J7 Child Safeguarding SRG2 FINAL.pdf

SEED Rural Group 1 Construction Services

SECTION J.7 CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY

The Child Safeguarding Policy (CSP) establishes the minimum standards and guidelines for the safeguarding of children at construction sites or within communities where a construction site is proposed.

PREMISE OF THE SEED CMC PROJECT CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY

The principles contained in the SEED CMC Project Child Safeguarding Policy derive from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Malawi Law - The Child Care, Protection and Justice Act, 2010 (No. 22 of 2010) where among others it is stipulated that:

• All children have equal rights to protection from abuse and exploitation.

• All children should be encouraged to fulfil their potential and inequalities should be challenged.

• Everybody has a responsibility to support the care and protection of children.

• International NGOs have a duty of care to children with whom they work and with whom their representatives work.

EXPECTATION ON ADHERENCE TO THE CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY

SEED Project members are required to uphold the best interests of the child and take measures that are necessary and reasonable to ensure that at all times. Under no circumstances shall anyone associated with the SEED Project subject children in and around the community to any mode of physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse, exploitation or neglect. All stakeholders, including the construction contractor(s), their subcontractors, vendors, suppliers, laborers, etc., are required to uphold to the highest possible standard of respectable conduct as they owe a professional duty of care and protection towards children.

The following should always be noted by all clients and partners;

• Any agency that works for or with SEED Project but does so through secondary partners, the primary partner/client etc will have the responsibility to meet minimum standards of protection for the children in their partners’ programmes in line with the SEED Project Child Safeguarding Policy. It is the responsibility if the primary client to orient and sensitize the partners on the contents of the SEED Project Child Safeguarding Policy.

• Failure to adhere to stipulations indicated in the Child Safeguarding Policy by a client or a member of the client team will attract stiff penalties including but not limited to termination of both individual and institutional contractual agreements (in cases where it is viewed that the client was made aware of the violation but decided not to act in a manner expected of the client).

KEY DEFINITIONS IN THE SEED CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY

SEED Rural Group 1 Construction Services

In SEED Project’s Child Safeguarding Policy, the following shall be the working definitions for the following terms. More are contained in the detailed Child Safeguarding Policy:

1. Child Abuse and Exploitation: the use of one’s position of power, authority, office or trust to profit from children by means of coercion, threats, force, inducement or other similar methods, with or without promises of assistance to them or their families/caregivers.

2. Physical Abuse: consists of actions that intentionally inflict injury on a child’s body, such as hitting, beating, kicking, pinching, burning etc.

3. Sexual Abuse: includes the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, including inappropriate touching, use of verbal sexual innuendos, using force or coercion to solicit sexual acts. Note: consent given by a child is not a defence.

4. Sexual Exploitation: is the abuse of a child using one’s position of power or trust to profit sexually from a child, sometimes in exchange for or with promises to provide them with any type of assistance. In this case, the child feels that he or she is powerless and has no other choice but to agree. It also refers to the soliciting of children to others for the purpose of commercial gain.

Since Child Safeguarding Policy will be applicable to all manner of SEED Project team members and any form of secondees including contractors, volunteers and partners, SEED Project will conduct two sets of capacity building sessions:

Awareness on Child Safeguarding Policy’s: Will be offered to all partners – short term and long-term partners who will at one point in time visit any of the construction sites. The aim is to ensure that every SEED CMC Project person or secondee gets basic knowledge fo the contents of SEED CMC Child Safeguarding Policy.

Training on Child Safeguarding Policy. This session targets all manner of SEED CMC Project team members who will frequently and physically be present in the SEED CMC Project impact areas such as SEED CMC Project team members and Construction Contractors.

CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS

The Construction Contractor must follow the Child Safeguarding policy and make sure all their subcontractors, vendors, laborers, suppliers, etc. comply to the requirements.

The Construction Contractor must to conduct training of all its staff prior to mobilization and frequent refresher training throughout the duration of the project.

The Contractor must document the training provided to each staff member.

The Contractor must report any incident or infraction of the child safeguarding policy to USAID COR immediately.