Civil society, non-governmental, humanitarian aid and any other organisation that comes into contact – whether directly or indirectly – with children as a result of their activities must have a comprehensive safeguarding policy to ensure the safety and welfare of all children.
The observation came through during a workshop on child safeguarding organized by People’s Action Learning Network (PAL Network). PAL Network is conducting a common numeracy assessment for children (age 5 to 16) across all of its member countries. As a member of PAL Network, IIDedu is going to conduct the ICAN (International Common Assessment of Numeracy) survey in one district of Bangladesh by the end of this year.
Taking into account this forthcoming endeavour, which will involve direct and regular contact with children, and overall, to strengthen its capacity to protect every human being below the age of eighteen years, IIDedu attended the four-day residential workshop.
Held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 23rd to 26th July 2019, the training was facilitated by Karen Rasmusen, a director and senior consultant with Child Safe Horizons – consultancy group focused on working to protect children from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
In addition to focusing on increasing the participants’ understanding and awareness about the key elements of safeguarding and its application, the workshop also covered a variety of critical components required in developing safeguarding policies and procedures in line with global best practices.
While attending the workshop, Kazi Ferdous Pavel, a Research Associate at the IID, underscored why different issues, such as gender, cultural norms and practices should be taken into careful consideration for child safeguarding, especially in the context of Bangladesh.
The workshop brought together a diverse group of individuals from 15 organizations from 13 countries across three continents – Africa, Asia and South America – and PAL Network staff.
IID will officially formalise its Child Safeguarding Policy to ensure that all its staff members and associates uphold the highest standard of respectable conduct when dealing with children in all its future activities.
