Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Deadline: 21 April 2025
Job Description
Consultancy opportunity for Technical Assistance under the PEMS
funded Ethiopia hotspot1
Provision of Safeguarding Technical Advisor (Ethiopia).
We are seeking a Safeguarding Technical Advisor to work in close collaboration with four nascent survivor-led organisations. This is a long-term consultancy designed to grow and evolve with our partners. We are not seeking a “tick-box” approach or generic policy templates, but rather a thoughtful, context-specific and trauma-informed collaboration that builds meaningful safeguarding capacity from the ground up.
Summary
The Freedom Fund is committed to safeguarding as a journey. One that centres dignity, survivor leadership, and trauma-informed practice. We understand that safeguarding is not a compliance exercise but a fundamental expression of our values, to ensure that all people we work with are treated with respect, protected from harm, and empowered to speak out safely.
We are seeking a Safeguarding Technical Advisor, based in Addis Ababa, to work in close
collaboration with four nascent survivor-led organisations (SLOs) . This is a long-term consultancy designed to grow and evolve with our partners. We are not seeking a “tick-box” approach or generic policy templates, but rather a thoughtful, context-specific and trauma-informed collaboration that builds meaningful safeguarding capacity from the ground up.
The consultant must be fluent in both Amharic and English, deeply understand the Ethiopian context, and be comfortable working flexibly over multiple years with evolving scopes of work.
Alongside partner-focused support, the advisor will also support the Freedom Fund Ethiopian team on a retainer basis, responding to broader safeguarding needs across the portfolio.
Introduction to the Freedom Fund and its work in Ethiopia
The Freedom Fund is a leader in the global movement to end slavery. It:
• Invests in those countries and sectors with the greatest incidence of slavery.
• Analyses which interventions work best and shares that knowledge.
• Brings together a community of activists committed to ending slavery and empowered by the knowledge of how best to do so.
• Generates funding by demonstrating how effective interventions can protect those at risk of being enslaved and free those in slavery.
The Freedom Fund now has programs in Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. It currently supports and funds over 140 partners around the world. In Ethiopia, our hotspot program was launched in July 2015 to combat the domestic servitude of Ethiopian women and girls migrating to the Middle East. Our head office is based in London, but the Freedom Fund is also a registered organisation (NGO) in Ethiopia.
Until 2020, the Ethiopia program aimed at generating improved understanding and practices of safer migration, at providing socio-economic support to those most likely to migrate, at strengthening governance structures and systems for safer migration and supporting migrant workers, while promoting learning and good practices. By 2019, the hotspot program in Ethiopia had impacted over 128,000 victims of trafficking and vulnerable women and girls, partnering with eleven local NGOs in Addis Ababa and Amhara working to reduce the risk of, and support those affected by trafficking and exploitation.
Since 2019, the Freedom Fund has been awarded USD 10 million from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State under their Program to End Modern Slavery. This funding has allowed the Freedom Fund to expand its work from cross-border migration into internal migration, focusing on exploitation and servitude amongst migrant domestic workers and child domestic workers in-country, with the aim of measurably reducing the prevalence of domestic servitude amongst girls in Ethiopia as well as improving the migration outcomes of Ethiopian women and girls in the Middle East.
Introduction to the FF Ethiopia hotspot supported by the U.S. Department of State
(DOS) Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS2)
The Freedom Fund Ethiopia hotspot has two main programs funded by the U.S. DOS under the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS):
• One program aimed at reducing the risk of exploitation of child domestic workers (CDW) in Addis Ababa.
• One program aimed at reducing trafficking of Ethiopian girls and women migrating to the Middle East as domestic workers, focusing on Addis Ababa and the Amhara region.
Purpose and scope of this consultancy
Freedom Fund aims to engage a consultant or (team of consultants) to
Goal We are seeking a Safeguarding Technical Advisor, based in Addis Ababa, to work in close collaboration with four nascent survivor-led organisations (SLOs). This is a long-term consultancy designed to grow and evolve with our partners. We are not seeking a “tick-box” approach or generic policy templates, but rather a thoughtful, context-specific and trauma-informed collaboration that builds meaningful safeguarding capacity from the ground up.
Objectives
1. Partner-Facing Support
The advisor will be embedded in our Ethiopia program, working with four SLOs that are at different stages in their safeguarding journeys. The role will be grounded in deep collaboration, trauma informed capacity building, and contextually relevant safeguarding.
