PSEA and child safeguarding

1Sexual exploitation and abuse: what are we talking about?

Sexual exploitation is any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power or trust for sexual purposes (for example demanding sex in exchange for a ration or a job). Sexual abuse is the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under coercive conditions.

When the perpetrator is a humanitarian worker, it is a serious betrayal of the people we are meant to help. Organisations apply zero tolerance to such acts and have a duty to act when they are reported.

2The IASC six core principles

1. Sexual exploitation and abuse constitute acts of gross misconduct and are grounds for termination of employment.
2. Sexual activity with children (persons under the age of 18) is prohibited regardless of the local age of majority or age of consent; mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defence.
3. Exchange of money, employment, goods or services (including assistance that is due) for sexual favours is prohibited.
4. Sexual relationships between humanitarian staff and beneficiaries are strongly discouraged, since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics.
5. Any staff member who has suspicions or concerns must report them through the established mechanisms.
6. Humanitarian staff are obliged to create and maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse; managers must support and develop systems that maintain this environment.

3Reporting and assisting

• Report through your organisation's official channels (PSEA focal point, dedicated hotline, confidential e-mail address) or through the inter-agency mechanism in the area. You do not need evidence: a suspicion held in good faith is enough.
• Do not investigate yourself, and do not confront the suspected person.
• Keep the information confidential; anyone who reports in good faith is protected against retaliation.
• The approach is victim-centred: the victim's safety, choices and access to assistance (health, psychosocial, legal) come first, even if the investigation has not yet concluded.
• Communities must know that assistance is free and how to complain: posters, meetings, phone numbers.

4Child safeguarding

Safeguarding (safeguarding) is the set of measures an organisation takes to ensure that its staff, programmes and partners do not cause harm to children (and vulnerable adults). Common rules in a code of conduct:

• Never be alone with a child out of sight of others; apply the two-adult rule whenever possible.
• No inappropriate physical contact, no humiliating language or punishment.
• No photos of children without parental consent, and no images that make it possible to identify or locate them in a sensitive context.
• No private contact (social media, phone) with child beneficiaries.
• Safer recruitment: reference checks, safeguarding questions at interview, signing of the code of conduct.

5The PSEA normative framework in detail: texts, obligations and donor requirements

The IASC Six Core Principles are the common foundation, but a professional must know the full set of texts that derive from them, because these are what donors, auditors and PSEA coordination bodies use to assess an organisation. The texts complement one another: some set individual rules of conduct, others institutional obligations.

Reference texts

Precise definitions to master

• Sexual exploitation: any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power or trust for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another (ST/SGB/2003/13).
• Sexual abuse: the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions.
• Sexual harassment: unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, usually between colleagues; it falls under internal human resources policies. The term PSEAH is used when arrangements cover all three concepts, which is now the expectation of many donors (FCDO, OECD DAC donors).

What donors require in practice

Notification deadlines vary between donors and agreements (often between 24 hours and a few working days). The professional rule: note the deadline in each contract at signature and write it into the internal procedure, rather than discovering it the day an allegation comes in.

6Analysing the sexual exploitation and abuse risks of a programme

The risk of sexual exploitation and abuse arises from a combination of three factors: power to decide on access to aid or employment, contact with people in situations of vulnerability, and weak oversight. The analysis consists of identifying, activity by activity, where these three factors combine. PSEA coordination bodies carry out a collective analysis (inter-agency SEA risk overview), but each organisation must also analyse its own programmes.

A five-step method

1. Map the points of contact: registration, targeting, distributions, cash transfers, recruitment of daily workers, cash-for-work, children's activities, clinics, accommodation, transport, site management.
2. Identify those who hold power at each point: staff, daily workers, committee members, site managers, drivers, guards, subcontractors, cash transfer agents, security forces.
3. Identify aggravating factors: scarcity of aid, opaque selection criteria, all-male staff, night-time or isolated activities, very low pay for daily workers, movements of unaccompanied children, limited access to phones for women.
4. Rate the risk by likelihood and severity, as in any risk analysis.
5. Define the measures and check that they are budgeted, assigned and monitored.

Model matrix by activity

Consulting communities on risks and on channels

Community consultations address two questions: where and how people might be led to "pay" for aid in one way or another, and which reporting channels they would use with confidence. Answers vary widely: on one site, women prefer to speak to a trusted woman at the safe space; elsewhere, adolescents prefer a toll-free number; older people prefer face-to-face contact. Participants are never asked whether they themselves have been victims.

The highest risk is rarely where the international staff are. It is concentrated among the intermediaries who control day-to-day access to aid: daily workers, committee members, service providers' agents, guards and drivers.

7Designing a safe and accessible reporting mechanism

A reporting mechanism is judged by a single criterion: do people use it to report serious matters? A mechanism that only receives complaints about the quality of rations does not prove the absence of abuse; it often proves that people do not trust the channel for sensitive issues. The IASC Best Practice Guide on Inter-Agency Community-Based Complaint Mechanisms (2016) and CHS Commitment 5 provide the framework.

