Safeguarding Officer (Renk)

About RI:

Relief International is an international non-profit organization that partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and wellbeing. People living in fragile settings face complex, interconnected and deep-rooted crises that often tear a hole in the social fabric of communities. When this happens, our teams work closely with community leaders; first focusing on critical health needs, and then, as communities recover, focusing on both health and wellbeing programming that helps reweave the social fabric for greater resilience in the future. Our team of more than 7,000 staff and local volunteers work in 15 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, providing Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education and Livelihoods programming that is safe, truly local, conflict sensitive, climate smart, evidence based, and reaches those in need. Relief International is a 60-year-old international NGO alliance that is the product of mergers and alliances between four organizations. Today, Relief International is comprised of Relief International, Inc., Relief International-France, Relief International-UK and Relief International-Europe, all of which are led by a single senior leadership team.

Position Summary:

The safeguarding officer will take a lead in driving our endeavours in this key-focused area of work across the RI field office Upper Nile, coordinating and overseeing safeguarding procedures, capacity building, and monitoring whilst enforcing compliance and accountability aspects of advocacy in line with safeguarding and PSEA policy and as well as acting as a first point of contact for anyone with concerns. Stakeholders are properly received, logged, addressed, and resolved in a timely and transparent manner. This role involves working closely with various departments to ensure the effectiveness of the complaints mechanism and enhance accountability and trust within the community. Additionally, the Officer will ensure that all projects adhere to RI’s mission, values, and ethical standards.

Key Responsibilities

Safeguarding Officer;

• Encourage good practice by promoting and championing the Safeguarding, PSEA, child protection policy and procedures.
• Ensure that cases of suspected, actual child protection, or safeguarding concerns are reported within 24 hours using RI safeguarding reporting procedures.
• Ensure that all staff is fully trained in safeguarding and PSEA policies and knows how to spot and raise concerns and how to maintain an effective staff supervision program.
• Respond appropriately to disclosures or concerns that relate to the well-being of people experiencing safeguarding issues and provide alerts to the Safeguarding Coordinator when it happens.
• Maintain accurate, confidential, and up-to-date documentation on all cases of safeguarding and child protection and provide reports where required.
• Undergoing regular refresher training to ensure their safeguarding knowledge is as up-to-date as possible and in line with safeguarding guidance.
• Ensure that adequate reporting and recording systems/mechanisms are in place.
• Being aware of any children or adults who require specific safeguarding needs and have specific vulnerabilities.
• Contribute to professional assessments of need and risk concerning parents and caregivers using the Local Authority procedures for children and adults in need and significant harm.
• Coordinate the multi-agency approach to prevent and address Safeguarding and PSEA issues with children and adults in need
• Maintain confidentiality at all times, and ensure all staff maintain appropriate confidentiality during safeguarding processes.
• Attend and participate in Safeguarding/PSEA Conferences and Planning and Review meetings.
• Compiling Safeguarding monthly report from all the focal point and share with Safeguarding coordinator.
• Support the Safeguarding coordinator in the planning and delivery of safeguarding training, including induction and refresher training.
• Ensure that vulnerable people who are victims of abuse and maltreatment are supported appropriately and sensitively and that all actions assigned for planning and intervention meetings are successfully carried out and monitored
• Liaise with the Safeguarding focal point and ensure they have access to all necessary information for reporting procedures.

Systems Compliance and Improvement (5%)

• RI South Sudan specific finance, logistics, IT, security, communications and human resource/administration policies and procedures.
• Any new procedures and guidelines designated in circulars from the program manager or Country office.

Policy compliance – Mandatory Reporting Policy (MRP): (5%)

• Ensure any violations of the RI Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Code of Conduct and other RI Policies are reported in accordance to the RI Reporting mechanism. The reporting of violations is an obligation on the part of all staff members.
• Assist where necessary in undertaking activities that aim to prevent the occurrence of sexual abuse and exploitation of beneficiaries by RI and other humanitarian workers

Qualification and Minimum Requirements:

Applicants should;

• University degree in social work, development studies, psychology or equivalent social sciences,
• Minimum of 2-3 years’ experience in safeguarding, GBV, and PSEA as well as child protection practice within a government or NGO setting.
• Experience in the role of advocacy or policy implementation either in the field of Child Protection/Safeguarding/PSEA or Human Resources to achieve policy change and compliance.
• Extensive experience in building personal internal and external networks.
• Experience and ability to plan and undertake training programmes/workshops in safeguarding and PSEA at a range of levels (e.g., field workers, managers, senior managers, representatives, and decision-makers)
• Ability to liaise and provide technical support to the Safeguarding coordinator/manager in aspects of the delivery of sensitive Safeguarding and safe programs.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and report-writing skills.
• Ability to provide remote support and establish supportive relationships and networks.
• Ability to travel and work within challenging environments

GENERAL CONDITIONS:

• Applicant must not be a person with criminal records or have been convicted of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), Sexual Harassment and Child Abuse cases.

We would like to share Relief International's values with you:

• We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities. We value:
• Inclusiveness
• Transparency and Accountability
• Agility and Innovation
• Collaboration
• Sustainability

APPLICATION SUBMISSION CRITERIA

HOW TO APPLY:

• Aspiring, potential, and interested applicants should submit copies of non-returnable motivational letter, national ID, CV and copies of academic documents through bamboo. All above mentioned documents should be non-returnable.
• Because this position is urgently needed to be fill, short listing shall be conducted before the deadline/as applications are being received (On rolling basis) and only shortlisted applicants will be contacted within two weeks of closing date.
• This is a national position.
• Deadline: 31st March 2026-4:30 pm SSD local time

Qualified Females are highly encouraged to apply