Safeguarding Consultant

The context:

Across the developing world, more children than ever are in school – but they are not learning. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of school children in Sub-Saharan Africa attend a school where the teaching meets basic standards of quality. At Rising Academies, we’re changing that, and we want your help. Our mission is to create the best schools and the most powerful teaching and learning tools for the people that need it most. We’re one of the fastest-growing quality-focused education companies in Africa, and a Certified B Corp®.

About us:

We own and operate our own great value private schools, partner with governments to improve the quality of public school systems, and use our content and technology to help other education providers. Founded in Sierra Leone in 2014, we provided emergency education to children kept out of school by the Ebola Epidemic before opening our first school in April 2015. Today, we serve more than 250,000 students across more than 900 schools in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and now Rwanda.

Through great curriculum, intensive teacher coaching and actionable data, we help teachers and school leaders bring quality to every classroom. And we get results: independent studies show Rising students make more than twice the progress of their peers in comparable schools. In June 2024, one of our private schools in Sierra Leone - Rising Academy Waterloo - was shortlisted in the Top 10 for the World's Best School Prizes in the Overcoming Adversity category. Sierra Leone's Minister for Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Hon. Mr. Conrad Sackey, helped announce this honor.

At Rising we keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to share in our commitment to meeting the highest standards of safeguarding excellence and protecting children from harm.

About the role:

We are seeking Safeguarding Consultants based in each of Liberia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone to strengthen our ability to connect students and community members to local service providers for after care support. Over a 3-4 week period each Consultant will develop a comprehensive national map of all support service providers within every region of the country and create an effective decision tree for directing timely action when service referrals are needed. This role will ultimately help us formalize relationships with selected service providers and is crucial to the critical work of safeguarding the children in our schools and increasing access to services for students and families.

The Safeguarding Consultant will:

• Identify and document all relevant national and local safeguarding support service providers in each region or county where Rising currently operates or plans to operate.
• Map and strengthen the referral pathways to improve coordination and access to local resources like medical care, counselling, and education for local safeguarding support for our students and communities.
• Contact and coordinate with the various service providers, Rising’s Safeguarding Leads, network of Coaches, in-person where possible to provide adequate safeguarding support for students.
• Define the circumstances and services for which each provider should be accessed and utilized.
• Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the service providers.
• Create a decision tree to direct timely action for appropriate support from service providers.
• Lead in conducting scenario-based testing and role-playing exercises with safeguarding leads and other stakeholders to enhance their clarity on the decision tree.
• Create detailed training materials for the decision tree to be used by future trainers with inputs from current leads and stakeholders.
• Design and recommend a protocol for the ongoing review and enhancement of the decision tree, incorporating robust feedback mechanisms.

Location and reporting:

Consultants will each be based in one of our operating countries (Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone), with a deep understanding of the local context, and will report to our Head of People and Talent, with input from our Chief Strategy Officer.

Application deadline:

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, hence we encourage qualified candidates to apply as soon as possible. The target start-date for this role will be September 2024.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience:

• Prior work experience in the local Gender Ministry or as a local Safeguarding Consultant
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience and industry (education, health, gender rights)
• Proven experience in safeguarding and child protection with international NGOs or educational organisations is a plus.
• Strong understanding of national and local support service providers and their offerings.

About You:

• You have strong communication skills and a strong network locally.
• You are able to develop and document complex processes and frameworks.
• You have excellent organisational and project management skills.
• You are comfortable working independently.
• You take responsibility for projects including creating and developing project plans, liaising with key stakeholders, presenting findings, and coordinating and following up on agreed actions.
• You have excellent verbal, written, interpersonal and organisational communication skills.
• You demonstrate people skills; must be able to collaborate effectively with diverse personalities and skill sets, and enjoy constructive conflict.
• You have a strong track record of professionalism and trustworthiness.
• You are comfortable working with senior leadership, reporting on project data and outcomes.
• You are passionate about improving the quality of education and child safeguarding across Africa.

Benefits

Compensation:

We regularly benchmark our compensation against comparable businesses, social ventures and non-profits.

Compensation for this role will be connected to the submission of key project deliverables and will range from $3,000-$5,000 in total, commensurate with experience and qualifications, and the final project scope/scale by country (For example, LEAP covers a massive geography, as do some of the other government partnerships, which might make the scope of work in each country a bit different in scale).

We expect the project to take approximately 3-4 weeks and we will cover pre-approved expenses required for successful completion of the project.

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Rising is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive and free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, national origin, family or parental status, veteran or disability status.

Rising is committed to creating a culture within the organisation, and its schools, that recognises the importance of safeguarding children and prioritising their rights and needs. We strive to uphold international safeguarding standards, and keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to have the same level of commitment to protect children from harm. Safeguarding questions are part of every interview process and all Rising employees undergo reference checks before joining the organisation.