Safeguarding Policy Development Consultant At Orange

General Description of the Organization:

Orange is a non-governmental civil society organization devoted to alleviating the suffering and improving the sustainability mechanisms of the conflict-affected population.

Orange partners directly with affected Syrian populations delivering humanitarian and development programs, Livelihood, Education, and Protection, to enable them to improve their living practices and their sustainability mechanisms.

Orange also collaborates with national and international non-governmental organizations, local initiatives responding to the humanitarian Syrian crisis with capacity development programs, to be better equipped with the skills they need to prepare and respond to the affected population’s needs and to ensure that these communities where we work in are ready for any future disasters

Overview

Manahel Program has been providing educational opportunities for children of primary school-aged in Northwest Syria since 2018. Nearly half a million children have benefited from this program by providing school-based, home-based, and after-school learning opportunities, as well as responding to children’s psychological, social, and protection needs. Manahel Program provides formal education in classrooms, structured psychosocial support, and play-based learning, in addition to creating a safe environment for children by strengthening child safeguarding policy and practices and activating reporting and follow-up mechanisms.

One of the main factors for providing high-quality education in Syria and increasing children’s well-being is creating a safe environment for children free from any form of violence and abuse. This environment is characterized by accountability mechanisms with a legal reference based on rights that are largely consistent with the scope and hierarchy in the Ministry of Education (MoE) of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG).

Manahel program aims to reinforce the organizational structure by providing technical support to create policies for child safeguarding, parts of which are circulars issued or practices previously worked on by education directorates, as is the current situation in northwest Syria. This policy will target children (students) at all levels and serve as a role model for future policy development for other age groups. One of the main objectives is to design the child safeguarding policy in a way that ensures that teachers/administrators/workers in the education sector with experience and beginners are able to follow the child safeguarding policy and provide a safe environment for children and report any cases of abuse that are captured or recorded through the reporting mechanisms in the organizational structure.

Roles & Responsibilities

The advisory person will provide technical and leadership support for several determinants of the establishment of a child safeguarding policy at the education directorate level:

1. Provide support for the review and evaluation of available alternatives to the child safeguarding policy in light of the real constraints faced by children and teachers in the Syrian context, in order to:
2. Conduct a preliminary evaluation of the current circulars regarding the implementation of the child safeguarding policy.
   • Use of an initial assessment tool using the Minimum Standards for Child Protection and Safeguarding Checklist.
3. Suggest areas that may require complementary additions and identify existing gaps after reviewing current policies.
4. Differentiate between the elements of the existing policy that consider (a) necessary and (b) not necessary to successfully mainstream the principles of child safeguarding and child protection according to international standards.
5. Harmonize the amendments with specific protection objectives, if necessary.

Outputs: Offer an initial intervention plan with a clear scope and sequence, including information on items B and C above, and guidance notes with information regarding item A above. Both outputs will be supported by a brief and clear presentation presented to Manahel and Education Directorate teams clarifying the perception, reasons, and relevance to community needs and international and local standards, and other principles and guidelines related to children to guide the organization’s policy.

1. Carrying out three workshops with the administrative staff of the Directorate of Education to launch the design of the initial version of the child safeguarding policy and related tools. This task will require identifying and developing specific themes to support the creation of a child safeguarding policy ensuring that the policy is written in a clear and easy-to-understand manner and is published, promoted, and widely disseminated to all relevant stakeholders, including children and children with disabilities.

Outputs: Special headnotes and titles have been identified for workshops about content preparation led by the consultant, with an additional workshop to support the review of progress through the pilot process and final presentation to Manahel.

1. The first workshop: Identifying gaps and discussing challenges in implementation.
2. The second workshop: Covering and bridging the gaps in the current policy and developing appropriate tools and mechanisms, including for children.
   • A sample of the administrative staff will be trained on the amended policy resulting from the second workshop to measure the effectiveness of the policy after the amendments.
3. The third workshop: Presenting the final outputs (in the form of a final child safeguarding policy, in addition to defining and introducing a plan of activities to be handed over to the ED).

