World Vision International NGO Regional Safeguarding Lead Jobs in South Africa

World Vision International NGO Regional Safeguarding Lead Jobs in South Africa



The purpose of this role is lead the regional safeguarding functional area and ensure that safeguarding is prioritized, of high quality, and embedded in a culture of prevention, awareness, reporting and response. The ultimate purpose of the role is to ensure that World Vision in the Southern Africa Region (SAR) is safeguarding children and adults in the communities where World Vision works.

The Southern Africa Regional Safeguarding Lead will combine elements of capacity building and monitoring whilst enforcing compliance and accountability, management and investigation as well as aspects of high-level advocacy, in alignment with WV’s Child and Adult Safeguarding Policy.

This role reports directly to the Regional P&C Director and works closely with the global safeguarding team, the SAR Regional Leader, SAR National Directors, and the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) Senior Management Team (SMT).

Safeguarding Culture Transformation, Building and Leadership

  • Actively support and contribute to building a culture of safeguarding, where staff are informed and empowered to discuss key issues, report, and take action on safeguarding violations.

  • Deliver quality assurance for safeguarding across regions, incl. monitoring performance of safeguarding KPIs. Brief the RD and CDs on state of safeguarding in the region and advise on required interventions. Monitor accessibility and effectiveness of reporting channels, risk, compliance gaps, incident trends, impact, and learning.

  • Regularly (at least quarterly) interface with Regional Risk Management Lead in order to build common understanding of safeguarding risks, and to support the region to pursue holistic risk management.

  • Build collaborative working relationships with FO Safeguarding Focal Points and other relevant staff in Field Offices and GC for the effective functioning of safeguarding in FOs.

  • Provide FO and SARO teams with key messages and resources that enable them to build a healthy culture of safeguarding.

  • Develop and document a plan with SARO and FO leadership that articulates specific actions the SDO, SMT, SLTs and other managers will take to create and nurture a safeguarding culture, incorporate into Safeguarding Action Plans.

  • In partnership with the regional communications and external engagement team, develop regional external engagement plan to position WV as a thought leader in the safeguarding space.

    Safeguarding Incident Management

  • Support and encourage Field Offices (FOs) to report L3/L2 incidents in Ethics Point.

  • Support the WVI Safeguarding Unit to clarify and manage new incidents reported in Ethics Point and within one business day to set up global incident management call (so that the call can be held within 72 hours).

  • Conduct regular follow up with FOs on open safeguarding cases to ensure agreed actions are completed expeditiously, including but not limited to review of investigation plans, referrals of survivor support, completion of investigation reports, and disciplinary action of implicated staff.

  • Ensure L3 incidents are ready to close within 60 days and L2s within 30 days or agree with WVI Safeguarding Unit if more time is needed.

  • Regularly review Ethics point and support FOs to ensure all incidences are successfully closed within 90 days.

  • Follow-up on after action items identified during incident management to continuously strengthen FO safeguarding practices.

    Safeguarding Capacity Building

  • Train and mentor new FO Safeguarding Focal Points on safeguarding policies, protocols and practices, including incident management process.

    Engage, coach, support and build capacity of existing country safeguarding functional leads

  • Hands-on functional management of safeguarding leads in country across 4 pillars – prevention, awareness, reporting, response

  • Pro-active talent management in partnership with NDs and P&C Directors

  • Inspire and build capacity

  • Actively seek out development opportunities for country leads, incl. secondments and deployments in the region and globally in partnership with global safeguarding team

    Engage, coach, support and
    build capacity of regional office staff


  • Train SARO staff on safeguarding and provide periodic refresher trainings to ensure Safeguarding culture is in place.

  • Lead safeguarding orientation and messaging for all SARO vendors to strengthen safeguarding culture

  • Ensure safeguarding training has been coordinated for RO staff and affiliates (eCampus basic online safeguarding course online or face-to-face or virtually).

  • Support FOs and RO to develop and regularly update their safeguarding risk register in alignment with existing risk management practices.

    Required Knowledge Skills and Abilities:

  • Looking for candidates with senior management experience of at least 5 years’ in field/practical situations of policy formation, guidance and implementation (child protection, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), gender-based violence (GBV) or safeguarding)

  • Extensive experience of planning and undertaking training programmes/workshops/trainings in child protection/safeguarding at a range of levels (e.g., field workers, managers, senior managers and decision makers)

  • Awareness of own strengths and weaknesses and evidence of commitment to self-managed personal development

  • Deep experience in safeguarding, child protection or similar investigations

  • Significant experience of building personal internal and external networks at senior level

  • Strong interpersonal, negotiation and diplomacy skills and ability to bring people from different cultures on-board

  • Strong moral compass and ability to deal with complex and ambiguous dilemmas

  • Self-sufficient, collaborative, proactive self-motivating work styles

  • Education to degree standard with a professional qualification in a relevant field, including but not limited to: law, child rights, child psychology, child protection/counselling, survivor care, behavioural change

    Preferred Knowledge Skills & Abilities:

  • Understanding and appreciation of World Vision’s role as a global, international, Christian organization in the Safeguarding and Protection from Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA) arena

  • Exceptional external engagement experience working with non-WV entities on safeguarding, advocacy or child protection issues

  • Awareness of certain signs that a vulnerable individual is being abused, exploited, neglected or mistreated

  • Strong knowledge of World Vision safeguarding systems and procedures

  • Specific knowledge to help shape the contextualization of safeguarding policies

  • Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, and lead presentations, training courses, and effective meetings

  • Strong analytical (incl. quantitative analysis), organizational, problem solving, time management and cross-cultural skills

  • Proven track record of delivering consistent, quality results with accountability and integrity

  • Performance history in strengthening organizational capacity in a distinct area

  • Able to solve complex and rapidly changing operational challenges in today’s dynamic and connected business environment.

  • Ability to cope under significant pressure while maintaining healthy work life balance

  • Ability to travel and work within challenging environments, such as conflict locations

  • Ability to effectively communicate and negotiate with key internal and external stakeholders while maintaining effective working relationships with varied stakeholders of different academic, cultural, gender, denominational etc. background

  • Digital dexterity mind-set supported by strong digital literacy

  • Strong knowledge of MS Office applications

  • 40% travel to World Vision Field Offices is expected

  • Virtual/hybrid work environment

  • Based in any location within SAR where WV is registered, with a preference for Angola or Mozambique

  • Fluency in written and spoken English, required

  • Fluency in written and spoken French and/or Portuguese desired

    How to Apply

    For more information and job application details, see; World Vision International NGO Regional Safeguarding Lead Jobs in South Africa

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