Safeguarding Manager, Ukraine Cash Consortium Program (Kyiv) at Mercy Corps

Program Summary
Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine.  Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.

At Mercy Corps, safeguarding is a holistic term that encompasses our prevention and response around issues involving sexual exploitation and abuse of program participants, sexual harassment in the workplace, trafficking, and child safeguarding. We define safeguarding as our responsibility to ensure team members, operations and programs do not harm those we work with or put vulnerable populations at risk of abuse or exploitation. Safeguarding is a key agency priority and a critical part of our Ukraine response. Our Global Safeguarding Team is a part of the Mercy Corps’ Ethics and Compliance department and reports to a Senior Director of Safeguarding who reports to the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (CECO).

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.  In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

The Program / Department / Team

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine.  Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.

At Mercy Corps, safeguarding is a holistic term that encompasses our prevention and response around issues involving sexual exploitation and abuse of program participants, sexual harassment in the workplace, trafficking, and child safeguarding. We define safeguarding as our responsibility to ensure team members, operations and programs do not harm those we work with or put vulnerable populations at risk of abuse or exploitation. Safeguarding is a key agency priority and a critical part of our Ukraine response. Our Global Safeguarding Team is a part of the Mercy Corps’ Ethics and Compliance department and reports to a Senior Director of Safeguarding who reports to the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (CECO).

The Position

The Safeguarding Manager will coordinate and manage efforts to prevent and appropriately respond to allegations of sexual exploitation, abuse, trafficking and child abuse in the Ukraine Cash Consortium (UCC) Program. The SG Manager will support the assessment and identification of safeguarding risks to children and adults in affected populations and work with the Safeguarding Advisor to develop and execute plans to mitigate these risks, including through training and awareness raising with team members, partners and communities.

Essential Responsibilities

SAFEGUARDING PREVENTION/AWARENESS RAISING – TEAM MEMBERS

• Increase team member awareness and capacity surrounding safeguarding standards and expectation; coordinate, modify, manage and deliver safeguarding training for all new personnel; and context relevant refresher training and workshops
• Create and adapt existing resources and tools (both internal and external) to the response context; develop models for delivery, including remote and in-person training
• Champion and elevate safeguarding policies and practices across program and operations
• Ensure team members complete all mandatory eLearn training in Safeguarding and PSEA
• Support the Advisor in providing technical support and guidance to managers and staff to ensure safeguarding measures are understood and integrated into operations, processes and programs
• Collaborate with and provide advice and support to managers and staff to develop and regularly review safeguarding and protection risk assessment and mitigation plans.
• Support team members to understand potential safeguarding concerns/risks and ways to mitigate such risks

SAFEGUARDING PREVENTION/AWARENESS RAISING – PARTNERS

• Assist and advise program teams to assess partners’ safeguarding capacity and ability to comply with minimum safeguarding standards
• Work closely with the Safeguarding Advisor to identify and address training needs of staff and partners trainings and ensure all staff complete training sessions
• Modify, develop and deliver high quality safeguarding training for partners
• Coordinate and conduct site and partner visits to support and monitor compliance and support strengthening safeguarding and protection mainstreaming practices
• Develop guidance and tools to support partners in the development of safeguarding systems and compliance with safeguarding standards

SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES

• Work with Human Resources and program teams to develop safeguarding protocols for onboarding casual workers, day laborers, consultants and volunteers
• Support safeguarding risk analysis and ensure activities assessed as having high safeguarding risks are actively implementing prevention measures, incl. observational checklists, supervision, training and other measures
• Coordinate spot checks and monitoring plans to ensure adherence to safeguarding measures
• In coordination with CARM and program teams, ensure that appropriate community sensitization activities are planned and executed so that communities and participants understand their rights and reporting options and trust that they can report safely
• Work to build trust around response systems and survivor support
• Support CARM teams and program teams to ensure safeguarding is integrated in CARM systems and communications
• Work with individuals and teams throughout the response to ensure programs and operations integrate safeguarding prevention measures

REPORTING & SURVIVOR CENTERED RESPONSE

• Act as a reporting avenue for Safeguarding related issues, concerns or experiences; ensure safeguarding allegations are reported immediately to the Global Ethics Team
• Work closely with Community Accountability and Reporting Mechanism (CARM) teams to ensure that safeguarding is considered during community consultation and sensitization
• Represent Mercy Corps in multi-agency groups such as the country PSEA Taskforce as requested and collaborate actively with other NGOs, to identify and map survivor support resources and strengthen safeguarding throughout the country
• Provide support for investigations as requested by the Ethics Team
• Act as a resource to survivors and help ensure their safety, security and well-being and support a survivor-centered approach
• In coordination with local PSEA networks identify, map and regularly update local support services available to survivors
• Support safeguarding investigations as needed and requested by Investigations team

Supervisory Responsibility

None

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Safeguarding Advisor

Works Directly With: Program, Security, HR, PAQ, and CARM Teams; Global Safeguarding Team

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• At least two years professional experience in development/humanitarian sector, gender based violence and/or safeguarding field; including a deep understanding of safeguarding and survivor-centered principles
• Experience in emergencies, fragile states or other complex, high-risk context preferred
• Excellent oral and written English skills; fluency in Ukrainian and Russian
• Experience designing and delivering training to diverse audiences
• Experience with psychological first aid and survivor sensitive approach
• Ability to work in a fast paced emergency response environment and adapt to the rapidly evolving context as necessary
• Excellent listening, interpersonal, communication and networking skills in both remote and in-person contexts
• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Success Factors

The successful candidate is adaptable and flexible. They understand what it takes to deliver high-quality training in challenging environments. They are excellent communicators who can inspire broad and diverse teams towards achieving a shared goal. They should have strong relationship-building skills and commitment to working collaboratively. They have an outstanding ability to communicate sensitively and build trust with diverse groups of people.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Kyiv

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

2022-08-22T07:30:07.000 2022-09-22T23:59:59.000 Full time / Повна зайнятість Mercy Corps