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Safeguarding

Social Development Direct are market leaders in providing safeguarding technical services.

We have experience working with diverse clients, from development finance institutions and private sector companies to UN agencies and NGOs, universities, and government bodies.

We are committed to helping organisations prevent and respond to exploitation, abuse, harassment and all forms of harm.

We are proud that the flagship Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub is part of our portfolio of work.

Man holding hands over blocks of playing pieces shaped as humans.

What is safeguarding?

 

Uneven power dynamics - like those seen in the development and humanitarian aid sector, and in private sector supply chains – increase the risk of harm and exploitation. The more vulnerable staff and community members are, the more likely they are to be exploited, abused, harassed, or otherwise harmed. When organisations’ safeguarding measures fall short and misconduct occurs, projects, relationships and already made gains can be jeopardised and community tensions can be increased.

Our work in this area

 

Our dedicated team of global safeguarding professionals ensure that you receive the highest level of technical advice and support. We start our work from wherever your organisation is on their safeguarding journey. We take the time to understand you and your organisation so we can provide support that is contextually relevant, responds to real needs and leads to success in safeguarding. We offer an explicitly intersectional feminist approach to safeguarding – in particular on the intersections of gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE), and disability.  

We can support you with:  

  • Safeguarding policies, procedures, models and systems 

  • Safeguarding knowledge building, including with tools, guidelines, training, and coaching on safeguarding. Research and learning on what works in different contexts and for different organisations

  • Incident case handling and investigation advice

  • Monitoring, evaluation and learning of safeguarding efforts

  • Safeguarding audits and self-assessment support. Click here to read more about our Safeguarding Framework for Organisations

Our thematic areas include: 

  • Safeguarding against Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment (SEAH)  

  • Child safeguarding  

  • Bullying and (non-sexual) harassment  

  • Safeguarding in humanitarian contexts  

  • Integrating safeguarding into high-risk projects  

  • Digital safeguarding  

  • Case handling and investigations 

  • Safe research, monitoring and evaluation 

“Our collaboration with SDDirect will help light the way to real improvements in the way AfDB seeks to prevent, mitigate and respond to SEAH risks in its operations. The (team's) . . . commitment towards safeguarding helped make this an exceptionally rewarding experience for everyone involved.”
David Simpson
African Development Bank (AfDB)
"Since 2019 RSH has successfully developed and tested initiatives to improve safeguarding practices amongst small CSOs in the aid sector . . . during the year of this review the impact of that work began to be seen at a larger scale.”

Safeguarding Resource and Support Hub Annual Review, 2022
Independent Review on behalf of the UK HMG Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

If you would like to hear more about our work on Safeguarding (SG), please reach out to Anna Gawn, Head of Safeguarding Portfolio, anna.gawn@sddirect.org.uk.

'We will find some other reason': a personal reflection on queerphobia within women's rights work and the Official Development Assistance (ODA) sector

During a previous international development assignment in a fragile and conflict-affected country (before I joined Social Development Direct), I was evacuated and lost my job because I am a queer woman. Someone had found out about my relationship with my partner and sent a letter threatening to report us both to the national government. They had sent the letter to my partner’s Country Director and demanded that her contract was terminated.

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