the area of specialization you can bring to the board, how your experience contributes to the role, and the reference of an SOS Children’s Villages Board Member
• three professional references (names and contact information)

*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 applicable background checks, including criminal record checks. Board member will be required to understand and sign the SOS Code of Conduct.

******To protect the independence of the Ombuds Office, this position is not open to SOS Children's Villages employees, Boards Members  or those who have been employed by or on boards with SOS Children's Villages within the last six months.

Only successful candidates will be contacted. Female candidates are strongly encouraged