Senior Officer for Safeguarding and Safe and Dignified Programming

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary

The Senior Officer for Safeguarding and Safe and Dignified Programming will have a twofold role in the programming office:

• Provide tools and technical support to the Country Program to effectively implement CRS’ Safeguarding Policy and ensure protection mainstreaming across programming; ensure safeguarding program quality standards and safeguarding-related MEAL policies and procedures are effectively met and exceeded, and that protection mainstreaming guidelines are adhered to in both relief and development programming; receive guidance, technical support and capacity building from the Ethics Unit’s Global Safeguarding Advisors, Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) Safe & Dignified Programming Advisors, and other Regional and Global Technical Advisors (Gender, Social Inclusion, Disability, etc), as pertinent;
• Oversee and coordinate the roll-out of the partner safeguarding procedures and minimum standards to implementing partners at the CP level and provide continual support to partners and CRS sto meet these.

Job Responsibilities

Safeguarding and Safe and Dignified Programming

• Working with the Global Safeguarding Team and HRD’s Safe & Dignified Programming Team, lead the implementation of CRS’ Safeguarding Policy and SDP Strategy in Mozambique, securing technical support from Regional and Global Technical Advisors as needed;
• Support CRS Mozambique to identify and address internal safeguarding priorities and capacity building opportunities, such as: CP Safeguarding Checklist & Action Plan, Legal Analysis, CP-level Safeguarding Risk Assessment;
• Provide regular updates to the Program Office on the agency and CP safeguarding and SDP efforts, lessons learned, and best practices;
• Coordinate with and train any project specific Safeguarding staff;
• Ensure Essential Service Mapping / referral pathways are conducted and updated annually;
• Serve as a reporting channel to receive safeguarding allegations from colleagues and associates, and log these into EthicsPoint;
• Triage initial safeguarding or protection concerns from colleagues; ensure survivors receive immediate support and/or appropriate referrals following disclosure;
• Provide tools and technical support to project staff for awareness raising of program participants and communities of intervention on their rights, CRS’ Code of Conduct & Ethics, reporting expectations, etc.;
• Contribute to the design and monitoring of FCRMs in all projects;
• Train project frontline staff on identifying, receiving, and escalating safeguarding and protection reports, suspicions, and concerns;
• Participate in PSEA/Protection/GBV networks and cluster forums and ensure Country Program staff and programs are kept abreast of global and local initiatives and resources;
• Support Global Safeguarding Advisors and HRD’s Safe & Dignified Programming Advisors by informing / contributing to discussions on safeguarding programming, and protection mainstreaming initiatives and efforts.

Partner Safeguarding

• Participate in ToT on the partner safeguarding procedure/framework and minimum standards;
• Act as a liaison between the CP and the Regional Partner Safeguarding Advisor;
• Participate in relevant learning events and a regional partner safeguarding community of practice;
• Conduct a mapping of implementing partners and develop CP partner safeguarding annual workplan;
• Organize orientation sessions for senior partner staff on the minimum standards and assessment process and tools;
• Coordinate and conduct partnersafeguarding assessments according to the procedures;
• Coordinate with other relevant CP staff and departments supporting the partner assessment process and collating their contributions (if applicable);
• Ensure partners submit improvements plans following the outcome of their assessment per procedure;
• Conduct partner follow-up visits within the required timeframe;
• Coordinate all partner safeguarding capacity strengthening activities in line with the partner’s improvement plan. This includes:
  • Providing partners with relevant templates and tools;
  • Organise and conduct online or face-to-face training to partners and technical accompaniment on relevant minimum standards;
  • Coordinate technical support of other CP staff and departments (e.g. Investigation Focal Point, HR, MEAL) to partners;
  • In consultation with the Regional Partner Safeguarding Advisor, contextualize and make necessary adaptations of partner safeguarding training materials and tools provided by the Ethics Unit;
  • Coordinate, conduct and communicate the re-assessments of partners per procedure;
  • Ensure that documentation from the assessments, re-assessments and follow-up visits are safely stored in the office and relevant documents are uploaded onto Gateway;
  • Provide partners with appropriate information and technical resources;
  • Support all CP staff in relation to the partner safeguarding procedures and related requests;
• Write and disseminate quarterly progress reports on the roll-out of the partner safeguarding procedures;
• Ensure the coordination of all partner safeguarding activities with other CP staff involved in partner capacity building activities or assessments, including SRFMP and HOCAI;
• Serve as the point of contact at the CP level on ensuring compliance with partner safeguarding procedures within emergency responses;
• Other tasks/duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Candidate Profile

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of five years of experience in the humanitarian or development sector.
• At least three years of experience in designing and conducting trainings and/or implementing partnership capacity strengthening initiatives.
• At least two years of experience in the field of protection or safeguarding.
• Experience of having worked directly with senior staff of implementing partners.
• Solid organizational/time management skills: the ability to be flexible and work well under pressure.
• Strong analytical and report building skills; strong computer skills.
• Humble and approachable; a problem solver who seeks to find constructive solutions.
• University degree in Social Work, Development, Project Management, Organizational Development, Psychology, Business or Public Administration or related field.

Required Languages

• Written and spoken fluency in Portuguese.
• Professional proficiency in English (strong verbal skills required).

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (SKAs)

• Ability to explain ideas and processes clearly and address sensitive subject matters. Ability to facilitate discussions with various levels of staff while maintaining trust and confidentiality.
• Promotes the integration of a survivor-centered approach in all areas of their work.
• Contributes to safeguarding risk assessment and mitigation strategies.
• Promotes widespread awareness and where applicable, use of safeguarding reporting channels.
• Knowledge of industry safeguarding/sexual exploitation and abuse principles and standards.

Travel

• Ability and willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and 1-2 times/year internationally.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

• These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill
  his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.
• Integrity.
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation.
• Builds Relationships.
• Develops Talent.
• Strategic Mindset.
• Accountability & Stewardship.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• None

Key Working Relationships

• Internal – Program office: Senior Management Team; Safeguarding Focal Points; MEAL Unit.
• Internal – Regional & Global: Global Safeguarding Advisor for SARO; Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) Advisors; Deputy Regional Directors; other Regional and Global Technical Advisors.
• External: Local implementing partners, including Caritas; NGO and UN Safeguarding Staff; Donor Safeguarding and SDP Representatives; local PSEA Networks.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Job Band: Senior Project Officer

Reports to: Country Manager

Program Office: Mozambique

Salary Grade: 8