About the Program:

Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasizes the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms.  Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values. 

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

The third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

At the subnational level, INOVASI Phase 3 works in 25 districts and cities across the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, East Java, West Java, and Maluku. The program also works in Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN).

The Program is implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Duration of the contract: 20 days total

Location: Indonesia 

Reporting into: Program Director

The Opportunity:

About the Consultancy

The consultancy aims to strengthen the child protection safeguarding policies of INOVASI Phase 3 program. Ensuring child safeguarding policies and measures are mainstreamed throughout all levels of the program is essential for effective safeguarding, particularly given the focus of the program on one year pre-primary, primary education systems, and broad inclusivity. The Safeguarding Specialist Reviewer will be engaged by Palladium to support a thorough review of INOVASI, and the program’s relevant partners to understand current safeguarding processes. The Specialist will work closely with the Program Director, Deputy Program Director – Development Priorities and Communications, and Gender and Child Protection Lead, as well the broader INOVASI technical and Senior Management Team.

The review will be underpinned by DFAT’s key principles and minimum standards detailed within their Child Protection Policy.

Location 

The role is remote on a short-term basis.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities 

The consultant will provide an in-depth evaluation of INOVASI’s safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures at both an internal and external level, supported by clear findings and recommendations to ensure the program has robust and effective safeguarding measures. This should include recommendations for integrating and strengthening child safeguarding measures for INOVASI’s staff, stakeholders and partners, particularly through institutional strengthening assistance, curriculum adaptation and delivery, learning resource development, and the training and development of teachers. The process for consultancy will include comprehensive review of key documents policies and consultation with staff members, including communications materials and the employee code of conduct.

 The key responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to:

1. Conduct a thorough assessment and review of INOVASI child safeguarding policies and procedures against DFAT and Palladium standards, including reviewing recent work on child protection training materials, due diligence documents, photo consent forms and risk assessments (2 Days)

2. Conduct a review of INOVASI’s partners' child safeguarding policies and procedures against DFAT and Palladium standards, including INOVASI’s work with partners to identify potential risks during implementation of activities. (3 Days)

3. Assess the child safeguarding risks of INOVASI partners who will be in contact or working with children (2 days)

4. Provide mitigation measures to ensure compliance with DFAT and Palladium child protection and safeguarding requirements based on INOVASI’s current organogram. (1 day)

5. Provide recommendations for INOVASI and partners to meet compliance against standards, including child safeguarding risk mitigation and management plans.  (3 days)

6. Provide recommendations for INOVASI and partners regarding systems to respond to any reports or disclosures of child safeguarding issues, in accordance with DFAT and Palladium global policies. This will include reviewing or drafting process documents. (2 days)

7. Recommend measures to strengthen the due diligence process relating to child safeguards for subcontractors and grant recipients. Provide tools, guidelines, processes and resources for sub-contractors, grantees, and program staff. (1 day)

8. Provide a summary report for items 1 to 5, including: (2 days)

(a) Findings against compliance with DFAT and Palladium standards,

(b) Findings about level of safeguarding risk.

(c) Recommendations to meet compliance and mitigate risks.

(d) Recommendations regarding systems to respond to child safeguarding reports or disclosures

9. Draft process documents, tools or other supports to implement recommendations/meet compliance.  (2 days)

10. Design and deliver introductory (up to 4 hours) child safeguarding training for INOVASI and partners’ staff and consultants, with a focus on integrating child protection management and mitigation measures into work plans and the monitoring of mitigation measures to reduce child protection risks. (2 days)

11. Provide any other relevant support, as required by the Program Director, Deputy Program Director – Development Priorities and Communications, and Gender and Child Protection Lead.

Key Competencies

The Safeguarding Specialist should possess the following qualifications, experience, skills and competencies:

1. Minimum tertiary qualification in social sciences, international development, or relevant discipline is desirable.

2. Extensive relevant professional experience in supporting safeguarding compliance, including undertaking risk assessments, and developing risk mitigation strategies.

3. Comprehensive understanding of operationalising child protection safeguarding minimum standards and principles from DFAT or any other internationally recognized standards within international development projects.

5. A thorough understanding of child protection issues, policies, and regulations, particularly within education sectors in the Indonesian context.

4. Demonstrated relevant experiences to build compliance standard on large complex donor funded programs, including experience working with the Australian Government or DFAT funded programs.

5. Demonstrated relevant experiences of ensuring the utilisation of key Australian Government aid delivery policies (particularly DFAT’s Safeguarding policies).

6. Proven track record of working collaboratively with various stakeholders including donors and development partners, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations.

7. Experience providing technical assistances, capacity building, such as training, and session to various audiences for implementing safeguarding principles effectively in a culturally sensitive manner.

8. Experience in running inclusive consultation process in a culturally sensitive, respectful and meaningful manner.

9. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and respectfully in a cross-cultural setting.

10. Excellent written and verbal communication, liaison, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.

11. An understanding of Islamic education, alternative learning modalities, universal design principles, and associated inclusive education competency areas would be an advantage.

Choose Palladium for

If you are looking for an opportunity that will allow you to create a positive impact in the international community development space, then this is the place for you.

Applications will be assessed on the application close date.

Please note - we are only accepting applications from job seekers with full working rights within (country) as this role is unable to be sponsored.

We are not accepting resumes from recruitment agencies for this role.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success, and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.  

Should you require any adjustments or accommodation to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss. 

Palladium recognizes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the country throughout Australia, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.

Safeguarding 

We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.