After developing the initial plan for the activities, Manahel field team will provide support in arranging for the workshops in cooperation with the Orange team.

Quality standards will be set by Manahel to present each output at the beginning of each stage in consultancy with the consultant.

Expected Timeline

The following table shows the schedule that the consultant should commit to, including the main activities, estimated duration of each task, and intended outputs;

Main Activity

Location

Estimated Duration

Outputs

1. 1. 1. Reviewing the current tools related to the child safeguarding policy at the level of the Education Directorate, in addition to the internal system, and the legal bases related to creating a safe environment for the child.

Office / Remotely

7 Working days

Summary of the review with perceptions built from documents review, proposals, and comparisons.

1. 1. 1. Provide the initial proposal and initial work plan.

Office / Remotely

3 Working days

Sharing a testing/pilot report with Manahel and Orange

1. 1. 1. Hold 3 workshops in Arabic with safeguarding instructors to review and improve the first draft/version.
   2. After each workshop, the outputs should be shared, amendments and recommendations should be reflected.
   3. Training of safeguarding instructors and school staff on the primary outputs and monitoring the level of community interaction and acceptance either through focused group discussions or the use of specific measurement tools.
   4. Developing the final outputs within the policy template and policy-related tools.

Office / Remotely

For workshops;

9 Working days, distributed as 3 of each (arrangements, implementation, feedback)

For training;

4 Working days

For semi-finalization;

7 Working days

Approval from both directorates of education with a large number of trainers

The final draft of the child safeguarding policy, as well as the tools related to the policy and the implementation plan.

1. Handing over the final version of the child safeguarding policy to Manahel and both Education Directorates for final approval of the document.

Office / Remotely

By the second week of December

Preparing the file after technical review and linguistic revision.

Request for final approval of the policy components from the education directorates

1. Disseminate the final approved safeguarding policy through a one-day training session targeting safeguarding instructors.

Office / Remotely

By the second week of December

Training Impact Report (Pre-Post)

* Estimated time is an approximate number of days to complete assigned tasks.

Institutional/administrative arrangements

• Technical and Administrative Reports: Safeguarding Specialist in Manahel.
• Follow-up and Progress-tracking: Manahel Program Focal Point in Orange.

Qualifications & Needed Skills

• The candidate is expected to be highly experienced with protection, child protection and safeguarding, and gender in both development and humanitarian/emergency settings.
• The candidate must have also past experience in capacity development programs in both development and emergency situations and have extended field experience.
• Experience in facilitating and offering training to education personnel and staff.
• Academic degree in Social Sciences, Social Work, Human Rights or Rights and Law, preferably with a focus on Protection/Child Protection/Child Rights.
• 4-6 years of relevant experience will compensate for the lack of educational/academic background.
• Other required skills: ability to use the computer – ability to communicate – flexibility at work – ability to travel when needed.

Orange’s Values and Principles:

We believe that:

• Maintaining a positive, healthy, and trusting relationship is central to making the partnership a success.
• Appropriately trained and resourced staff and volunteers are key to effective and efficient service and program delivery in the development sector.

We are committed to:

• Shared responsibility, accountability, and decision-making in any partnership.
• Providing access to high-quality learning empowers people and professionals in the development sector, particularly in the developing world.
• Learning from each other strengthens and enhances the long-term sustainability of our services and programs for the benefit of the children and communities we serve.

Child safeguarding policy

Orange aims to create a safe organization for children but is also aware of the need to keep child protection concerns proportionate and to guard against over-zealous attitudes. Child abuse thrives in closed and secretive atmospheres. Orange’s best protection is to create an open and aware culture where people are not afraid to speak about their concerns.

Any employee, consultant, contractor, or supplier undertaking an activity on behalf of Orange must sign the Child Safeguarding – Declaration of Acceptance Form and comply with the Orange Child Safeguarding Policy, which is a statement of Orange’s commitment to preventing abuse and protecting children with whom it comes into contact.