Unit 2: Identification

Introduction

In Unit 1 you learnt that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and we looked at the fundamentals of this concept. In this unit we focus on the ‘‘identification’ part of the safeguarding cycle.

It is important that you and your organisation’s staff who have direct or indirect contact with children or vulnerable adults are able to recognise factors which make individuals vulnerable to harm. This will equip you better to prevent exploitation, abuse and harassment, and be able to respond appropriately if it does happen.

To do so, we will be exploring the inherent (internal to the person) criteria that make a child or adult vulnerable to harm and those which are external to the person. These criteria or factors make children and adults vulnerable to various forms of harm including sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (known as SEAH).

We will also look at how the intersectionality of internal and external criteria can increase the risk of vulnerability of children and adults, and therefore those of us who are aware of this increased vulnerability should ensure that we take measures to prevent the likelihood of harm occurring by using various tools such as a situational analysis and risk assessments.

In each unit of this course, we will apply our learning to certain types of programmatic activity to demonstrate how safeguarding principles can be implemented. In this unit we will apply our learning to research programmes, such as data collection, working safely with research participants, and the importance of safe programming.

We will look at tools that could support you to reflect on how to gauge risk and vulnerability when working with research participants on any given programme. There are also activities that will help you further understand your role and responsibility in safeguarding.

2.1 Identifying vulnerability and risk

Why does vulnerability and risk matter?

A diagram depicting three rotating cogs. The larger cog is labelled organisational factors and its clockwise rotation is driving the second cog labelled external factors in an anticlockwise direction. In turn, this cog drives the third cog labelled inherent factors in a clockwise direction.

When organisations work in various activities and programmes, it’s important to ensure that we ‘do no harm’. Simply put, this means that we mitigate against any harm that may arise as a result of our activities and programmes.

Realistically, eradicating all harm is not possible, but we would want to ensure that we provide our services and support to communities safely, which includes, in so far as is possible, reducing the risk of any harm that may arise.

Therefore, safe programming includes:

Identifying, mitigating and managing the risks of harm and abuse that may be caused by programme design and delivery.
Considering the safety and wellbeing of all community members throughout the programme cycle.
Being prepared not to deliver a programme where safeguarding risks have not been appropriately assessed and minimised and/or where the inherent risks to beneficiaries are unacceptable.
Documenting safe programming experiences to inform future work.

^{(Source: RSH: How CSOs can Design and
Deliver Safe Programmes)}

You will be aware that you and your organisation have a duty to identify, prevent, report and respond to concerns that a child or adult may be suffering harm. This will include those your organisation works with (such as other staff or volunteers) or works for (children, communities and others who may benefit from the work).

Early recognition that an individual may be vulnerable to abuse or harm may prevent harm from occurring in the first place or prevent further harm from occurring. Recognising indicators of abuse may be challenging, but the ability to recognise signs and symptoms early is of fundamental importance.

It is also important to remember that children or vulnerable adults are put at risk by unsafe organisational practices and through the behaviour of people whom they know. If you want to understand more about SEAH please follow the link.

Understanding SEAH and GBV

Factors that make children vulnerable

Factors that increase a child’s vulnerability to harm include:

Age – babies are more vulnerable than older children.
Trust – children are more trusting of adults who have direct contact with them. They may not understand what an appropriate or inappropriate touch is, their right to personal privacy or their right to express themselves.
Disability – children who have a physical, mental or learning disability are more vulnerable than other children. They are in need of more personal or intimate care, which requires more direct contact. Their vulnerability may increase when they are in residential or institutional care.
Other criteria such as being part of a marginalised group.
Societal perceptions where children are often considered unimportant and unworthy of any rights of their own.
Children who are orphaned due to parental loss or death due to disease.
Children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.
Children born out of wedlock.
Gender – often girls are more at risk of harm because of societal perceptions that they hold a lesser status than boys. However, in certain situations (such as armed conflict), boys may well be at greater risk of forced recruitment and sexual violence.
Inability of parents or family to care for children because of their own inherent factors such as their young age, ignorance or lack of knowledge, traumatic childhood, isolation, substance misuse, mental illness, physical or learning disability.
Violence or domestic abuse within the family or in the community.
Environmental factors, such as natural disasters, armed conflict and pandemics, or a combination of all these factors that displace children and adults, making them vulnerable.
Loss of name, nationality or migrant status which results in a lack of political or civil status.
Low economic or social status.

As workers who have either direct or indirect contact with children and/or vulnerable adults, we not only need to be able to recognise vulnerability factors, but also that these factors increase their risk of harm by perpetrators who misuse their power to exploit, abuse and/or harass children.

Activity 2.1 Organisational factors

What organisational factors may make a child vulnerable to exploitation and abuse?

Record your response in your learning journal.

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Factors that make adults vulnerable to harm

An illustration of a hand holding a delicate flower head. The small petals are being gently blown away.
_{© MHJ / Getty Images}

An adult who is experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing harm, abuse or exploitation and who is unable to protect themselves against harm is known as a ‘vulnerable adult’ or an ‘adult at risk’ (of harm).

Such adults may be dependent on others to meet their physical, emotional and material needs. These adults are at a higher risk of exploitation, abuse and harassment, and their vulnerability increases with a combination of several of these factors:

Age – older people may be more vulnerable to abuse because of poor physical or mental health or reliance or support from others for daily activities.
Disability – adults who have a physical, mental or learning disability are more vulnerable to exploitation and harm. They may need personal or intimate care, which often requires more direct bodily contact with others. Vulnerability may increase when they are in residential or institutional care. Adults with disabilities may also be more vulnerable to abuse because they may be less valued in their communities or have less understanding of their rights.
Sex and sexuality – people who are or identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex (known as ‘LGBTQI+’) or non-binary are often vulnerable because of societal perceptions and discrimination against such groups.
Ethnicity – usually those who identify as part of a minority racial group are vulnerable to abuse because of oppression and discrimination.
Literacy – generally adults who are unable to read or write because of a lack of educational opportunities are more at risk of exploitation and harm.
Gender – women are more at risk of harm because societal perceptions accord them a lesser status than men. However, in situations of armed conflict men may be more vulnerable.
Loss of home, family members and/or financial and material support.
Inability of family to care for older people leading to harm or neglect because of a lack of ability or ignorance.
Displacement because of natural disasters, armed conflict, pandemics or a combination of all these factors.
Loss of name, nationality or migrant status which means no political or civil status.
Poverty or low economic status.

Activity 2.2 The same of different? Children and adults vulnerability.

Consider the following question and record your response in your learning journal:

What similarities or differences are there in what makes a child or adult vulnerable to exploitation, abuse or harassment?

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2.2 Gender and Intersectionality in safeguarding

Gender plays a significant role in safeguarding, with differing groups in differing contexts having an important impact on identifying risks. We explore the role of gender and the considerations that need to be accounted for.

What role does ‘gender’ play?

A set of nine gender and orientation icons.

The term ‘gender’ is used to refer to the societal perceptions of the roles men and women play in society. It is not about the biological make-up of a man or a woman (which is known as ‘sex’). People sometimes believe that what constitutes a man being ‘masculine’ or a woman ‘feminine’ are grounded in biology, but actually they are learnt through socialisation.

Societal perceptions of the role of a man and a woman often underpin power differentials and inequality which could make girls and women more vulnerable to SEAH. SEAH occurs because of inherent power inequalities and differentials in the aid sector.

Using a ‘safeguarding lens’ (think of this as putting on spectacles) when working with beneficiary communities, alerts us to the importance of identifying, preventing and responding to the diversity of ways that men, women, boys and girls might be made vulnerable to being harmed, particularly to SEAH.

Activity 2.3 Gender and safeguarding

Why is gender an important factor when thinking about safeguarding?

Record your response in your learning journal.

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What is intersectionality?

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NARRATOR: What is intersectionality? Intersectionality is a way of understanding social relations by examining intersecting forms of discrimination. This means acknowledging that social systems are complicated, and that many forms of oppression, like racism, sexism, and ageism might be present and active at the same time in a person’s life. Everyday approaches to building equality tend to focus on one type of discrimination, for instance sexism, and then work to address only that specific concern. But while the career of a young white and able-bodied woman might improve with gender-equality protections, an older, black, disabled lesbian may continue to be hampered by racism, ageism, ableism, and homophobia in the workplace.

Intersectionality is about understanding and addressing all potential roadblocks to an individual or group’s wellbeing. But it’s not as simple as just adding up oppressions and addressing each one individually. Racism, sexism, and ableism exist on their own. But when combined, they compound and transform the experience of oppression. Intersectionality acknowledges that unique oppressions exist but is also dedicated to understanding how they change in combination. The roots of intersectionality lie within the black feminist movement with legal scholar, Kimberly Crenshaw, originating the term. Crenshaw felt that anti-racist and feminist movements were both overlooking the unique challenges faced by black women. She stated that legislation about race is framed to protect black men, and legislation about sexism is understood to protect white women.

So, simply combining racism and sexism together does not therefore protect black women. Intersectional theory is now applied across a range of social divisions and also to understandings of domination, such as those associated with whiteness, masculinity, and heterosexuality. Intersectionality is not only about multiple identities. And it’s not a simple answer to solving problems around equality and diversity. It is, however, an essential framework as we truly engage with issues around privilege and power and work to bring them into the open. Intersectionality means listening to others, examining our own privileges, and asking questions about who may be excluded or adversely affected by our work. As importantly, it means taking measurable action to invite, include, and centre the voices and work of marginalised individuals.

Reference: Crenshaw K (1989)

In some cases, a child or an adult could have a combination of inherent factors which make them vulnerable.

We call this ‘intersectionality’ – the overlapping or intersecting of identities and the experiences of oppression and discrimination of men, women, boys and girls. Intersectionality recognises not only differences between identities (such as race, gender, and gender identities), but also differences within these identities.

For example, the experiences of women of an ethnic minority will often be different to women who are from an ethnic majority group. Where the interconnected nature of social categories such as race, class, and gender apply to a given individual or group, it creates an overlapping interdependent system of discrimination or disadvantage that leaves a child or adult vulnerable to the risk of greater harm.

A diagram depicting eight overlapping circles individually labelled as follows. Age, gender, sexuality, legal or political status, ethnicity, literacy, disability, and external factors such as poverty, armed conflict, displacement.

Activity 2.4 Using intersectionality

Consider the following two questions and record your response in your learning journal:

Why is identifying vulnerability using intersectionality helpful when implementing safeguarding?
What is the impact of intersectionality on people your organisation supports?

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2.3 Safeguarding in research

Organisations working in the international aid sector often undertake research. This section covers how principles governing research and data collection can be applied with a focus on safeguarding.

An image depicting a pair of hands holding an open book. Behind, on the desk, are a notepad, pencil and magnifying glass.

When we undertake activities and programmes with communities, we should be aware of their vulnerabilities (and the intersectionality of factors) and ensure that we do not increase the risk of harm.

For example, if you work in data collection, monitoring or research it’s important to identify community vulnerabilities so that appropriate safeguarding measures can be put in place prior to and during any activity.

Activity 2.5 Case Study

Let’s apply what we have learnt so far on vulnerability and risk of harm using the case study below:

For the various groups of people in the case study, what could be some of the factors that would make them vulnerable to harm?

Note some ideas in your learning journal.

ABC University has obtained donor funding to undertake research in a rural, farming community in District D. The objective of the research is to gauge how the recent drought in the area has affected the lives of women and children of this community made up of a minority ethnic group with a low literacy rate.

Since the drought, the farmers have lost their livestock and income. There has been a spike in domestic violence in family homes. Teachers have not been paid for several months and have stopped working.

Traffickers have started roaming the area, enticing parents to give them their children for a “better life”. Instead, children are being trafficked to neighbouring countries to be married or to beg on the streets to support family incomes.

There is anecdotal information that some of the boys have lost limbs due to accidents when illegally working on farms.

The research team will be made up of local data collectors. The results of the research will help address some of these problems in this community.

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Research ethics and safeguarding

When undertaking research, academic institutions, consulting firms and data collectors may typically use ethical research principles to guide them.

These ethical principles may include:

Research which should aim to maximise the benefits for individuals and society and minimise risk and harm.
A clause or standard to ensure that the rights and dignity of individuals and groups are always respected.
Wherever possible, that participation should be voluntary and appropriately informed (i.e. informed consent and in accordance with data protection laws).
A clause or standard to ensure that research is conducted with integrity and transparency at all times.
Lines of responsibility and accountability which should be clearly defined.
Independence of research which should be maintained and, where conflicts of interest cannot be avoided, such conflicts should be made explicit.

(Source: Our core principles - Economic and Social Research Council (ukri.org))

These important ethical principles could be expanded further using a safeguarding lens.

For example, we should incorporate safeguarding principles into the project design from the outset by identifying the vulnerability of research participants, the potential of increasing risk of harm to them when undertaking research, and the obvious power differential that exists between a researcher and research participant.

If you want to find out more about safeguarding in research, follow the links below:

Safeguarding in International Development Research: A Briefing Paper (PDF) University of Sussex
How can we ethically involve children in research? ECPAT
Research Integrity UKRI

Incorporating safeguarding principles in the research

The team at the University in the case study should incorporate safeguarding principles into their research design right from the beginning, since any form of data collection for the purpose of research is not without risk. This is because asking research questions may lead to the re-traumatisation of the interviewees and / or make him/her/them more fragile and vulnerable. Some research programmes offer incentives for participation, and this can be manipulated to the disadvantage of the interviewee. It is important to identify safeguarding risks in undertaking research because of the potential contact with vulnerable populations and the likelihood of abuse given the asymmetric relations between the researcher and the population to be researched.

Researchers should make ethical decisions by identifying vulnerabilities of and risks to research participants and put in place reasonable steps to minimise and mitigate these, ensuring that the best interests of the research participant are central.

Using the project cycle management model of Identify, Design, Implement, Monitor and Learn, the diagram above illustrates some of the steps to take by those who conduct data collection for research in order to mitigate and minimise risks using a safeguarding lens.

2.4 Assessing risk; conducting a situational analysis.

We have covered a number of different factors that affect ‘risk’ and how it is perceived. Here we discuss the methodologies that can be used to effectively conduct a formal assessment of these risks.

A decorative image depicting a flat surface with a question mark printed on it. A magnifying glass is laid partially over the question mark.

Staying with the case study of ABC University, undertaking a ‘situational analysis’ can help to understand the context that the research team will be working in.

We already know that the external factors of drought and displacement have made all community members vulnerable. Using this as a backdrop, we then take a gendered approach to highlight specific vulnerabilities.

Activity 2.6 Situational analysis template

Allow 30 minutes

Complete the blank situational analysis template for the case study of ABC University.

Here is a writable version of this situational analysis template shown below. You can type into this PDF form and then save it and/or print it.

A blank situational analysis template. The table has three columns and five rows. The first column header is persons in the community (by age and gender). The second column is List all vulnerability factors. The third column is list the safeguarding risks (do you consider them low, medium or high risk?). The five row headers under the first column are women, girls, boys, men, LGBTQI.

An example of a completed situational analysis is shown below for comparison.

Situational analysis – context: A displaced community due to drought

Here is a PDF version of this model situational analysis shown above.

You can learn more about undertaking a situational analysis by following the link below:

Understanding your context using a situational analysis, Grassroots Collective

Risk Assessments

We should also develop a safeguarding risk assessment based on the situational analysis. You may remember that we learnt about such risk assessments in Course 1: Introduction to Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector.

Still using the example of the ABC University research case study, let’s go through three quiz questions so that you can try and recall how to undertake a safeguarding risk assessment exercise.

Activity 2.7 Identifying risks (Quiz)

Quiz rules

Quizzes within the learning content do not count towards achieving your Digital Badge/Statement of Participation. Only the quiz at the end of each unit counts towards achieving your Statement of Participation.

You may take as many attempts as you wish to answer the quiz. You can skip questions and come back to them later if you wish.

Enter quiz

How to undertake a risk assessment

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SPEAKER: A risk assessment is a systemic process of evaluating dangers that may occur when undertaking an organisational activity. A safeguarding risk assessment is one of the most useful tools to use when you want to prevent harm to people from occurring. It helps you think about all the possible harm that may occur to people who have direct or indirect contact with your organisation. The risk assessment includes several parts to it. Here, we have added seven parts, but you may want to add more depending on the context you’re working in. Think of risk to people. For example, you may be holding an event for young mothers, many of whom have suffered from sexual violence. The event will be supported by volunteers.

You want to ensure that the young mothers and their children are safe during the activity from any form of further harm. Step two, likelihood. In the next column of the risk assessment, you want to assess the risk of harm occurring if you don’t put any measures in place. The score could be out of five. The more vulnerable the persons are that you’re working with, the higher the risk, which then means the higher the score. Step three, impact. In the next column, you’re going to gauge the impact of that harm on the persons involved in the activity. The greater the impact of harm, the higher the score. Step four, gross risk.

In the next column, you would multiply the score that you gave the likelihood with the one in impact to give you the gross risk. Step five, mitigation. Here you’ll need to think about safeguarding measures that can be taken to mitigate or reduce the gross risk. The higher the gross risk, the more measures will need to be taken. For example, you could ensure that robust recruitment procedures are in place for the volunteers who will be involved in the activity in our example. You could ask candidates safeguarding questions during the interview, make background checks, verify the referees and the references provided, and do police checks to ensure that they don’t have any past criminal convictions. Step six, recalculate gross risk.

If these mitigation measures are taken, have you lowered the likelihood and/or the impact? If so, put in new scores for likelihood and impact and recalculate your gross risk. Step seven, by whom, when? It’s important to add in who will take charge of the mitigation measures and when this will be done. Risk assessment should be completed with key stakeholders as a joint effort. Risk assessments are dynamic. They should be reviewed regularly to take into account change of circumstances. Risk assessments can be used for any organisational activity to prevent harm to your staff, representatives, and to people who benefit from your programmes.

As a reminder on how to undertake a safeguarding risk assessment watch the video above.

Developing a risk assessment

An illustration of three cubes stacked on top of each other. the bottom cube is red and has a sad emoticon face printed on it. The second cube is yellow and has a neutral face on it. The top cube is green and has a smiley face printed on it.
_{© Panuwat Dangsungnoen / iStock / Getty Images Plus}

When undertaking a risk assessment for the research project being conducted by ABC University, here are some key points to think about:

A risk assessment should be carried out with input from local collaborative partners and community members so that external risks and vulnerabilities are also taken into consideration.
A risk assessment must identify and record all risks of intended or unintended harm. It should not only consider risks to research participants, but also risks to researchers.
Mitigation safeguarding measures should be proposed and put in place.
A risk analysis must differentiate between short-term risks (for example, immediate dangers that could arise during the fieldwork) and long-term risks (for example, participants’ future eligibility to access benefits when a programme is implemented).
A risk analysis should include considerations on how to ensure participants’ confidentiality for safety or legal reasons and put in place a protocol for this.
The names and contact details of both the research team and the safeguarding focal points should be clearly stated in the risk analysis.
The risk analysis should be signed off by team leaders and the Safeguarding Lead.

A risk assessment should be continuously updated throughout the course of a research project. If it emerges that the research carries a higher risk for any one group or person than was initially thought, then it should be redesigned to address and reduce those risks. If this is not possible, the research cannot go ahead.

Activity 2.8 Developing mitigating safeguarding measures

Return to the case study of ABC University and reflect on the following:

Having identified the safeguarding risks to research participants in the situational analysis, what are some of the mitigating safeguarding measures you would advise the research team to undertake?
Identify any safeguarding risks to the research team members. What measures might reduce these risks?

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If you want to learn more about risk assessment have a look at the following links:

Safeguarding risk assessment and management tool (PDF) Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub
Research Ethics: A practical guide Oxfam GB
Addressing Safeguarding Risks Safeguarding Resource & Support Hub

2.5 Lessons learnt when incorporating safeguarding measures

This section considers the lessons to be learnt, and what else you should think about when incorporating safeguarding measures.

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PRESENTER: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I am Beentou, and I’m going to talk about safeguarding in the Sierra Leonean context within ARISE. Next slide, please.

So, when starting this talk, I’m going to start with our co-researchers because they are so important in the work we do. Co-researcher, our co-researchers are basically community members who are selected from their communities where we work, so aid us in conducting our research. So, they’re a mix of young and old, men and women, including people living with disabilities. We work together in a partnership. ARISE is so big on partnership and it is not just a word, it is something that we do every day and that we see. So, these co-researchers are a part of all our trainings that we conduct with our researchers and data collectors. They’re part of us piloting our tools and even analyse our data.

And in our theory of change that was done, we see the beneficial impact of this collaboration clearly outlined there. And even in the reflections our co-researchers give us, they tell us how much they have learnt about the research process. And the research is not new in their communities, people have been collecting data in their communities for years, but now they see how the data is generated and what’s the answers, how we get the answers we are looking for. So, they are very important when it comes to safeguarding because no one knows their communities like they do.

So, the UKCDR guidance, their LSTM safeguarding protocols, they were used as a foundation basically upon which we built a more contextualised in-country safeguarding training manual that was done with all in-country partners. So, during the training we came up with local words meaning safeguarding, we came up with local phrases you can need to ask for help. Because when doing safeguarding, it’s not, it’s important to just not go in thinking that they don’t know anything about safeguarding even in communities and in countries where it’s new, like Sierra Leone. They get it as long as you explain, and you put it in the local context. They get exactly what you’re trying to say. Next slide, please.

So, when we started, we had safeguarding leads from the partner organisations in the country. But after the training, understanding the different issues and possible barriers to reporting, we trained co-researchers as focal points in their communities because they are more accessible, obviously, to receive complaints. We live in places where people can’t just send in an email, people can’t just even use the internet all the time and send WhatsApp. So, it’s important that they have this community focal points to raise concerns with. And our partnership is such that the co-researchers have access to us. So, the safeguarded focal points have access to us, the in-country team.

But they also have access to the LSTM team that is basically the lead, so whatever complaints they want to escalate above us can go straight to the LSTM country support person and can be handled. So, I have worked in different studies, but I noticed that this is important. This particular relationship is important in ensuring trust in the safeguarding process. Because we all here know that safeguarding issues may arise at any point in the safeguarding chain, so that confidence that we can report to whoever they want to, and they will receive support is needed.

Then when it comes to the safeguarding team, the ARISE project is such a learning process and after some time we decided that safeguarding leads from all partner countries, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, that we all need a safe space to talk about safeguarding concerns. So, monthly meetings were set up to discuss, to ask for advice on how to handle certain cases, basically brainstorm as a group on next steps on the reports you receive. So, for example, if you receive an urgent safeguarding incident that comes up in your country, you can always ask for an emergency safeguarding lead in the team. And this will be set up.

And we even developed a form that is different from the in-country cause for concern forms that we all know that our present in our institutions. Well, this is just a basic form where you can just put down important safeguarding issues that you want us to discuss as a group. And as much as we are from these countries as, so ARISE made me reflect on my positionality. As much as I’m from Sierra Leone, but my realities are different from the people actually living in these communities. And it takes a toll as well on us, not only international researchers or researchers from high income countries, that is to be expected, but us local researchers as well.

It makes you recognise your own privilege and the wide disparities in standards of living sometimes within just a few miles from where you live and where you’re working. So, this safe space for me where you can talk to other safeguarding leads in similar settings in different parts of the world was very important and it’s very important for me. Next slide, please.

And service territories. I have to talk about service directories because they’re important in ensuring a robust safeguarding pathway. The first step is mostly tapping INGO and NGO sources working in these communities to give you a rough guide on contact details. But also, the co-researchers come in very handy here because the services available in their communities. They are the services people in their community’s use. And we have to check that contact details are up-to-date because we found out that some numbers you call are not working. So, in my country, for example, it is rare to see a landline in an office or government institution. They’re present in international NGO offices. Everyone uses a mobile phone. Even offices use a mobile phone.

So, that means they get missing, leadership changes, and so does the phone. So, new phones are bought with new numbers, so cross-checking that the details are up-to-date is important, was important for us, but also is making physical contact with the services you’ve outlined in the service directory because you may need to have a safeguarding lead for onward referral. So, them knowing that you’re working in their communities, and you’ve discussed your risk register to them and possible concerns that you may have goes a long way in ensuring that you get prompt aid when needed.

And when it comes to the risk register that Phil already outlined, talking again to the co-researchers allowed us to raise even more risk that you won’t think about like secret societies coming out at particular times of the year with masquerades. These are things that are community issues that you wouldn’t know as an outsider and these are days in the calendar that you have to, in the community calendar, that you have to avoid. But something, again, that has come up is working in communities where there are no referral services. What happens when you’re working in these remote communities where there’s nothing? And, at ARISE, we’ve started having these reports from safeguarding leads and you can imagine how distressing this will be.

You’ve trained your co-researchers, you’ve trained your researchers, you’ve trained even the participant on what safeguarding concerns are, but when they have, when they recognise and reports, there’s very little you can do. And what we’re doing we are now exploring psychological first aid training for our researchers. Because most time you are the first port of call and sometimes, you’re the only one they can report to because you’ve built this rapport with them. And you may be the only help they may receive, so it is a huge burden.

But at least you are trained to not cause further harm and to respond appropriately to the initial report and, obviously, to come back to the safeguarding leads reporting safe space and just basically detox. The next slide, please.

So, for my final slide, I want to talk about knowing limitations on what we can do. This study also made me realise that working in deprived communities means a lot of things are safeguarding issues. Nearly everything is a safeguarding issue. There are eviction notices of your participants, there is a fire outbreak, homes are lost to flooding, especially those living in seaside communities. Those houses that are on hillsides may be prone to landslides and mudslides. You would have the young girls, children of your participants, be married off or initiated into secret societies. So, these are things that may come up.

And it is important to constantly reflect on your safeguarding principles and recognise your limitations, the limitations of the study, what you can do, how much you can do knowing that you are there for a limited time with limited resources and managing the expectations of communities as well. Because they are seeing us as coming in to help, they’re seeing us as coming in to change their stories, whereas we are there to amplify the stories and link them to stakeholders or services that can help. And for us having this safe space to talk to other safeguarding leads, again, is crucial for our own mental wellbeing. Last slide, which is just the resources and the references that we used.

Thank you so much for listening.

Watch the video above, in which the presenter shares what lessons were learnt when safeguarding measures were incorporated into the ARISE research project in Sierra Leone.

What else should you think about?

A decorative image depicting a lightbulb with a question mark illuminated inside the bulb.

When collecting data from local communities you should consider everything outlined in the diagram below.

Some of the key points from the video on conducting research are that it presented a bottom-up approach rather than top-down approach by empowering community members to get involved in conducting the research. Community members were involved in contextualising safeguarding training using local terminology and creating safeguarding systems. The development of a service directory through service mapping is particularly important so that communities know where to go for services when the implementing organisation isn’t there.

If you want to know more about safeguarding in research, go to the following links:

Research: Let’s make it safe! Resource & Support Hub (RSH)
Empowered Aid: Toolkit for planning safer aid distribution (PDF) Global Women’s Institute
Taken out of the picture: The researcher from the Global South and the fight against ‘neo-colonialism’ Governance in Conflict Network

Safeguarding principles pertaining to research

A diagram depicting four labels each with an arrow superimposed it. The arrows are all pointing from left to right. The first label says survivor-centred, the second says equity and fairness, the third label says transparency and the final label says accountability and governance.

