Islamic Relief made considerable progress in addressing safeguarding in 2021. Increasing staff capacity in 2020 resulted in more training and capacity building of country office teams, as well as a greater ability to investigate concerns and support survivors. Capacity development of country offices is a vital part of embedding and improving safeguarding practices across operations, so we welcomed funding to undertake this through a dedicated project covering our operations in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Jordan and Afghanistan.
The project developed a strong safeguarding infrastructure through disseminating policies and strengthening processes, procedures, as well as integrating safeguarding into systems such as human resources and procurement. Safeguarding communication materials and comprehensive training packages were developed and delivered to staff at all levels. It also developed staff awareness of the entitlements and rights of those we serve, the behaviour expected of staff, and of complaints mechanisms.
Examples included developing child-friendly complaints mechanisms and raising awareness of children and guardians in Jordan; incorporating safeguarding in each aspect of monitoring and evaluation activity; and ensuring community understanding of the issues at the start of projects in Kenya. In Afghanistan, we strengthened complaints mechanisms in projects serving remote areas, designing culturally sensitive materials and raising the confidence of local community members.
In Somalia, we incorporated safeguarding into an emergency response to flooding, training local people on safeguarding approaches and accessible complaints mechanisms. In Ethiopia, we set up and trained Community Hope Action Teams, resulting in greater transparency in complaints handling, feedback, and dialogue with affected communities. We found innovative methods to work with socially conservative and traditional communities while disseminating safeguarding messages.
We developed a training tool on ‘Preventing Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment’ specifically tailored to the communities that Islamic Relief works with. The tool included animations depicting a variety of safeguarding scenarios and detailing different ways of raising complaints. We used it successfully in remote rural communities as well as urban contexts, resulting in more local people feeling able to raise concerns and provide feedback.
A heavy emphasis was placed on safeguarding training in 2021, recognising that staff in country offices needed thorough knowledge and understanding of safeguarding if they were to practically apply best practice in their respective areas of work. We equipped country directors with regional workshops; delivered training on specific areas such as child protection; and held in-depth online training for 30 country offices.

In addition our network of Safeguarding Focal Points gave country offices advice and support. Staff became more confident of their ability to safeguard, and examples of greater protection and inclusion were evidenced, as well as the development of an environment that enabled our colleagues and those we serve to raise concerns, confident in the knowledge that such concerns would be taken seriously and addressed independently.
As a result, Islamic Relief received 46 safeguarding cases in 2021 of whichwhich two were deemed to not relate to safeguarding. A further 14 related to concerns within the community between community members, with no involvement of Islamic Relief staff. Five cases related to concerns between Islamic Relief staff and community members, and 25 related to concerns between staff members. Of all cases, six were unfounded, two were found to be malicious, and nine cases resulted in formal disciplinary action being taken including five dismissals.
Islamic Relief adheres to best practice as outlined in the CHS Alliance guidelines when undertaking investigations of safeguarding policy breaches to ensure a fair and transparent process. A survivor-centred approach is adopted which places the needs and wishes of the survivor at the heart of our work, providing timely support and interventions to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of the survivor is at the forefront of our response.
Cases numbers have increased from 2020, evidencing that communities and staff alike are more confident in reporting concerns. Communities also acted to prevent abuse from happening when faced with potential exploitation and felt emboldened to provide feedback on other matters, leading to greater participation and accountability.