Senior Protection and Safeguarding Advisor

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 31,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Job Description:

This Purpose of Position will be used in the WVI or local Careers site, and if applicable, advertisements. Please describe the role in 2-3 concise sentences. Focus on the core of what this role is supposed to achieve. Describe the purpose of this position and how this position contributes to achieving department objectives and the management and performance of others.

The Senior Protection and Safeguarding Advisor provides strategic leadership, technical oversight, and quality assurance for World Vision DRC’s Protection and Safeguarding portfolio across development and humanitarian programming. The position leads the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and continuous improvement of interventions aimed at preventing and responding to violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect affecting children and vulnerable populations.

The role ensures alignment with World Vision’s Protection and Safeguarding standards, national and international protection frameworks, donor requirements, and programme quality standards. The incumbent promotes integrated and evidence-based programming, strengthens organizational safeguarding culture, and ensures that protection outcomes are embedded across sectors and responses.

As the national technical lead for Protection and Safeguarding, the Senior Protection and Safeguarding Advisor provides strategic guidance, capacity strengthening, quality assurance, external representation, and technical support to field operations, national programmes, emergency responses, and partnerships. The position also contributes to business development, resource mobilization, policy influence, and organizational learning to enhance protection outcomes and safeguard the well-being of children and vulnerable communities throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo.

S/he will serve as the focal point for Child protection and Safeguarding, working closely with all WV sectors and departments to ensure the full implementation of national and international Safeguarding and Child protection standards across the office.

S/he is responsible for building a culture of safeguarding, where staff are informed and empowered to discuss key issues, report, and take action on safeguarding violations, making World Vision a safe place for all.

S/he coordinates and leads the investigations related to Child protection and Safeguarding in collaboration with the Safeguarding and Child protection Coordinators (at zonal level) as well as the WV South Africa Regional Office.

List statements describing the final results of this position and method of accomplishments, and how results/performance are reviewed and measured.  Begin with the most important accountabilities.

30%

Child Protection Technical Leadership and Technical Programme Implementation Quality Assurance

a. Lead the design of the technical approach and programme to address violence against children issues using  a solid root cause analysis process and involving multi-sectoral programming if required; Lead integration of child protection into other sector’s technical approaches and programmes

b. Oversee adaptation and contextualisation of the Child Protection & Advocacy Project Model for quality implementation according to national and international standards, guidance, and legislation; Lead the development of contextualized programming guidelines and tools to support field teams in the adaptation of the project models at field/local level.

c. In partnership with resource acquisition staff, secure adequate funding for child protection by providing technical input into the development of proposals and CP programme designs for grant acquisition and other funding sources

d. Ensure appropriate, safe, and meaningful participation of children in local communities, programme design/implementation/evaluation processes, and decision-making opportunities inside and outside of WV processes

e. In partnership with the M&E team, lead the development and use of quality monitoring and evaluation tools and guidance for programmes to end violence against children

f. Ensure high-quality monitoring and evaluation of CP programmes/projects, identifying best practices and lessons learned from programming evidence to inform policy advocacy, external facing publications, and research

g. Oversee Child Protection in Emergencies programming, ensuring technically sound programming integrated with other sectors and clusters; provide CP technical input into emergency response funding proposals 

Quality, context-appropriate Child Protection programming that yields positive impact for MVC

Multi-sectoral programmes that tackle multiple root causes of violence against children

Strong grant proposals that feature CP programming impact and multi-sectoral solutions for addressing violence against children

Meaningful and appropriate child participation at local and national levels

CP and child participation best practices are used in policy advocacy; WV office produces quality external facing publications and reports

30%

Protection and Safeguarding

a. Leads and coordinates internal accountability efforts for safeguarding, including the annual Safeguarding Update Report and action plan for improvement, covering all forms of harm to children and adults, including digital and online safety; Leads and coordinates safeguarding compliance in emergencies, addressing both online and offline risks.

b. Develops and leads a capacity building and training strategy for safeguarding children and adult beneficiaries for all staff; Coordinates standard procedure and appropriate capacity for ensuring safeguarding practices by partners and contractors (and their affiliates).

c. Strengthens the investigation capacity of Zonal Safeguarding Leads by linking them to internal and external learning opportunities and resources.

d. Collaborates with colleagues in P&C and other relevant departments to jointly manage Child and Adult Safeguarding  Incidents (Level 1-3), according to global protocols, with support from Regional Office and Global Centre.

e. Guides process of regularly updating the national, contextualised Safeguarding Policy, including  development of Safeguarding incident preparedness plans (SIPP) and relevant implementation tools to effectively implement the Safeguarding Standards

f. Coordinates and leads the investigations of Child and Adult Safeguarding incidents reported in collaboration with the Safeguarding and Child protection Coordinators (at zonal level) as well as the WV South Africa Regional Office.

