General Description of the Program:

GOAL has been working in Syria since 2013, responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL is working in Idleb Governate, both through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) through support to Water units, as well as emergency support to recently displaced households.

GOAL has been working in North Aleppo Governate since 2019, through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, as well as emergency support for recently displaced household.

Job purpose:

In GOAL, safeguarding means taking all reasonable steps to assess and prevent harm, particularly sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH) from occurring; to protect people, especially vulnerable children and adults, from risk and harm; and to respond appropriately when harm does occur. Key to our safeguarding commitment is to ensure that SEAH risks are identified and mitigated across our operations and programmes and that our staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and PSEAH and are supported to report incidents and potential risks.

Throughout its various programmes, GOAL is mainstreaming gender, inclusion, and protection considerations to ensure activities are safe and inclusive to different groups. In addition, GOAL’s Protection and Safeguarding department conducts activities to raise awareness and provide information to mitigate protection and safeguarding risks and ensure adherence to GOAL’s safeguarding policies (Code of Conduct, Child Protection Policy, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy, Whistleblowing Policy, Gender Equality Policy and Strategy, etc.). The Protection and Safeguarding department also support individuals at-risk by providing customized protection case management and referrals. 

The Senior Safeguarding & Protection Officer will support GOAL Syria efforts to enhance safeguarding in both programmes and operations, based on a strong commitment to put safeguarding policies into practice across our daily operations, recruitment, programming, communication, and office culture. She/he will play an active role in increasing GOAL staff and other stakeholders’ knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and PSEAH. The Senior Safeguarding & Protection Officer will develop capacity building plans, design and conduct trainings and implement awareness and information dissemination activities with various stakeholders, based on identified needs and best practices.

The Senior Safeguarding & Protection Officer will work to ensure that all Syria Response programme and programme support staff in Syria, Türkiye and Jordan understand and abide by the Safeguarding principles and policies. The candidate will additionally maintain and regularly train a network of Safeguarding Focal Points across GOAL and GOAL’s implementing partners, provide inductions and mandatory trainings to new staff. S/he will coordinate closely with the HR and other related parties to ensure smooth and effective implementation of the overall safeguarding capacity building plan.

Key Responsibilities

Safeguarding in programmes, operations and culture:

• Support the implementation of GOAL’s Safeguarding annual action plan in close coordination with the GESI and Protection Adviser and the Safeguarding and Protection Deputy Manager at the field level, and in collaboration with other departments.
• Work with various teams across GOAL’s departments to identify safeguarding risks and establish mitigation practices.
• Work in coordination with HR to support GOAL’s various teams to create a safe environment and organisational identity guided by GOAL’s values, code of conduct and commitment to Safeguarding.
• Foster an organisational culture transformation by rolling out different initiatives/training, awareness-raising, and training for staff, and building the capacity-building of managers and senior staff to foster a gender-sensitive culture and lead by example.
• Work with HR to ensure coordinated, well-tracked system to track inductions of newly hired staff to GOAL polices and reporting pathways, adherence to safe recruitment procedures and participation in annual safeguarding trainings.
• Identifying ways in which safeguarding of children across GOAL’s various sectors can be improved and potential ways of strengthening GOAL’s complaints and feedback mechanism to be child-friendly and inclusive to girls and boys.
• Be an entry point for staff to receive the right information and options on reporting channels.
• Produce periodic activity reports and activities related to Safeguarding.

Capacity building on Safeguarding:

