Company Profile

Oxfam is a rights-based global development organization with more than 70 years of experience in more than 90 countries worldwide. Oxfam’s mission is to end the injustice of poverty and inequality through systemic change and the advancement of political, economic and social rights. Oxfam has been working in Ghana since 1986, managing programs related to food security and livelihoods, universal access to education and healthcare and transparency and accountability in extractive industries (mining, oil and gas).

Oxfam’s experience in Ghana and strong partnerships with government institutions, Ghanaian civil society organizations and NGOs supports the delivery of active and innovative programs and advocacy work seeking to improve the livelihoods of Ghanaians and strengthen citizen accountability. Oxfam in Ghana currently works in 11 out of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions.

Job Description

Terms of Reference for a consultant to support Partners develop safeguarding and Risk Management Policies and Processes.

BACKGROUND
Oxfam’s vision is to improve the quality of life characterized by active citizenship, shared, pro-poor and sustainable growth in a just and democratic environment.

In the past year, Oxfam experienced some safeguarding crises which has necessitated the review of our current culture, policies and processes and strengthen them to ensure we do not experience another crisis in future. Oxfam also believes in putting gender justice at the centre of all we do. This belief is shared by our CSO partners. In Oxfam in Ghana we use the three core safeguarding policies by OGB. These are focused on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy, our Child Protection Policy and our Safeguarding Adults Policy. These policies set out the standards of behaviour expected from all Oxfam GB staff and representatives, partners, and the protections offered to anyone under Oxfam's duty of care. These are complimented by our full suite of human resources policies.

Oxfam GB's safeguarding policies are applied in all countries through the Oxfam International Country Director and Country Management Team, Human Resources, and the Safeguarding Focal Points. Achieving our goal of putting gender in centre of all we do is guided by our gender policies. These policies also set out standards of acceptable performance by staff and partners in organisational development, culture and management as well as in the design and management of our campaign and programme activities.

In Ghana, this is currently being implemented as through our Safeguarding and Gender working groups made up of focal points. Due to the fact that we rely on partners for the implementation of most of our programmes, the risk of safeguarding seems quite high with partners. At the same time the need for partners to formulate and implement good organisational gender policies is high. One main objective of this assignment is to support partners put in place their own specific policies and process on safeguarding, gender and ensure accountability.

In June 2018, we had an engagement with all partners to dialogue on the subject of safeguarding. Follow up action plans by partners indicate the need for further support to strengthen their systems to deal with the risk of safeguarding. The need for partners to have gender policies came up as a priority institutional strengthening need during consultations to agree on partner.

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
The purpose of this consultancy contract is to provide support to partners to develop safeguarding and gender policies and processes within their context and sphere of operations. The consultant will work closely with the People and Culture Manager and Safeguarding Group as well as the gender advisor and education programme and policy coordinator in Oxfam.

The consultant is expected to undertake and be responsible for the following tasks:

• Review Partner staff capacity, regarding their ability to mitigate against the risk of safeguarding and to put gender in the center of their organizational culture, programmes and campaigns.
• Review Safeguarding and gender policies, where they exist to ensure they meet international standards – PSEA guidelines on safeguarding.
• Develop new Safeguarding and gender policies where needed.
• Review and amend recruitment policies and processes where they exist to ensure they meet international standards, are robust enough to minimize risky hires and adequately incorporates gender.
• Support selected partners to develop comprehensive gender policies for their organisations to meet the partners own expectations and Oxfam’s standards.
• Support follow up on some partners with work in the area of gender justice and its connection to safeguarding
• Serve as a resource person to Oxfam on a full proposal development process for work related to Safeguarding
• Provide an end of contract report, which will include Consultant’s reflections of follow up actions required to support Oxfam Implementing partners to implement their safeguarding and gender policies fully.

Methodology
It is expected that the consultant will adopt a participatory approach to the development of the safeguarding and gender policies. The methodology used should elicit the experiences and contexts of partners, and result in the development safeguarding and gender policies that meet the needs of partners, engender ownership of the policies by partners, while meeting Oxfam and international standards.

Duration
The provision of the Services commences on February 1st , 2020 to March 31st 2020 unless this Agreement is terminated early in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, or is extended upon mutual agreement by the Parties.

Terms of Payment
Payment will be made on monthly Basis upon receipt of work done report.

Required Skills or Experience

Prospective consultants must have: 

• Experiences in working on issues of gender and safeguarding in a multifaced organization preferably in the NGO sector 
• Experience in Organisational Development and change process 
• Experience working in Oxfams’ pillars (Inequality, Extractive Industries, Economic Justice and Accountable Governance and active citizenship) 
• Experiences conducting work related to the tasks 
• Master’s Degree or higher in Social Science or related field 
• Excellent oral and report writing skills.