Globaldev careers: The safeguarding expert

LONDON — In 2002, the humanitarian aid sector was hit by a disturbing report. The United Nations Refugee Agency and Save the Children UK had found evidence of “extensive” sexual exploitation of refugee children in West Africa at the hands of aid workers. It was the first time that the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse within the sector came under the spotlight — and it caught the attention of Lucy Heaven Taylor, who was then working for Save the Children UK as a program officer. She eventually became part of the first cohort of safeguarding specialists in the sector. Since then — and especially in the past two years, as the #AidToo movement gained traction — humanitarian organizations have been increasingly focused on minimizing harm and preventing abuse. That means demand for specialists is rising, and there is not always enough capacity to meet that demand. “I would definitely encourage people to go into this area because we need a lot more capacity than we currently have,” Heaven Taylor said. Devex spoke to Heaven Taylor about what it is like to work in safeguarding in the aid sector and what advice she would offer for those interested in pursuing this kind of work. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is safeguarding, and what does a safeguarding specialist do? We have a specific definition of “safeguarding” in the humanitarian and development sector that’s slightly different to that used in other professions. Essentially, it’s anything that you do that prevents people being harmed as a result of coming into contact with our staff and programs. In more detail, it means preventing and responding to emotional, physical, and sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse perpetrated by our staff and associated personnel. It also encompasses safe programming — that's designing and implementing programs so they don't put people at increased risk. It’s an incredibly varied field, and it just gets more and more varied as we’ve become more cognizant as a sector of what the risks are. What does your day-to-day work like? It's everything from advising clients on policy and implementation to designing and delivering training — which has moved online since the [COVID-19] pandemic — contributing to interagency fora, conducting investigations [into potential safeguarding incidents], and training others to do so. I'm a consultant working with different organizations, but there is rising demand for in-house work, as many organizations are working to build their safeguarding capacity after the incident with Oxfam in Haiti. There’s also quite a lot of travel involved, and I think that’s probably true for most people who work in safeguarding. So basically, I travel to deliver safeguarding training all around the world. Obviously, we try as much as possible to build capacity for organizations so that their own staff in specific locations can be the people who deliver the training. ... But at the moment, there’s still quite a demand for it as we get up to capacity in the sector. How did you end up in this particular role? I have a background in humanitarian and development project management and have worked in the sector for more than 20 years. … [After I left Save the Children UK], I then took up a role in Oxfam’s humanitarian department but maintained an interest in PSEA [protection from sexual exploitation and abuse]. Within Oxfam, I became a “focal point” on the issue and then lobbied for a PSEA role to be created. I applied and got the job. I left to become a consultant eight years ago, as it was more flexible for parenting. Is there a typical career path that people follow to get into this kind of work? If I look at my peers, I think the main thing they have in common is a huge amount of experience in the humanitarian and development sectors. But we’re starting to see people come in from different areas now. The most noticeable routes are those with expertise in gender and gender-based violence, those coming from protection roles, and from programming generally, and then people coming in from HR [human resources] as well. We are also seeing people coming from outside of the humanitarian and development sector — for example, from a background of safeguarding in the social care sector in the U.K. … But there’s not a specific career path at the moment because the extent at which we’re looking at [safeguarding] is still in its infancy. “I would definitely encourage people to go into this area because we need a lot more capacity than we currently have.” --— Lucy Heaven Taylor, safeguarding consultant What are the biggest challenges of the job? It feels quite overwhelming sometimes, the extent of the task that we have ahead of us. In the past, it was a challenge to get people to understand why we should be doing this. Any training I did, we would have to spend quite a chunk of time explaining to people what safeguarding is and why it’s important. We don’t have to do that now; everybody’s aware of it, so that’s become less of a challenge. The flip side of that is the sense of there being so much to do in the sector and also in my day-to-day job. ... It can feel hard to say no because the work is so important and because at the moment, there are not that many of us working on it, so when clients come to me and say, “We really need your help on this,” I do feel a responsibility to say yes. But [it can help to] take a step back sometimes and look at the past 20 years and at how incredibly far we’ve come … and [to reflect] on what we can do [going forward]. What’s the best part of the job? The best part of the job is the people I work with, without a doubt. … The kind of people who are coming on these safeguarding trainings are motivated. They’re also usually working in incredibly challenging situations. … So they make me feel motivated. ... And you can see [the difference you make] in terms of how organizations are putting in people [to deal with safeguarding issues], how they’re recruiting great people, and organizations that five years ago would have had very little [safeguarding infrastructure], you can now see that they’re really beginning to focus on this and professionalize and have really good people and procedures and structures in place. Are there any parts of the job you don’t like? No, not really! Even though investigations are challenging, for example, I go into it feeling empowered and that I can do something for the survivors here — I can honor their bravery in coming forward ... I think the parts of jobs you don’t enjoy are when you don’t feel empowered to try and change things, but luckily that’s not often the case in safeguarding, particularly because everyone is so keen to get moving on it at the moment. What skill sets have you found to be most valuable? If you’re going to do this kind of work, you need to be self-aware, humble, and a good listener. You also need to have, if not an expertise in gender and gender-based violence, then at least an understanding of it. Are there any particular kinds of people you would encourage to pursue this kind of work? Absolutely national staff and program staff who are working at the grassroots level, because they’re the people who are going to be implementing this and working with it on a day-to-day level. And also, it’s wider than safeguarding, but in terms of the localization agenda, we need to be pushing this out as far as possible to a national level and making sure that there are people there who are empowered and supported and funded to do this work. What advice would you have for professionals seeking to get involved in safeguarding? The first advice would be: Please do — we need you! Particularly if you’re working within an organization, take every training opportunity that might come around. Organizations at the moment are doing a lot of training on safeguarding because there’s a lot of commitment around it, so demonstrate your interest, say this is an area you’re interested in going into, and get the opportunity to go on as much training as you can. If you can, make sure you’ve got a grounding in or understanding of gender and gender-based violence. Most organizations now have PSEA or safeguarding focal points. These are staff who already do substantive roles but take on the extra responsibility of being a focal point for 5 to 10% of their time. I would advise people, if they are interested in a career in safeguarding, to volunteer to be a focal point so they can get training and experience in the role.