• Assist in organising and facilitating safeguarding induction for newly recruited staff and external stakeholders (including partners and service providers).
• Conduct safeguarding knowledge assessment for GOAL staff and other stakeholders to identify training needs. Develop a comprehensive capacity building plan based on the assessment outcomes to address identified gaps.
• Drive safeguarding capacity building initiatives with GOAL staff and conduct regular trainings (in-person and virtually) including developing training materials, identifying knowledge gaps, document and monitor the implementation.
• Liaise with internal departments including but not limited to HR, MEL, Partnership Coordinator, Quality, filed management as well as field staff to insure smooth and effective implementation of the overall capacity building plan.
• Support the development and design of information dissemination, awareness-raising and capacity building activities for programme participants in coordination with the line manager and the Safeguarding and Protection Deputy Manager at field level.
• Monitor the effectiveness of the different trainings and awareness sessions by strengthening tools like pre and post-tests and satisfaction surveys, in coordination with GOAL’s MEL team.
• Support the training management system for proper documentation of all training and capacity building efforts, keep track of the attendance sheets, and generate reports as required using the TMS dashboard.
• Provide regular support to GOAL’s field Safeguarding focal points. This includes assessing learning needs, provide coaching and mentoring, and organize regular meetings.

Safeguarding with GOAL partners:

• Based on close communication with the partners, and in close collaboration with GOAL Syria’s Partnership Coordinator, and under the guidance of the line manager, provide support to GOAL Syria’s implementing partners to deliver safe programmes. This includes assessment of current policies and practices, developing needs-based capacity-building plan, establishing clear reporting structures, and provide coaching to the partners’ safeguarding focal points.
• Establish a strong relationship with GOAL partners and other key stakeholders through maintaining respectful communications, listening to what they identify as their needs to enhance safeguarding practices.
• Facilitate regular monthly meetings with GOAL partners on Safeguarding. This includes identifying key topics, leading discussion, distribute tasks, follow up on actions and activities.
• Support partners in ensuring comprehensive tracking systems for data reporting purposes.

Representation and Documentation:

• Participate and represent GOAL internal and external meeting focusing on safeguarding to develop and maintain effective working relationships with all stakeholders.
• Facilitate the Protection & Safeguarding Task-force meetings with direct guidance from the line manager and follow up with the committee members on actions and activities.
• Maintain updated reporting on trainings and other activities conducted, documentation of the main challenges, success stories, recommendations, and plans.
• Perform other duties related to Safeguarding as assigned by the line manager(s), the Global Safeguarding Adviser, and the country Senior Management.

Requirements

Essential:

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in law, social sciences, social work, sociology, anthropology, political science, or other relevant areas;
• At least four years of programmatic work experience with NGOs, INGOs or Humanitarian agencies in a similar position working on safeguarding and/or prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH), and/or protection.
• Experience in designing and conducting trainings and capacity-building initiatives related to safeguarding and/or PSEAH.
• Fluency in English and Arabic language skills (spoken and written);
• ICT skills, including strong knowledge of MS Office applications;

Desirable

• Previous experience working on projects Syria, specifically in the Syrian humanitarian context
• Previous experience in Safeguarding in the international humanitarian aid context is a strong advantage;
• Experience of conducting training of trainers in protection and safeguarding related topics, preferably PSEAH.
• Knowledge of Protection and Gender in humanitarian action, especially in the Syrian context, is a distinct advantage;
• Previous experience in writing external donor reports; preferably in data analysis and needs assessment.
• Proven ability to maintain databases and manage information, working independently and leveraging cross-department support;
• Confident in engaging with stakeholders at different levels.
• Demonstrated previous experience in remote management.

Interested? Then apply for this position via clicking on the "Apply Here" button and fill out the application form. All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages). Both must be in English.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

GOAL has the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with GOAL at the same grade level and with similar job descriptions, experience, and educational requirements.

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

The application deadline is 04 September 2024; however, you are encouraged to apply immediately as we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis, therefore we may withdraw the position before the advertisement’s closing date if a suitable candidate/s is identified. 

Please note that GOAL does not charge a fee of any kind or any other financial obligation at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training, induction) or other fees, or request information on applicants’ bank accounts. GOAL does not work with intermediary institutions and individuals or employment agencies during the recruitment process. If any fee or payment requested from you at the application or any stage of the recruitment process, please do not respond .

GOAL does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy, errors or omissions of any of the information contained in translated advertisements by an independent party on other sites or through other channels.

General terms and conditions 

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behavior protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated.  Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible.  This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate, and this may be before the published closing date.  We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Thank you.