Position Title: Safeguarding Officer (1 position)
Location: Juba, Roving within South Sudan
Reports to: MEAL Coordinator
Supervises: None
Contract Type: Fixed term contact
Vacancy Number: RI-SSD-HR-2026.03-JB002
About RI:
Relief International is an international non-profit organization that partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and wellbeing. People living in fragile settings face complex, interconnected and deep-rooted crises that often tear a hole in the social fabric of communities. When this happens, our teams work closely with community leaders; first focusing on critical health needs, and then, as communities recover, focusing on both health and wellbeing programming that helps reweave the social fabric for greater resilience in the future. Our team of more than 7,000 staff and local volunteers work in 15 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, providing Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education and Livelihoods programming that is safe, truly local, conflict sensitive, climate smart, evidence based, and reaches those in need. Relief International is a 60-year-old international NGO alliance that is the product of mergers and alliances between four organizations. Today, Relief International is comprised of Relief International, Inc., Relief International-France, Relief International-UK and Relief International-Europe, all of which are led by a single senior leadership team.
Position Summary:
Safeguarding is an organizational priority and a shared responsibility for everyone working with RI. It requires the full commitment of all staff to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of the people we serve.
The Safeguarding Officer will lead and strengthen safeguarding efforts across the RI Field Office in Upper Nile. This includes coordinating and overseeing safeguarding procedures, building staff capacity, and monitoring implementation to ensure compliance and accountability in line with RI’s Safeguarding and PSEA policies. The Safeguarding Officer will also serve as the primary focal point for receiving and responding to safeguarding concerns.
Key Responsibilities
- Promote and champion Safeguarding, PSEA, and Child Protection policies and procedures across all project locations, ensuring compliance with organizational and donor standards.
- Ensure that cases of suspected or actual child protection, safeguarding, or PSEA concerns are reported within 24 hours using organizational safeguarding reporting procedures and immediately escalated to the MEAL Coordinator and senior management as per SOPs.
- Respond appropriately and sensitively to safeguarding disclosures or concerns and ensure immediate protective actions are taken in line with internal procedures.
- Maintain accurate, confidential, and up-to-date documentation of all safeguarding and sensitive complaints cases, ensuring secure data storage and restricted access in coordination with the MEAL Coordinator.
- Work closely with the MEAL Coordinator to ensure safeguarding and PSEA risks are integrated into risk registers, monitoring tools, and reporting frameworks.
- Oversee the implementation and strengthening of the Complaints and Feedback Mechanism (CFM) at project level, ensuring it is accessible, confidential, inclusive, gender-sensitive, and child-friendly.
- Establish and monitor multiple safe reporting channels (e.g., hotline, suggestion boxes, help desks, community focal persons) and ensure communities are regularly sensitized on how to use them safely.
- Ensure timely registration, categorization, referral, and resolution of complaints in line with SOPs and accountability standards.
- Ensure that SEA, child abuse, fraud, and misconduct complaints are immediately escalated to the MEAL Coordinator and Country Management following safeguarding procedures.
- Produce monthly safeguarding and CFM reports (including trends analysis, response timelines, and case status updates) and submit to the MEAL Coordinator.
- Support safeguarding and PSEA investigations and case management processes in coordination with HR, senior management, and the MEAL Coordinator.
- Coordinate multi-sectoral and multi-agency approaches to prevent and respond to safeguarding and PSEA issues affecting children and vulnerable adults.
- Contribute to professional risk and needs assessments concerning children, caregivers, and vulnerable adults in line with humanitarian protection standards including project safety audits.
- Ensure survivors of abuse or exploitation are supported confidentially and referred to appropriate services (health, psychosocial, legal, protection actors).
- Maintain strict confidentiality and ensure all staff uphold data protection principles during safeguarding and CFM processes.
- Conduct regular staff and community trainings on Safeguarding, PSEA, Code of Conduct, and CFM procedures, with technical guidance from the MEAL Coordinator.
- Lead safeguarding onboarding processes for new staff (in-person and remote), including Code of Conduct signing and orientation on reporting pathways
- Liaise with safeguarding and CFM focal points across project sites to ensure consistent implementation and compliance.
- Participate in Accountability, Protection, and Safeguarding coordination meetings as required.
Systems Compliance and Improvement
- RI South Sudan specific finance, logistics, IT, security, communications and human resource/administration policies and procedures.
- Any new procedures and guidelines designated in circulars from the program manager or Country office.
- Policy compliance – Mandatory Reporting Policy (MRP)
- Assist where necessary in undertaking activities that aim to prevent the occurrence of sexual abuse and exploitation of beneficiaries by RI and other humanitarian workers.
Qualification and Minimum Requirements:
Applicants should;
- University degree in social work, development studies, psychology or equivalent social sciences,
- Minimum of 2-3 years’ experience in safeguarding, GBV, and PSEA as well as child protection practice within a government or NGO setting.
- Experience in the role of advocacy or policy implementation either in the field of Child Protection/Safeguarding/PSEA or Human Resources to achieve policy change and compliance.
- Extensive experience in building personal internal and external networks.
- Ability to plan and undertake training programs/workshops in safeguarding and PSEA at a range of levels (e.g., field workers, managers, senior managers, representatives, and decision-makers)
- Ability to liaise and provide technical support to the Safeguarding coordinator/manager in aspects of the delivery of sensitive Safeguarding and safe programs.
- Strong communication, interpersonal, and report-writing skills.
- Ability to provide remote support and establish supportive relationships and networks.
- Support in undertaking complex Safeguarding and PSEA investigations, and or disciplinary investigations based on request
GENERAL CONDITIONS:
- Applicant must not be a person with bad records or have been convicted of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), Sexual Harassment and Child Abuse cases.
We would like to share Relief International's values with you:
- We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities. We value:
- Inclusiveness
- Transparency and Accountability
- Agility and Innovation
- Collaboration
- Sustainability
