Safeguarding, Accountability and Protection Advisor

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

Job Summary:

Your priority task will be to strengthen the Safeguarding capacity of CRS partners, following relevant assessment. You will also be responsible for monitoring of CRS Greece implementing partners progress for all matters related to Safeguarding. You will manage and support CRS Greece’s project FRMs (Feedback and Response Mechanisms) to ensure those mechanisms meet CRS standards and that the various FRMs are synchronized and you will support in building the overall capacity of project teams and partner organization teams on the topics of safeguarding and protection mainstreaming. The guidance you provide will be in line with CRS’ policies (MEAL, Safeguarding), program quality principles, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Support local partner organization in development and implementation of all key materials related to Safeguarding working with CRS EMECA (Europe Zone, Middle East and Central Asia) regional Advisor.
• Support the safeguarding assessment process of new and existing partners against CRS Safeguarding minimum standards working with CRS EMECA Regional Advisor.
• Monitor partner organization action planning progress against CRS safeguarding minimum standards.
• Manage and ensure consistency across all CP and project-specific FRMs.
• In collaboration with the MEAL Technical Advisor support accountability-related activities across all CP projects
• Coordinate and monitor staff and partner staff who will be processing beneficiary feedback and CRS’s responses through CRS’s various outreach mechanisms, including our help desks, hotlines, and suggestion boxes.
• Provide technical support and accompaniment to partner organizations in developing, strengthening, and managing FRMs.
• Develop tools and conduct community assessment regarding preferred feedback methods, with special attention to marginalized/hard to reach populations (females, people with disabilities, children).
• Develop communication material and strategies for sharing context-specific information on staff conduct, FRM channels, and other relevant information with communities.
• Adjust and roll out context-specific Safeguarding-related trainings for CRS staff, partner staff, partner senior management and beneficiaries
• Liaise with MEAL colleagues to oversee feedback trends and report to relevant management and programming staff.
• Support the project design process by adapting programs as per beneficiary feedback received.
• Support safeguarding investigations.
• Support donor reporting in all matters related to Safeguarding/PSEA.
• Provide technical support to programming teams on sensitive protection cases.

Basic Qualifications:

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree required. Master’s Degree in Social Sciences, International Development, or related field preferred. Additional education may substitute for some experience.
• Strong experience in managing Feedback and Response Mechanisms (preferably both at project and country level) required.
• Minimum of five years relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO. Minimum of two years relevant field-based experience in either Accountability, MEAL, Gender, Protection, or Safeguarding/PSEA.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Protection mainstreaming and Accountability; general knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience with database management and analysis.
• Experience in project design and proposal development.
• Knowledge of capacity-strengthening best practices.
• Experience with program monitoring, evaluation, and analysis.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.

Required Languages: Excellent command of English and Greek.

Travel: Travel between Thessaloniki and Athens.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving, and systems-thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Good technical writing skills.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• • Trusting Relationships
    – Professional Growth
    – Partnership
    – Accountability

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory: None

Internal: All CRS Staff

External: Project beneficiaries, community members, donors and implementing partners

**Disclaimer:**This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer; CRS is always looking for qualified, diverse and compelling candidates to join our agency and support our great work.

By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics.