About Mary’s Meals

Mary’s Meals is a global movement supported by people from all walks of life and we are focused on one goal – that every child receives a nutritious daily meal in a place of education. We continue to change the lives of over 2.4 million children who today will receive Mary’s Meals. We have been working in Zambia since 2014, and over 400,000 school children in Zambia receive Marys’ Meals every day. Mary’s Meals is a national school feeding programme and we work closely with schools and community volunteers who help prepare and serve the nutritious meals every school day.

About the Role

Mary’s Meals Zambia is recruiting for a Safeguarding Advisor to implement our global Safeguarding Policy and standards across the programme and all its activities. Reporting to the Country Director, you will promote safeguarding awareness and strengthen a safe culture and environment across the Zambia programme.

This role will be based in Chipata, Zambia.

Key responsibilities

• Support the Head of Programmes to identify safeguarding risks, work to mitigate these risks and support improvement of safeguarding across the programme
• Coordinate the production of safeguarding awareness raising materials
• Support colleagues across the programme and programme partners to understand and carry out their safeguarding responsibilities
• Using MMI’s Global Safeguarding Policy as a foundation, support the publication, dissemination and implementation of policies, procedures and good practice documents and tools within Mary’s Meals Zambia
• Work with Global Safeguarding Lead to develop a range of materials to raise awareness safeguarding standards and reporting mechanisms across the Zambia programme.
• Work with the L & D Advisor and Head of People & Culture to develop, adapt, deliver and evaluate safeguarding training and awareness raising activities
• Work with the Global Safeguarding Lead to establish, manage reporting mechanisms at all levels and for those who come into contact with our work
• Receive and safely document safeguarding reports, respond in accordance with procedures, provide referral or next step advice, acting as an advisor where issues are raised.
• Represent MMZ at appropriate sector events on safeguarding and child protection and liaise with other safeguarding professionals to learn from best practices.
• Support the Country Director and the Senior Leadership Team to monitor any actions and recommendations from incidents, reviews or safeguarding audits.

Required skills and experience

• Bachelor’s degree in education, Sociology, Public Administration, Human Resource Management or any relevant/equivalent field
• Experience of developing and delivering training and workshops to different audiences
• Experience of working in a role that supports safeguarding, PSEA (Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) or the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
• Experience in conducting assessments, monitoring and report writing
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage and prioritize a heavy and varied workload to meet deadlines and work calmly under pressure.
• Strong communication skills, especially active listening, strong facilitation and presentation skills
• Ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues at different levels of an organization.
• Experience of local languages (Nyanja or Chewa) would be desirable

We believe in the innate goodness of people, respect the dignity of every human being and family life and believe in good stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. In line with our values, Mary’s Meals is fully committed to a culture of safeguarding. Mary’s Meals is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work and we expect all the Mary’s Meals family to share this commitment and work in the best interest of the communities we serve. Our safe recruitment practices ensure that only those that are committed to our high standards join our movement.