Child Rights and Business Executive Assistant Internship

Presentation of Terre des hommes

As the leading Swiss organisation for children’s rights, created in 1960, the Terre des hommes foundation is committed to protecting children’s lives and their rights, and improving their well-being. We aim to do so through innovative programmes, specially designed to have both short- and long-term impacts.

For more than 60 years, we have been working in difficult situations, in countries at war, regions devastated by natural disasters, and places where poverty and malnutrition force millions of children and their families to migrate elsewhere. We provide direct and indirect support to millions of children, their families and communities in around thirty countries every year.

Our Vision

We aspire to a world where the rights of children, as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, are always respected.  Because we live in a world where children and young people cannot always grow up safe from harm, we support them, hand in hand, in building their resilience, so that they can become actors of positive change in their lives.

Our Mission

In order to protect children and their future, we are committed to fostering sustainable change to protect their rights and well-being. To make a difference, we support children in expressing their needs and interests and encourage them to participate actively in their communities to promote their empowerment, we advocate for the rights of children worldwide and ensure their well-being and the effective implementation of their rights as defined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments, and we focus our efforts on protecting the lives of children in fragile contexts as well as in more stable environments.

Our Values

• Participation and Empowerment
• Partnership and Collaboration
• Innovation and Learning
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Leadership and Excellence

Tdh and Child Rights and Business

Tdh engages with the private sector to improve the lives of children, families, communities, and countries by working across the public and private sector divide to strengthen child protection and promote children’s rights in business operations and global supply chains. Tdh is committed to ensuring that companies not only avoid harming children in their supply chain, but actively contribute to their rights and welfare. Tdh partners with businesses to align their operations with child rights principles. These partnerships aim to ensure that companies’ pursuit of business goals does not come at the expense of child welfare, but instead supports it.

Context

Human rights abuses are widespread in the production of many of the world’s most commonly traded goods – from coffee, cocoa, and tea to timber products and palm oil. While progress has been made over the past couple of decades, child labour, violence, abuse and harassment in the workplace still exist in many of these supply chains. When we look at the issue of child labour alone, we see the magnitude of the problem. As part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders committed to take immediate and effective measures to end child labour in all its forms by 2025. The latest global estimates indicate that globally 160 million children are still in child labour, accounting for almost one in 10 of all children worldwide. COVID-19 has even more so threatened the progress made so far and has put more children at risk of underage work. In the agricultural sector, this is especially an issue in developing countries where the supply chain starts and raw materials are sourced from farmers.

As stricter legislation and standards on corporate due diligence and human rights, consumer awareness, and increasing pressure fuelled by the media is pushing companies to do more to limit the negative impact of their business activities, companies are forced to rebuild their business models to take account of the social good. In these efforts, the private sector has learned that simply prohibiting child rights violations in their standards and banning buyers and suppliers who commit or tolerate child rights violations in their supply chain has proven to be counterproductive. In fact, this often drives abuses underground, making them harder to detect and thereby perpetuating the problem.

A more holistic, multi-sectoral, innovative and sustainable approach is needed which capitalizes and strengthens local child protection systems and is embedded in the communities where these businesses operate. How to do this in contexts of remote and disadvantaged areas of the world with widespread informality, insufficient law enforcement and persistent poverty, however, is far from simple.

As part of a global partnership with one of the leading coffee companies in the world, Terre des hommes has supported the company in developing and implementing a community-based Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation System (CRMRS) to strengthen child protection at the sites where the company sources its coffee beans from. The CRMRS focuses on prevention, continuous monitoring for, identification, risk mitigation and remediation of child rights violations on the coffee farms and in the communities from where coffee is sourced from. It aims at ensuring that children who are at risk of/or exposed to child labour, violence, neglect, abuse and harassment are identified and receive an effective, timely, multi-sectoral and child-friendly response from relevant service providers under the local child protection system in a coordinated and accountable manner. The CRMRS seeks to adopt a holistic, innovative and sustainable approach by capitalizing on and strengthening local and national child protection systems. It does this by supporting and working closely with both the child protection authorities and community-based structures around the farms.

