Job Title: Safeguarding Advisor

Location: Kenya

Start date: March 2025

Organizational Background

Founded by a group of committed Kenyans, Lwala Community Alliance unlocks the potential of communities to advance their own comprehensive well-being and improve health outcomes. We support communities to design, implement, and evaluate solutions to their most pressing health challenges. To address systemic inequities in health outcomes–and a health system that often leaves communities out of decision-making–Lwala deploys a community-led health model that has 4 pillars: professionalized community health workers (CHWs), community health committees, health facilities, and data. Lwala is an organization rooted in the communities we serve. When it comes to improving health outcomes, we believe that communities should be in the driver's seat–no one can identify challenges and solutions better than communities themselves. Our model centers communities as leaders and change-makers breaking cycles of inequity.

Job Summary

This position will support Management in upholding Lwala's commitment to safeguarding and maintaining a safe and secure environment for staff, beneficiaries, patients, various stakeholders and members of the public who interact with Lwala through our life-saving work.

The Safeguarding Advisor role includes, but is not limited to, strategy development, policy and procedure design and management, risk management, investigations, training and developing resources for Lwala about its moral, legal and contractual responsibilities to safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Duties and Responsibilities

Policy & Procedures:

● Support Management to maintain Lwala's Safeguarding policies and procedures while ensuring that the policies adhere to the legal framework Kenya.

● Collaborate with legal counsel in Kenya and the United States to update Safeguarding policies and procedures as needed for legal compliance and organizational excellence

● Act as the chief champion of the Safeguarding policy and support its integration across the organizations departments, procedures, and practices

● Lead staff members, volunteers, the Board of Directors and external stakeholders into compliance to Safeguarding policies and procedures

● Support embedding Safeguarding into Lwala’s programming, in collaboration with various program leads

● Identify trends and lessons learned from investigations to inform improvements in safeguarding policies, procedures, training and strategies

Training and norms change

● Design Safeguarding curricula with the aim to support compliance with Safeguarding policies and to drive norms change

● Identify, develop and manage training platforms that optimize tracking, certification, and adult learning on Safeguarding.

● Incorporate online training and certification to efficiently track training and sign-off of the Safeguarding policy commitment by staff, volunteers, contractors, and certain government health workers

● Deploy best practices to design and deliver in-person and experiential behavior change trainings and approaches to support norms change

● Work with county and national government health departments to obtain alignment on Safeguarding policies and procedures. Ensure all community health workers, government health workers, and other government actors engaged in Lwala programming have been trained on Lwala’s Safeguarding policies and procedures.

Risk Management and Response

● Develop and maintain a Safeguarding risk register

● Support the management of Safeguarding reports and assist in investigation and response, in-line with Lwala’s Safeguarding and Whistleblower Protection policies

● Ensure support provided to survivors is as per the established Lwala protocols

● Support management to ensure detailed records are maintained and appropriate reporting is shared with staff, Board of Directors, government authorities, donors, and other stakeholders

● As requested by Lwala’s ethics team, assist with the drafting and review of Terms of References (TORs), interview documentation, and outcome reports on Safeguarding matters

● Convene Safeguarding Committee meetings and follow through various action points agreed upon by the Committee

Safeguarding Expertise:

● Provide expert guidance and support on Safeguarding matters to staff and external stakeholders

● Stay up-to-date on Lwala’s core values and international best practices related to safeguarding, Preventing Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment, and Gender Based Violence and use this knowledge to develop relevant initiatives within Lwala

Complaint Handling & Monitoring:

● Assist the Lwala Ethics Team in managing Lwala's complaint response mechanisms, including monitoring the third-party whistleblower hotline and responding to open complaints.

Qualifications

● Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 7 years of work experience, with at least 5 years dedicated to managing safeguarding policies and programming

● Strong investigation, research, and analytical skills.

● In-depth knowledge and understanding of Safeguarding, Preventing Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment, and Gender Based Violence.

● Previous certifications and training in Safeguarding and success in conducting training in Safeguarding.

● Excellent written and spoken skills.

Desirable Skills

● Experience handling and managing confidential information

● Ability to develop policies and communicate them within Lwala and to various stakeholders.

● Experience developing and delivering Safeguarding training curricula

● Knowledge of best practices related to employment law and grievance procedures.

● Experience working in the health care sector.

● Familiarity with multi-disciplinary and multi-agency Safeguarding settings.

How to Apply

Please send your application letter and CV as one attachment to: Safeguarding Advisor Job Vacancy

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with an application deadline of 30th January 2025.

Lwala Community Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and does not ask for fees at any stage of the recruitment process. Successful candidates must abide by Lwala’s Anti Fraud & Bribery Policy and Safeguarding Policy, including protection of children and vulnerable adults.