Safeguarding Manager at Oxfam

Location: Abuja, Nigeria with regular travels to state offices.
Contract type: 1 year (Fixed Term Employment)
Job Family: Management
Reporting to: Country Director
Internal Job Grade: C1- national

Job Purpose

• Oxfam seeks the position of Safeguarding Manager and under the supervision of the Country Director, the Safeguarding Manager is required to lead the development and implementation of safeguarding policy across the Oxfam in Nigeria mission as well as developing a mission-wide strategy in that matter.

Dimensions

• To drive the implementation of Safeguarding policy and procedures in Nigeria and ensure an effective and timely case management response to beneficiaries who are at risk.
• Participating in and contributing to all aspects of Oxfam in Nigeria strategy and programmes in order to proactively identify and mitigate risks and ensure that safety measures are built in from design through to delivery and evaluation.
• By providing expert advice, capacity building and support to beneficiaries and partners

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Implementation of the Safeguarding policy and procedures:

• In collaboration with the Global Safeguarding Team, to ensure that the Safeguarding Policy is adapted to the local context and is reviewed and updated on an annual basis.
• Work closely with staff across Oxfam in Nigeria to implement the safeguarding policy and procedures and ensure that safeguarding is prioritised across all initiatives and functions
• Develop and deliver training to all Nigeria staff on an annual basis and establish a programme of on-going capacity building for staff tailored to their specific area of work
• Ensure all new recruits receive a safeguarding induction within their first month of employment
• Ensure all implementing partners receive a detailed briefing on Safeguarding Requirements within the programme and ensure that a written Safeguarding Agreement is in place.
• Work with safeguarding teams to ensure partners develop robust risk assessments and risk management plans.
• Complete an annual safeguarding assessment and provide a report which summarizes progress, challenges and future objectives.
• Develop relationships with key government and stakeholders and other agencies and represent Oxfam in Nigeria within key networks and external events focussed in safeguarding and child protection.

Overseeing reporting and response procedures:

• Ensure that there are clear, well understood reporting and response procedures at both a country level and within each initiative/product
• Ensure that reporting procedures are clearly understood by staff, partners, contractors, visitors and by children and young people themselves. This may include providing briefings, training or developing materials for dissemination, including the development of safeguarding-friendly materials.
• Act as the safeguarding focal point for staff whenever safeguarding concerns arise and ensuring cases are escalated when appropriate.
• Ensure that safeguarding concerns are documented and regularly analysed to inform organisational learning and improve safeguarding practice

Advise on the design and development of new products and initiatives:

• Contribute to the design and development of new products and initiatives to ensure that safeguarding measures are built in to ensure risks are identified and mitigation measures are built into all activities.
• Provide advice and support to staff developing media content and distribution platforms to ensure the protection of beneficiaries is prioritised.
• Work with the Evidence team to provide technical support on safeguarding and protection in relation to monitoring, evaluation, learning and research initiatives.
• Analyse the types of cases received, and the response provided on a regular basis to inform organisational learning and improve safeguarding practice
• Conduct landscaping analyses periodically to ensure Oxfam in Nigeria is up to date on available supply side services and manage the vetting of these services.

Other:

• Keep up to date with trends and developments in the field of protection and safeguarding and disseminate key learning from policy, practice and research to the wider team.
• Spearhead safeguarding mainstreaming and internal learning by ensuring learning hurdles and trainings are delivered across the organisation, periodically conduct gender and safeguarding audits and review organisational policies providing safeguarding expertise as required.
• Work with the global safeguarding teams to identify key learnings in terms of safeguarding & protection and its impact and cascade this learning across the organization where relevant.
• Provide technical expertise into safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure

Persons Specification
Educational Qualification:

• Master's Degree in Public Health, Psychology, Nursing or other relevant field
• Qualified member of a relevant professional body

Experience:

• Ability to work in close collaboration with managers/staff to provide capacity building support in community settings.
• Experience in providing well-developed conceptual, critical, and analytical thinking with the ability to convey complex information in a straightforward way and influencing this to a wider audience.
• Good organisational and personal management skills, with ability to prioritise work issues to meet deadlines with minimal supervision and adjust to constantly changing situations while maintaining focus on delivery and follow-through
• Ability to demonstrate strong commitment to maintaining confidentiality.
• Proven experience as a team worker preferably able to liaise across country boundaries and demonstrably cooperative with members of other teams, responding quickly and accurately to queries and issues.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal English) and the ability to write clear, concise reports.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using a computerised information management system (Ms Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Commitment to Oxfam’s overall aims and policies and experience of promoting women’s rights and the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of Oxfam’s work.

Key Behavioural Competencies:

• Decisiveness: We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.
• Influencing: We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organization We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities, we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.
• Humility: We put ‘we’ before ‘me’ and place an emphasis on the power of the collective, nurture the team and play to the strengths of each individual. We are not concerned with hierarchical power, and we engage with, trust and value the knowledge and expertise of others across all levels of the organization.
• Relationship Building: We understand the importance of building relationship, within and outside the organization. We have the ability to engage with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders in ways that lead to increased impact for the organization.
• Listening: We are good listeners who can see where deeper levels of thoughts and tacit assumptions differ. Our messages to others are clear and consider different preferences.
• Mutual Accountability: We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.  We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner.
• Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity:  We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways.
• Systems Thinking: We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organizational decisions and actions.
• Strategic Thinking and Judgment: We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and values.
• Vision Setting: We have the ability to identify and lead visionary initiatives that are beneficial for our organization, and we set high-level direction through a visioning process that engages the organization and diverse external stakeholders.
• Self-Awareness: We are able to develop a high degree of self-awareness around our own strengths and weaknesses and our impact on others. Our self-awareness enables us to moderate and self-regulate our behaviours to control and channel our impulses for good purposes.
• Enabling: We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job.  We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support.