OLCreate: Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector

Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector

Safeguarding is key for all organisations working with and for children, young people and vulnerable adults. The need to strengthen safeguarding policies and practices has been identified as a particular priority in the international aid sector. These three courses form a Safeguarding Leadership Training Package for Safeguarding Leads throughout the aid sector, at regional, national and local levels and contribute to building a cohort of trained safeguarding professionals and to the professionalisation of safeguarding. The training package moves beyond compliance issues and promotes critical thinking and reflection in safeguarding practice.

These courses aim to raise the standard of knowledge and skills and equip learners for effective practice in any aid organisation, including an increased ability to understand complex safeguarding issues, devise effective policies and procedures and manage challenging implementation issues. The training package also supports the development of more consistent professional standards globally and career progression in safeguarding leadership roles.

Watch the introductory video below:

View transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER: Everyone is entitled to live and work in a safe environment free from harm arising from exploitation, abuse, and neglect. For many aid organisations who work with vulnerable individuals, effective safeguarding is the way to ensure this. It's vital for protecting the children and adults that organisations have contact with and their staff and personnel too. Widely publicised incidents in the development and humanitarian sector have highlighted the urgent need for a unified safeguarding approach.

PETER TAYLOR: Much more needs to be done to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the aid sector. The UK government decided to take a proactive approach to doing that. And one of the ways in which we're doing this is to fund this fantastic course through The Open University.

SPEAKER: The Open University has developed an accessible training package that explores vulnerability, risk, harm, and power relations between those who provide aid and those who receive it.

PETER TAYLOR: We work very closely with them and a wide range of experts to make sure it is the best possible content that sets out really clearly the international safeguarding standards.

JAN WEBB: These three courses are funded by UK Aid, which puts keeping people safe as a top priority when working in international context. UK Aid also advocates for a consistent approach to safeguarding.

ANEETA WILLIAMS: These courses have been developed with international and national development and humanitarian practitioners in mind. The courses support new knowledge and build on existing knowledge and experience in safeguarding. It enables learners to develop organisational policies and procedures in accordance with international standards and supports learners to cultivate a safeguarding culture within the organisation to keep people safe.

Learners are supported through the different parts of the safeguarding cycle, namely identification, prevention, reporting, responding, accountability, and learning.

SPEAKER: Thousands of learners worldwide have enrolled on the courses. They've made use of rich and engaging assets, including case studies, activities, interviews with leading practitioners, and spaces to reflect on personal and professional practise.

PETER TAYLOR: The FCDO's vision is an international aid sector which is as free from sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment as possible. The course is helping to deliver that vision by providing participants with the key knowledge that they need about Safeguarding.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

These courses have been created by The Open University in partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. They draw on the experience and expertise of practitioners and academics from within the humanitarian sector. Each of these courses has previously been run as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the Future Learn (www.futurelearn.com) platform. They are now presented as open educational resources for anyone over 18 to study at any time.

A Training Toolkit is available here for those of you who have studied courses 1 and 2, to help deliver onward training to your teams.

PLEASE NOTE: The themes and content of these courses can inevitably sometimes be disturbing and because of this we recommend that only learners aged 18 and over view this material.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have any safeguarding concerns these should be reported through your own organisational mechanisms and not through this site. The 'Report a concern' button at the bottom of each page on each course is for any content or technical issues that you encounter whilst learning on this platform.

The Open University UK Aid

Copyright: © AndreyPopov / iStock / Getty Images Plus.
Introduction to Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector
Learn about safeguarding policies and procedures in the international aid sector. This course will help those working in NGOs and development and humanitarian agencies to better understand the causes of harm, abuse, and exploitation and put in place preventative measures.
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Course
24 hrs
Copyright: pixelfit / Getty Images
Implementing Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector
This course supports learners to deal with challenging safeguarding situations relevant to the specific aid sub-sectors they are working in, focussing on work practice and authentic learning relating directly to the aid sector using where possible real-life scenarios.
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Course
24 hrs
Copyright: EtiAmmos / Shutterstock
Leadership in Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector
This course explores the relationship between leadership and safeguarding both within and across organisations and sectors. It facilitates a strengths-based approach to leadership and influence in a range of global safeguarding contexts.
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Course
8 hrs