Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA)

World Renew

World Renew Southern Africa seeks a dynamic person that will oversee the implementation of the safeguarding suite of policies, together with related procedures and guidelines, throughout the region.  The coordinator will play a key role in delivering all safeguarding activities, supporting safeguarding and complaints focal points in their roles, and being party to investigations and handling and reporting on complaints and feedback received.

Position Title: Regional Safeguarding and Social Inclusion Coordinator
Department: Ministry Teams
Reports to: Southern Africa Regional Director
Status: One-year contract, renewable
Salary Level: TBD determined by Country Office Salary Scale where the person is located

PURPOSE:

World Renew exists to increase the capacity of communities and missional partners to engage in transformative practices that improve, in sustainable ways, the well-being of people made vulnerable by circumstances of poverty, disaster, or injustice. World Renew in its commitment to increased accountability and in its desire to attain certification in the Core Humanitarian Standard has recently enacted a suite of safeguarding policies. This position will support the rollout of these policies in the region and in countries where we may have a disaster response and will continue to provide regional support to teams in implementation. This will be done by building and strengthening capacity in safeguarding and social inclusion throughout the regions, country offices, and partners. This will include supporting safeguarding and complaints focal points in their roles and being party to investigations and handling and reporting on complaints and feedback received.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1.  Establish and support safeguarding, complaints and feedback systems and processes:

a. Provide clear introduction and orientation to safeguarding within the Core Humanitarian Standards and its importance to World Renew vision, mission and values

b. Support and advise the Regional Director, Country Directors and Focal Points on the establishment of relevant and contextualized complaints mechanisms in the region and Countries of operation.

c. Engage communities in the design and contextualization of key policies and reporting mechanisms to ensure World Renew and partners are addressing the core safeguarding issues by paying particular attention to the most vulnerable populations.

d. Ensuring the communication of the key contents of the Complaints Policy, and other related safeguarding policies, to all staff;

e. Oversee the implementation of the safeguarding suite of policies, together with related procedures and guidelines, throughout the region.

2. Capacity Development:

a. Develop training material appropriate for a variety of audiences including but not limited to; general orientation for all staff, Complaints Focal Points and Partner staff and board members.

b. Strengthen capacity of regional and country staff on complaints handling to enable effective response to complaints and ensure that each country office has a robust system on complaints handling

c. Provide ongoing support and advice to Safeguarding and Complaints Focal Points on handling complaints, in general and in specific cases as requested.

d. Document feedback and learning on the safeguarding and Complaints Policy during implementation to inform future revisions to the policy and guidelines.

e. Contribute to a global safeguarding learning group to surface existing practices among regions and teams, share resources and plan joint activities.

f. Support the preparation for CHS Mid-Term Audit by preparing an annual regional report against the CHS work plan and supporting the collection of evidence for preparing the HQAI Progress Report including updating documents on the HQAI cloud when requested.

3. Complaints Handling

a. Handle complaints received in the region by various methods in coordination with the Complaints Handling Committee;

b. In times of disaster, be available as surge support to IDR and Country teams in the establishment of complaints and feedback mechanisms where required.

c. Ensuring all information related to complaints within the region and countries are well documented, including a log of complaints, and that all information is kept secure with access restricted to authorized personnel only;

d. Helping country teams to refer reports related to safeguarding issues (e.g. related to children or vulnerable adults) that do not constitute a complaint against World Renew, its staff or partners, to the relevant authorities or to organizations with the relevant expertise as necessary.

e. Keep a record of lessons learned and precedents set to share during COP sessions and for organizational learning.

f. Ensure appropriate cover is in place for handling complaints when on leave or unavailable for more than two days.

4. Supporting investigation processes:

a. Support investigation processes, in coordination with the Complaints Handling Committee and Complaints Coordinator, including the timely identification of investigation teams, support to the investigators where needed, and enabling the presentation of the investigation team’s findings to the Hearing Committee.

b. Establish systems, processes and guidelines to ensure to support the anonymity, protection and welfare (including psychological) of those who have provided complaints or feedback and also for Country office staff and partners who may be involved or witness to a safeguarding issue

5. Social Inclusion:

a. Work with Country teams to improve our programmatic inclusion for hard-to-reach populations, People with Disabilities, and marginalized groups.

b. Provide capacity building and guidance to enhance data disaggregation & inclusion throughout the program/ project cycle

c. Contribute to the global Gender and Anti-Racism working groups and assist the Regional Director and Country Directors to further organizational goals and strategy in these areas.

6. Perform other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS

1. Mature Christian, capable of applying their belief systems to their work

2. Demonstrated commitment to quality and accountability in the international development sector

3. Proven ability to work on sensitive issues and able to maintain discretion and confidentiality

4. Commitment to building capacity of colleagues through training events, development of resources and providing a mentoring approach

5. Proactive and able to work independently with minimal supervision

6. Demonstrated commitment to promote a work environment, and respectful relationships, that value diversity and equality

7. Able and willing to work collaboratively in a team setting

8. Highly proficient in Microsoft Office software including MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint

9. Legal right to work in Malawi, Mozambique, or Zambia

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE

1. At least a bachelor’s degree, in human resources, international development, political science or related specialty

2. At least 2 years of experience in complaints handling, management of investigations, compliance, and/or safeguarding is a requirement

3. Prior experience in policy development is a definite asset

LANGUAGE SKILLS

1. Fluency in English, both written and verbal, is required for this position; knowledge of a regional language/s is an asset.

WORK ENVIRONMENT & TRAVEL

1. Willing to travel 30% of time to rural areas (in the country or Region) which may have limited access to running water, Internet, electricity and other support structures.

2. Occasional international travel beyond the region.

MENTAL/PHYSICAL DEMANDS

Work is difficult and diversified and requires the frequent application of a high degree of independent thinking to originate and develop procedures, techniques or ideas within the parameters of a broad conceptual outline.