Within the framework of the Joining Forces Alliance, country-level technical Safeguarding Committees have been established in five countries where the Joining Forces for Africa (JOFA) project is implemented: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mali and Senegal. The committees consist of safeguarding focal points from all six Joining Forces agencies. For each safeguarding committee a lead has been selected who will facilitate and coordinate the group.
¨By working together, we can learn from each other and pull resources to strengthen how we prevent and mitigate the risk of abuse and harm being committed by our staff and representatives against the very children and adults we are here to serve.¨
Susan Grant – Joining Forces Global Safeguarding Reference Group
The purpose of these committees is to provide a platform for Joining Forces organisations to pull safeguarding expertise together; learn from each other; share good practice and information; and to ultimately build safer organisations and culture both internally and externally.
The committees are developing safeguarding risk assessments and mitigation plans for activities conducted together as Joining Forces, particularly activities implemented as part of the Joining Forces for Africa (JOFA) project.
Country-level Actions
The committee in Mali plans to contribute to the implementation of safeguarding standards in state structures through joint advocacy activities. In line with that a joint technical note on safeguarding children for government advocacy will be developed.
The Kenyan Safeguarding Committee will work on having joint guidelines on safeguarding of children before, during and after online joint activities and disseminating them widely among the Joining Forces teams. The basis for this joint guideline is already existing guidelines of individual Joining Forces organisations.
Whilst each individual agency involved in Joining Forces retains the responsibility to establish, maintain, implement, and strengthen internal safeguarding management mechanisms and to build a safeguarding culture across their organisations at the country level, these newly established committees provide a platform for learning and sharing of best practice and for greater collaboration on efforts to improve the safeguarding practice of other external stakeholders.
¨I like that the work-plan focuses on areas where we are all weak in and seek to learn and work together to strengthen.¨
Lillian Dodzo – World Vision Kenya Country Director
Responsibilities
The Safeguarding Technical Committees play a key role before and during the implementation of joint activities to minimize and mitigate the risk of any form of abuse, exploitation or harassment to children and adults in affected populations by Joining Forces organizations staff, representatives or processes and to ensure an effective response when incidents do arise. Key responsibilities before and during joint activities include:
- Ensure safeguarding risks for joint activities have been identified and mitigated;
- Clearly communicate the safeguarding reporting requirements and response protocols to all members;
- Coordinate and/ or support a response to alleged safeguarding incidents following the agreed upon organizational procedures and ensure it is survivor-centred; and
- Ensure appropriate actions have been taken in response to safeguarding investigation findings.
The Safeguarding Committees are not responsible for investigating or adjudicating safeguarding related complaints. These functions lie exclusively with the organization that employs the individual against whom a complaint has been alleged, in line with internal policy and procedure. However, in instances where there is a joint response the committee may play a coordination role if this is deemed appropriate.
¨This committee provides a good opportunity to learn from each other and help us strengthen our safeguarding approaches.¨
Eunice Kilundo – ChildFund Kenya
Learning and Sharing
The country-level Safeguarding Committees provide a platform for Joining Forces organisations to pull safeguarding expertise together and learn from each other. Sharing good practice and information is a key component of the JOFA project. In terms of safeguarding this could be mapping of victim/survivor support or safe, confidential and accessible reporting and response mechanisms. The Committees will help Joining Forces organisations to build a strong safeguarding culture both internally and externally.