Course Materials For Preventing Sexual Exploitation And Abuse

Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) of beneficiaries by humanitarian personnel is a serious concern for the humanitarian community, and represents one of the most egregious failures of protection. As organizations dedicated to alleviating harm and respecting and honoring the dignity and integrity of everyone, InterAction members have an obligation and responsibility to perform in a manner that is consistent with the fundamental principles of human rights. Given this, we must remain at the forefront of efforts to prevent SEA.

InterAction’s SEA Sub-Working Group (SWG) is dedicated to addressing the issue of SEA of beneficiary populations by humanitarian and development assistance staff. The SWG is the advisory body to strengthen InterAction member capacity to respond to and prevent SEA, to advocate for awareness of SEA, and to influence prevention and response capacities on the global level.

The primary objectives of the SWG are: to strengthen InterAction member capacity; to provide a forum to facilitate the sharing of information, knowledge, tools, etc., so as to foster cross-agency learning; to advocate for SEA awareness and influence UN agencies, governments, donors, and others on SEA policies and programs at the global level; and to provide training opportunities for InterAction membership related to SEA.

The InterAction Framework for Strengthening NGO Capacity to Address Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Gender-Based Violence is a project of the SWG funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration. The goal of this project is to provide InterAction members with the necessary tools and resources to establish a sustainable capacity to prevent and respond to SEA at all levels of staff and to further coordinate the InterAction membership’s response to gender-based violence.

While NGOs understand the necessity of protecting their beneficiaries from SEA, it is often challenging to develop the materials and procedures necessary to address this issue with limited technical expertise. This project offers InterAction members an unprecedented opportunity to work together to build capacity to address SEA as individual organizations and as an NGO community.