“Sexual abuse doesn’t happen in this country.” “Our organization protects people – our staff would never do that.” “This only happens in peacekeeping missions.” These are just a few of the responses I received when I invited members of the humanitarian community to participate in a training on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) in late 2017 for the PSEA Network in Iraq.
Just months later, the humanitarian and development aid sector was rocked by media reports of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment by organizations including Oxfam, Save the Children, and the American Red Cross, and a resurfacing of reports of abuse by UN staff and peacekeepers from the previous two decades.
The immediate aftermath led to a barrage of requests for support and for information. Organizations who had previously refused to discuss the topic were now asking for training. Donors and UN entities demanded information about how many cases of abuse were reported through the PSEA Network, which organizations were involved, who were the perpetrators, and what was being done.
In the months that followed, the advantage of having a well-established PSEA Network became clear. By having a space where representatives from UN entities and international and national NGOs worked together on PSEA, we were able to have a unified voice when responding to requests from our headquarters, donors, and the government. We organized joint training for staff and awareness-raising campaigns for communities.
Most importantly, we had systems already in place when allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were reported. The increased attention to this topic by donors, the media, and our own organizations meant that people now felt safe enough – or had sufficient information – to report. When they did, we were ready to respond.
The PSEA Network, working alongside the Inter-Agency Hotline, served as a channel where individuals could report allegations. When survivors of abuse, witnesses, or whistleblowers do not know which organization the abuser works for, or they do not trust that organization to respond, having a neutral channel to report can feel like the only safe option.
Our Network documented the cases and referred survivors to violence against women and girls and child protection support services. We also referred the allegations to the relevant organization for investigation. This coordinated approach, alongside the database of cases, allowed us to identify high-risk locations, partners, and sectors, as well as gaps in survivor support services. This helped us to better target our advocacy, awareness raising, and training efforts.
A shift towards global coordination
Six months after the initial media coverage, the focus shifted to new standards and reporting requirements. Organizations were now asked to prove how they, and their implementing partners, were taking action to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse.
We started to see every organization setting up new reporting hotlines, many of which failed to meet the needs of local communities and created confusion about which line to call. Online training courses were duplicated unnecessarily. As each donor made a slightly different request, NGOs became overwhelmed by reporting requirements and processes to assess their PSEA capacity.
It quickly became clear that coordination was needed so we could focus our time and resources on keeping people safe. The UN came together to develop a common Implementing Partner Assessment to ensure NGOs would only need to be assessed once. NGO, UN, and humanitarian coordination groups collectively developed standard tools, training, and resources.
Another major achievement during this period was the coordinated effort to stop known perpetrators of abuse from moving between organizations and reoffending with impunity. In humanitarian, development and peacekeeping contexts, many staff are recruited rapidly to respond to crises, before moving on to the next job in another country or for another organization. Reference checking was sometimes overlooked or insufficient.
In 2018, the UN launched ClearCheck, an online database to prevent the rehiring of UN staff who have committed sexual misconduct. The Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response also launched the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme in 2019. What began as an arrangement between nine organizations has expanded to more than 300, including several UN entities. To date, 385 job applications have been rejected due to the scheme.
The past seven years have seen a lot of change in our sector. Attitudes around sexual exploitation and abuse are shifting. Rather than a few bad apples, we recognize that the inherent nature of our work leads to abuses of power that can cause harm to those we are meant to serve. A coordinated approach, alongside sustainable and predictable resourcing, is integral to managing the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. Together, we can ensure that there is #NoExcuse.