The advisor will:
• Build strong, trust-based relationships with each SLO.
• Support each organisation to co-create safeguarding frameworks, not just policies, but also detailed procedures, SOPs, guidance documents, and culturally meaningful implementation tools. (This will be scaled out over the course of 3 years and not expected immediately)
• Deliver tailored training to diverse audiences, ensuring language, content, and delivery
styles are adapted to each SLO’s needs.
• Design and support the development of accessible and safe reporting and response
mechanisms.
• Coach safeguarding focal points and leadership to take ownership of safeguarding as a
long-term organisational commitment.
• Assist in designing or advising on investigation procedures where required.
• Support risk identification and mitigation strategies rooted in power analysis, survivor
leadership, and local realities.
This work is expected to be iterative, evolving with the needs of each partner over time. Periods of inactivity may occur between phases.
2. Freedom Fund Ethiopia (FFE) Support – Retainer-Based
In addition to partner-level work, the consultant will be retained by the Freedom Fund Ethiopia team to:
• Provide technical input on broader safeguarding strategies, tools, and trainings.
• Support investigation planning and response in complex cases.
Deliver training to FFE partners outside the SLO cohort.
• Contribute to policy development and contextualization for the Ethiopian program.
• Support navigating complex dynamics that can be programmatic, and safeguarding related, in a trauma informed way.
This flexible, retainer-based relationship will enable the Freedom Fund to draw on the advisor’s expertise as needed across its Ethiopia portfolio.
Specific Deliverables
• Inception meetings with each SLO and the FFE team to develop a collaborative work plan.
• Co-created safeguarding frameworks (including but not limited to policies, SOPs, codes of conduct, reporting procedures, and investigation guidance).
• Safeguarding training packages tailored to each organisation’s needs and audiences.
• Development of safe, appropriate reporting and response systems.
• Ongoing coaching and technical advice across the multi-year engagement.
• On-demand support for case review, investigation planning, or broader safeguarding
advice.
Qualifications and Experience
The Freedom Fund seeks an energetic, thoughtful and committed consultant. The successful candidate will have experience in the following areas of support to local organizations:
Essential to demonstrate in the proposal
• Fluent in Amharic and English, with the ability to communicate technical safeguarding
concepts accessibly and sensitively.
• Extensive experience working in safeguarding or PSEAH, particularly with adult populations and survivor-led organisations.
• Demonstrated commitment to trauma-informed, survivor-centred, and anti-oppressive
practice.
• Experience co-creating policies and procedures in collaboration with grassroots partners.
• Experience developing SOPs, guidance notes, and implementation tools, not just standalone policy documents.
• Skilled trainer with a track record of designing and delivering highly contextualised training to diverse audiences.
• Deep understanding of power dynamics, vulnerability, and local safeguarding risks in the
Ethiopian context.
• Able to build trust and confidence with partners, with humility, cultural sensitivity, and
flexibility.
• Based in Addis Ababa or surrounding regions. (If applying as part of a team, at least one key member of your team should be based in Addis Ababa).
Desirable to demonstrate in the proposal
• Familiarity with trauma healing approaches and/or community-led safeguarding.
Personal Attributes:
• Patient, empathetic, and able to work alongside others rather than imposing solutions.
• Highly organised and self-directed, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams over a long time period.
• Committed to learning, reflection, and growth both for themselves and for the partners
they support.
HOW TO APPLY
TOR -Safeguarding Technical Advisor (Ethiopia)
Proposal format
BID Requirements
Proposals for this procurement should include the following documents:
• A proposal narrative (maximum 2 pages) defining your vision for building the capacity of
SLOs over three years, with a specific focus on code of conduct and safeguarding
frameworks in year one.
• A track record (maximum 1 page) demonstrating previous experience that is relevant to the key deliverables of this TOR.
• A budget overview of all costs associated with design and delivery of the proposal for year one.
• If applying as a team, a one page overview of team members.
• Up to date CV(s).
• Contact information for three references.
All proposals should be submitted to: safeguarding@freedomfund.org no later than 21st of April 2025.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We reserve the right to close the procurement early in the event that the procurement is fulfilled before the closing date.
Shortlisted candidates may be invited to submit modifications or make a short presentation for the final selection.
Further information about the Freedom Fund Ethiopia can found at our website.