With Tdh’s technical support, this system has now been launched and has currently been active in the Rwenzori region of Uganda for a bit over a year. By working closely with both the child protection authorities, local civil society and communities around the farms, it’s helping to support farmers to mitigate child protection risks and to identify and address the needs of children exposed to any child protection incidents. There are three key strategies which Terre des hommes adopted in the development of the CRMRS:

• A focus on child rights – Terre des hommes ensured the system does not just only focus on addressing child labour in supply chains. It works to protect and promote children’s rights to protection in general in a company’s supply chain and operations – while still being sensitive to the specific issues around child labour.
• A community-based approach – by leveraging on, engaging with and supporting existing community structures to identify and address child rights violations within their own community, the CRMRS adopts a ‘community-based approach’.
• Strengthening the existing formal child protection system – the CRMRS ensures that supply chain efforts are linking up to, aligned with and strengthen the existing government child protection system. The CRMRS thereby invests in the overall system and the connection between supply chain and government efforts, preventing the risk of potentially building duplicate and inefficient systems that run in silo.

Tdh has also for the first time globally tailored the global standard digital inter-agency child protection case management information management system (Primero) to be piloted for child rights monitoring and remediation in the private sector.

The CRMRS is attracting interest from various multinationals and across different commodities and sectors. Tdh is expanding its portfolio and work on Child Rights and Business – across areas such as strategy and policy setting, public-private sector partnerships, advocacy, specific activities on Child Rights and Business in Switzerland, and other areas of work – Child Rights and Business will continue to grow within Tdh in the coming years.

General Responsibilities of the Child Rights and Business Executive Assistant

 The Executive Assistant will be responsible for providing comprehensive administrative support to the Global Child Rights and Business Advisor based in Nairobi, Kenya – including managing his schedules, coordinating meetings, taking notes, handling correspondence, writing briefing notes, contributing to writing reports and other administrative support.

Specific Responsibilities

• Supporting strategic planning of the Advisors’ agenda and effective management of his emails and overall correspondence.
• Assisting in conducting research, gathering data, and preparing accurate reports as required by the Advisor.
• Serving as a liaison between the Advisor and internal/external stakeholders, ensuring clear and timely communication.
• Managing and maintaining the Advisors calendar, including scheduling meetings, appointments, and travel arrangements.
• Preparing, reviewing, and editing documents, reports, and presentations for the Advisor.
• Screening and prioritizing incoming communications, including emails, phone calls, and correspondence, and handle or redirect as appropriate.
• Coordinating executive meetings, including preparing agendas, taking minutes with a high level of accuracy and following up on action items.
• Planning, coordinating, and managing all aspects of domestic and international travel for the Advisor, colleagues and other associates or partners as required including flights, accommodation, ground transportation, and itineraries.
• Preparing detailed travel itineraries and provide the Advisor with all necessary documentation, including visas, passports, and meeting materials in a timely manner.
• Ensuring that all travel arrangements are cost-effective, time-efficient, and aligned with the Advisor’s preferences and schedule.
• Anticipating and resolving any travel-related issues, including changes to schedules or accommodations, in a proactive and efficient manner.
• Maintaining accurate records of travel expenses and ensuring timely submission of expense reports.
• Continuously striving to develop your knowledge and skills further.
• Engaging proactively with colleagues within the team and cross-functionally to improve and enhance efficiency.
• Performing any additional duties related to the above-mentioned duties and responsibilities that the Advisor may assign.

Key Skills and Competencies

This position will be recruited as an intern first, and will require:

• Ability to understand and translate business insights into actionable recommendations for the Advisor.
• Exceptional ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks, projects, and schedules with precision.
• Expertise in maintaining an organized, efficient office environment, ensuring that all details are handled with accuracy.
• Proficiency in crafting clear, concise, and persuasive communications, both written and verbal.
• Excellent report-writing, Excel and PowerPoint skills and the ability to convey complex information in a logical, clear and concise manner.
• Skilled in managing the flow of information between the Advisor and internal/external stakeholders, ensuring alignment and clarity.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate potential issue, addressing them proactively and taking initiative.
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive information with the highest level of confidentiality and professionalism.
• Professional fluency in the English language.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, or a related field.
• Minimum of one years experience as an Executive Assistant to a member of the senior management team.
• Experience in corporate governance is a plus.
• Knowledge in child protection/human rights, corporate social sustainability, and agricultural supply chains would be an added advantage.