WV DRC continually improves internal safeguarding efforts to be an organisation safe for adult and children beneficiaries. These cover all forms of harm to children and adults, including digital and online risks.

Actions put in Safeguarding Update Report Action plan are implemented, monitored quarterly and progress documented.

All WV staff in DRC understanding principles and practices of safeguarding children and adult beneficiaries

Zonal Safeguarding Leads are equipped to conduct or oversee safeguarding investigations to standard,

Safeguarding incidents are identified and responded to in a timely and professional manner

WV DRC has a quality Safeguarding Policy and realistic CP incident preparedness plan which are updated once every three years

All the reported Child and Adult Safeguarding incidents are timely investigated, followed-up and closed according to WV policies and standards (within 90 days)

15%

Strategy Development

a. Design and oversee the development, review, and tracking of sector strategy to end violence against children in alignment with National office strategy and WVI Global Child Protection Sector Approach.

b. Design and lead the development of a strong, evidence-based approach to CP programming

c. Ensure child participation is strategically embedded across all sector strategies and approaches

Child Protection and Child Participation is a critical component of the National Office Strategy

A comprehensive strategy or action plan to end violence against children is developed involving multiple sectors.

10%

External Engagement and Advocacy

a. Position WV as an organisation of excellence in CP and child participation, including representation of WV at key Child Protection forums, national networks, and engaging with national level stakeholders to advance the protection of vulnerable boys and girls in DRC

b. Provide technical support for the development of the national advocacy strategy for the Child Protection sector

c. Develop strategic partnerships that enhance WV DRC’s position Child Protection and Child Participation programming, influence decision-makers, and increase income

d. Ensure WV DRC’s work is coordinated with efforts of other child-focused agencies and government priorities

e. In emergency and Response situations, participate actively and regularly in the Child Protection cluster to coordinate World Vision’s Child Protection work alongside other humanitarian actors

World Vision DRC has a good reputation as a capable, well-informed, and trustworthy organisation that demonstrates consistent success in tackling root causes of poverty and ending violence against children

World Vision DRC secures strategic partnerships and funding opportunities to advance the work of ending violence against children

15%

Knowledge Management and Learning

a. Provide technical support to assessment of competencies of Child Protection and Participation staff at all levels and support the development of appropriate learning plans and professional development opportunities

b. Lead knowledge management for Child Protection and Participation by developing a process for capturing, sharing, and learning from programme progress and utilisation of evidence to improve programme implementation, TA/TP re-design, strategy revision, policy advocacy, and external publications

c. Promote the development of innovations in child protection building on learnings and evidence of good practice and informed by the unique challenges and needs of the context.

Child Protection staff within the National Office develop appropriate, realistic learning pathways to enhance their Child Protection professional skills and improve delivery of interventions

Child Protection programme data, innovations, and good practice are documented, reflected upon, shared, and utilized to improve programme delivery, position the organisation, and influence decision-makers

List education, knowledge & skills, licenses preferred, and all experiences required to perform this position in a fully competent manner.

List academic requirements (if applicable), technical skills, or other knowledge required as a minimum qualification for this position.

• Knowledge and understanding of how to apply a systems approach to child protection programming
• Strong understanding of global strategies and frameworks to end violence against children
• Knowledge on legal international conventions related to Child protection and Safeguarding
• Extremely strong planning and project management skills
• Strong inter-personal communication and collaboration skills
• Strong negotiation, networking, liaison, and donor engagement skills
• Ability to work in a cross-cultural environment
• Knowledge of common national child protection issues and violations
• Compassion and commitment to ending violence and abuse against the world’s most vulnerable children and adults

List additional work experience required as a minimum qualification for this position.

• At least 5 to 7 years work experience in the field of Child protection and Safeguarding
• Experience working in a complex, international organisation in the NGO/international development context
• Experience in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and report writing essential
• Strong experience in investigation and case management

If applicable, include language requirement(s) as a minimum qualification for this position.

• Fluent in French (Writing and oral)
• Fluent in English (Writing and oral)

List academic requirements, technical skills or other knowledge preferred for this position.

• (To be added by hiring manager)

List additional work experience preferred for this position.

• Experience in directly supervising team members preferred
• Capable to work and perform under pressure
• Flexibility
• Being innovative and solution driven

Include travel & work environment details.

• The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 50% of the time. 

Applicant Types Accepted: