JAN WEBB: Hi. Welcome to MOOC 2, Implementing Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector. I'm Jan Webb, and I am the Associate Head of School for nursing and health professions in the School of Health, Wellbeing, and Social Care at The Open University.
My own interest in safeguarding began a number of years ago when I was working in the health sector in the UK as a children and young people's nurse. And it's been really exciting to have been involved in developing these MOOCs, which will help
to further improve safeguarding in the international aid sector. This course is the second Mass Open Online Course or MOOC in a series of three MOOCs which have been developed by The Open University, funded by the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and
Development Office. This course has been designed for those who have responsibility for safeguarding in their organisation, and who are working in the international aid sector.
Learners may be designated Safeguarding Officers, Safeguarding Leads, or focal safeguarding persons with some responsibility for organisational safeguarding. But the course is equally relevant to individuals who may not currently be working as a safeguarding
officer but would like to step up to this role. Or who just want to develop safeguarding knowledge and skills as appropriate to their role.
Whilst MOOC 1 introduced you to safeguarding, this second MOOC seeks to build your skills, both practical and professional, to enable you to implement safeguarding in the work that you do. Over the next six weeks, we will be exploring the concepts
of power, vulnerability, and risk. This course will help you to recognise when somebody is abusing their power to harm other individuals. And it will also help you to further develop your skills and knowledge in order to recognise signs of vulnerability
and risk.
We will explore how organisations in the sector are required to prevent, report, respond, and learn from these identifiable risks in a background of various types of programmes or projects that you may be implementing. For example, you may be working
for a research institute. How would you implement safeguarding measures there? This course will help you to think how you can. Or you're working with people with disabilities, different sexualities, or gender-based violence. How could organisations
ensure that no further harm occurs to these vulnerable groups?
Once again, we will be learning about what can prevent harm from occurring and how to respond when it does occur. We will also be learning how safeguarding can be made more accountable through complaints and feedback mechanisms. And the importance
of creating a safeguarding organisational culture, where everyone who represents your organisation understands their responsibility. We have put together lots of resources to support your learning. There are case studies to bring issues to life
short videos that you will be able to discuss with your fellow learners in the discussion forums, and you will hear directly from Safeguarding Leads in the field about their experiences of implementing safeguarding.
We have also provided you with quizzes to check your knowledge at the end of each week. There is also time to reflect on your learning and share with others what next steps you are going to take based on the learning. I wish you well on your implementing
safeguarding journey. Enjoy the course.
Watch the video above in which the Lead Academic, Jan Webb, welcomes you to this course and gives you an overview of what you will be learning about
This course is intended for learners who already have some knowledge and experience of safeguarding, therefore, if you do not, we strongly recommend learners complete the introductory course Introduction
to Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector first. The first course is a good refresher on important introductory concepts, principles and standards of safeguarding whilst working in the development and humanitarian sectors.
This course provides a mixture of theory, practical applications using case studies, adapting tools, and examples of good practice to support you and your organisation in implementing safeguarding policies and procedures, with a focus on sexual exploitation
and abuse and sexual harassment
The examples of implementation in this course are set against different types of programmatic work and activities that your organisation might be involved in. For example, data collection and research, gender-based violence programmes, and health, water
and sanitation. The ways in which these are approached may differ depending on the context and countries that organisations work in.
This course has been designed for those of you who are working in the development or humanitarian contexts, whatever role or position you may be in but particularly for those with particular responsibility for safeguarding. It will equip you with the
skills and tools you need to prevent, report, respond, communicate, be accountable for, monitor and learn when implementing safeguarding in the work that you do.
The course focuses on your organisational duty of care to prevent and respond to harm that may arise due to the inappropriate conduct of staff on each other or in the communities they have direct and indirect contact with.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Mitigate and prevent against safeguarding risks associated with your work.
Design or adapt tools to implement activities that minimise harm to those who have direct and indirect contact with your work or organisation.
Respond to challenges relating to safeguarding concerns using a survivor-centred approach.
Support accountability to those who benefit from your work, and in the international aid sector more generally.
Over the next 6 units of this course, you will take a journey of 24 hours of learning divided into 3–4 hours per unit although you can study the course at your own pace.
The outline of the course content looks like this:
