… we know that girls and young women do not always feel safe in places they should. For many, travelling to school, going out in the evening, speaking their mind or even exploring the internet can put them in harm's way. Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting offers a vital community of friendship and opportunities for adventure in a safe environment. (WAGGGS Safeguarding Policy 1.4)
In 2022, The Girl Experience Team at WAGGGS piloted a safeguarding capacity building project designed to support WAGGGS vison - an equal world where all girls can thrive – and deliver on our current strategy commitment to embed quality safeguarding policy and practice in all Membership Organisations… 152 countries with a reach of 8.2 million members.
But what do we mean by ‘quality?’
In the Core Mission team, we use the acronym ‘REAL’ to define a quality experience. This means, with the girl at the centre, the experience must first be ‘relevant’- she can see how the experience relates to her world or how it will make a difference to her life. It is ‘engaging’ - meaning she can’t wait to take part, it’s fun and exciting and she’ll remember it for those reasons. The experience must also be ‘accessible’ – using language, learning styles and terms that she can engage with and understand well. And last but not least, the experience is ‘learner-Led’ - she can choose her own path and when and how to take part – she decides!
When tasked with designing a project to embed quality safeguarding in Member Organisations, it occurred to us that REAL was the perfect tool to guide the approach, and here’s why....
Making Safeguarding Relevant
If there is one thing I have learnt when it comes to safeguarding, and anything that needs to work in all four corners of the world, there is no ‘one size fits all.’ Quality safeguarding practice should always be relevant to the risks, activities and behaviour of the people it protects, with each safeguard carefully crafted accordingly.
Take online safety and the ever-changing landscape of internet risks. As part of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign (December 2022), we asked girls and young women about their experiences online. We found that in Malaysia 52% of respondents had spoken to strangers online, but only 11% have met them in real life. Whereas in Pakistan 34% had spoken to strangers online, but a much higher proportion (22%) told us they had met them in person. Context is everything and it is important to understand these subtle but important differences to design quality safeguards that are fit for purpose – especially when operating in such a diverse world of ever-changing risks.
In one of the first activities in the project, we think through these risks in detail. We consider what we can learn from historical cases, local news, or what is happening elsewhere in the community. When I trialled this activity in Kenya last year, news had just broken about sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by private taxi drivers hired by middle class families to take their children to school. This prompted an important conversation about the use of private hire travel and whether the current travel policy needed review in light of learning from this case.
Making Safeguarding Engaging
Safeguarding can often be daunting. It is upsetting to think about incidents of harm and abuse, especially in a voluntary movement where people selflessly work with little time, give a lot of love and know deep down that they ‘would never do anything to harm others.’ It is even more upsetting to think that a minority will exploit this kindness in order to access and abuse children.
We need to remember that safeguarding is much more than responding to harm and abuse or preventing malicious people from entering our organisations. It is also about providing safe and supportive environments (where girls can thrive) and promoting meaningful, inclusive participation in our work.
Good safeguarding practice is only possible if all people are engaged at all levels, and they can see the positive difference it makes. That’s why, in another project activity, we create a ‘motto’ to help share positive messages about safeguarding that people can remember and will want to engage with.
Accessible Safeguarding
I have a keen interest in language and have previously written about the importance of defining safeguarding in your own terms. Safeguarding is an Anglocentric term which rarely translates directly and can easily lose its broader purpose of prevention, well-being, and participation. Choosing accessible words and phrases that make sense to those who will implement, uphold or benefit from the policy is critical if the policy is to truly be lived and breathed by all. For this reason, we spend time in the project exploring the concept of safeguarding, how it relates to child protection and choose words and phrases that will be understood and accessible to all.
‘Learner Led’ Safeguarding
To build on all the above, quality safeguarding practice should always be driven and owned by those it serves. While fundamentally they all reach the same goals, safeguarding policies should never be a carbon copy of each other. They should be localised and specific to the (Member) Organisations’ needs. The capacity building project is designed to do just that – build capacity so that MOs can design and implement their own policies and practice that suit their own context. Or in the words of one of the participants…
"The Safeguarding Workshop enabled me to understand the importance of implementing a Safeguarding Policy in our Member Organisation in order to create a safe and supportive environment for all. The workshop prepares me to plan the necessary action in planning for a policy that can be contextualised for my organisation. I found that the concerns and issues raised by the different MOs during discussions to be valuable and relatable as well.”
Are you part of the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Movement? Are you passionate about creating safer spaces for girls and young women to thrive? Could you be part of a diverse global team who work together to strengthen safeguarding practice all over the world?? If so, click below to apply for the Core Mission Volunteer Role today!
Global Safeguarding Specialist
Alternatively, for more information you can contact Mel and Jo directly at [email protected] or [email protected]