The UKCDR Guidance on Safeguarding in International Development Research (PDF) is useful for promoting safeguarding issues in any organisation conducting data collection for reports or research.

It sets out four cross-cutting themes and provides questions relating to safeguarding for all involved in the activity. It makes the point that simply laying down a fixed set of requirements is impractical and could potentially reinforce power dynamics. Instead it promotes posing key questions and generating discussion as a more productive way forward for all involved in the research processes in order to ‘anticipate, mitigate and address potential and actual harms in the funding, design, delivery and dissemination of research’.

Activity 2.9 Quiz - Safeguarding principles in research

Read pages 1-9 of the Guidance on Safeguarding in International Development Research and then attempt the four quiz questions that follow.

Quiz rules

Quizzes within the learning content do not count towards achieving your Digital Badge/Statement of Participation. Only the quiz at the end of each unit counts towards achieving your Statement of Participation.

You may take as many attempts as you wish to answer the quiz. You can skip questions and come back to them later if you wish.

Enter quiz

A question about recruitment

View transcript

Hasan, a Human Resources Manager based in Amman, has a question about recruitment.

Watch the video above to learn more about Hasan’s question and the response he is given.

Greater diversity and inclusion in your recruitment processes keeps people safe because it fosters trust and accountability. A more diverse and inclusive workforce makes for more effective teams.

2.6 Unit 2 Knowledge check (Quiz)

The end-of-unit knowledge check is a great way to check your understanding of what you have learnt.

There are five questions, and you can have up to 3 attempts at each question depending on the question type. The quizzes at the end of each unit count towards achieving your Digital Badge for the course. You must score at least 80% in each quiz to achieve the Statement of Participation and Digital Badge.

Enter quiz

2.7 Review of Unit 2

In this unit we focused on the first part of the safeguarding cycle – ‘Identification’.

We looked at identifying what criteria and factors make children and adults vulnerable to various forms of harm including sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH). We also looked at the intersectionality of various factors and how that increased risk of harm. We applied our learning to a case study on undertaking research on research participants.

We went through various tools with regards to how to conduct research in a safe way, applying safeguarding and ethical principles such as a situational analysis to highlight vulnerability and risks, and a risk assessment to think through safeguarding measures which would minimise risk of unintended harm from occurring.

Finally, we examined the most up-to-date UKCDR guidance on how to conduct research where everyone has a responsibility to play.

Before you move on to Unit 3, reflect on your own learning so far. Consider the following questions and respond to the questions in your learning journal.

What was the most significant thing you learnt in this unit?
How would you apply your learning to the work that you do?
What are you looking forward to learning about the next unit?

Now go to Unit 3: Prevention.

References

Crenshaw K (1989) Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 1989 | Issue 1

Safeguarding Support Hub (2021) ‘How CSOs can Design and Deliver Safe Programmes’, How-To-Note, Online. Available at Resource and Support Hub (Accessed 21 June 2021).

UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) (n.d.) Guidance on Safeguarding in International Development Research, Online. Available at UKCDR (PDF) (Accessed 23 June 2021).

UK Research and Innovation (2021) Framework for research ethics, Online. Available at UKRI (Accessed 28 June 2021).

Site:	OpenLearn Create
Course:	Implementing Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector
Book:	Unit 2: Identification

Printed by:	Visiteur anonyme
Date:	Tuesday, 28 May 2024, 8:47 AM

Unit 2: Identification

Table of contents

Introduction

2.1 Identifying vulnerability and risk

Factors that make children vulnerable

Factors that make adults vulnerable to harm

2.2 Gender and Intersectionality in safeguarding

What role does ‘gender’ play?

What is intersectionality?

2.3 Safeguarding in research

Research ethics and safeguarding

Incorporating safeguarding principles in the research

2.4 Assessing risk; conducting a situational analysis.

Risk Assessments

How to undertake a risk assessment

Developing a risk assessment

2.5 Lessons learnt when incorporating safeguarding measures

What else should you think about?

Safeguarding principles pertaining to research

A question about recruitment

2.6 Unit 2 Knowledge check (Quiz)

2.7 Review of Unit 2