Elizabeth Bellardo

Elizabeth Bellardo's picture
Title: 
Senior Program Manager, Humanitarian Practice & Protection
Phone: 
202.667.8227
Department: 
Humanitarian Policy & Practice

As Senior Program Manager for Humanitarian Practice & Protection at InterAction, Elizabeth Bellardo currently works on a variety of issues. Primarily, she is the lead staff person working with members on the prevention and response to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) of beneficiaries. She manages the InterAction SEA Working Group, and overseas a project to build NGO capacity on SEA funded by State/PRM. She also leads InterAction's protection mainstreaming work as part of the Protection Working Group and the Global Protection Cluster's Task Force on Protection Mainstreaming. Previous work with InterAction has included several years on emergency response issues, Gender Based Violence, the Emergency Market Mapping and Assessment project, and the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness project. She has been at InterAction since 2004. Before that she was with the Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Overseas experience includes Senegal, South Africa and France. She has a BA in French Studies and International Affairs from Lewis & Clark College and a master’s degree from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Are Aid Organizations Upholding The Humanitarian Imperative?

Elizabeth Bellardo's picture
Submitted by Elizabeth Bellardo on Thu, 09/22/2011 - 4:23pm

Talking about sex is hard. Talking about staff misconduct—like trading sex for aid—can be like walking through a legal, financial, cultural, reputational and moral minefield. But talking about the rights, dignity and safety of disaster- and conflict-affected people resonates with almost every humanitarian and development aid worker I've met. And if that doesn't open the door for a thoughtful discussion on a sensitive topic, framing it around the organizational risk associated with a lack of prevention and response systems should ring an alarm bell (CEOs, I'm looking at you!).