Essential features

• Multiple channels: at least one face-to-face channel (a trained woman and man), a toll-free phone channel, a written channel (a locked box opened by two people), and a child-friendly channel.
• Independence: complaints must never be received or sorted by the people who directly manage the activity concerned. A complaints box emptied by the distribution manager is a compromised mechanism.
• Separate sensitive channel: allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse are isolated as soon as they are received and passed to the PSEA focal point, outside the ordinary flow of programme complaints.
• Accessibility: local languages, oral and illustrated materials, access for persons with disabilities (home visits, staff trained in the local sign language where possible).
• Information: the community knows the channels, knows that aid is free, that staff have no right to ask for anything in return and that reporting is confidential.

Processing flow and timeframes

Minimum intake form

It contains only what is needed to ensure safety, assistance and referral: date and channel of receipt; general nature of the allegation (exploitation, abuse, harassment); organisation and function of the alleged perpetrator if known; need for immediate assistance (yes or no) and referral offered; the victim's consent to be contacted and by what means; name of the staff member receiving it. It does not contain a detailed account of the facts, which is a matter for the investigation.

Making the mechanism accessible to children

• Trusted persons identified and trained in child-friendly spaces and supported schools.
• Age-appropriate messages, tested with children: what is not acceptable from an adult, whom to tell.
• Consultations with children conducted by trained staff, with parental consent and the children's assent, on the channels they would use.
• A clear procedure for staff who receive a report from a child: immediate referral to a child protection case worker.

An increase in reports after a mechanism is launched is often a sign of trust, not a deterioration of the situation. PSEA coordination bodies are more concerned about an organisation that has been present for years and reports no allegations.

8Child safeguarding in practice: safer recruitment, activities, images and digital

The Keeping Children Safe standards are organised into four blocks: a policy approved by the governing body, people recruited and trained safely, procedures for prevention and response, and accountability that makes it possible to check that all of this works. The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS, Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2019) also include a specific standard on safeguarding in programmes.

Safer recruitment, step by step

UN agencies also use the ClearCheck database, which lists individuals who left the UN system following substantiated allegations of sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment, to prevent their re-hiring.

Designing safe activities for children

• A safeguarding risk analysis for every activity involving children (child-friendly spaces, school distributions, sports activities, transport, accommodation).
• At least two trained adults present, including a woman where possible; activities in visible places; no closed rooms.
• Staff-to-child ratios adapted to age and context; child-friendly space guidelines recommend limited group sizes, in the order of 15 to 20 children per facilitator depending on age, with a tighter ratio for the youngest.
• Attendance register and a procedure for handing the child over to a known adult at the end of the activity.
• No child transported by a single adult; no child accommodated in a staff member's home.

Images, stories and data

Digital safeguarding

Digital risks are now at the heart of safeguarding: private messaging contacts between staff and children or beneficiaries, project messaging groups where phone numbers and photos circulate, cash transfer apps that reveal identity, online harassment. Minimum rules: no private communication between staff and child beneficiaries; project groups administered by the organisation; work phone numbers for staff in contact with communities; a procedure for reporting abusive content.

Safeguarding is not limited to children: most current policies also cover adults at risk. It applies to staff, volunteers, consultants, visitors, service providers and partners.

9Full example: rolling out PSEA in a cash transfer programme in Bekora

This fictional case follows the national NGO Tamari Aide, a partner of a UN agency, as it launches a multipurpose cash transfer programme for 4,200 displaced households in Bekora district. The agency requires a PSEA capacity assessment before the first payment. The programme employs 46 people, including 28 daily workers, and works with a mobile money operator and 64 payment agents.

Starting point: the capacity assessment

With two standards partially met and four non-compliant at the outset, the agency rates Tamari Aide as low capacity and makes continuation of the partnership conditional on a capacity-strengthening plan, which it funds to the tune of USD 18,500 (training, toll-free line, legal support to revise documents).

Programme-specific risk analysis

• Targeting: neighbourhood committees propose the lists. Measure: verification by the Tamari Aide team of 100% of proposed households, then a random check of 10% by a separate team.
• Payment: payment agents may demand a commission or something in return. Measure: PSEA clause in the operator's contract; one-hour training for the 64 agents; an SMS with every payment reminding recipients that assistance is free and giving the hotline number.
• Access to phones: 38% of female heads of household do not have a personal phone. Measure: distribution of SIM cards registered in the beneficiary's name, information on keeping the PIN confidential.

Six months later: the monitoring table

Interpretation and decisions

All three allegations concern payment agents, not Tamari Aide staff, which confirms the initial analysis. The organisation notifies the partner agency within the contractual deadline, the operator suspends the agents concerned as a precautionary measure during the investigation, and the matter is raised with the in-country PSEA network, because the same operator works for three other organisations. The gap between women and men in awareness of channels leads to additional information sessions in the women and girls' safe spaces.

The result to remember is not "three allegations" but the complete chain: risk identified, prevention measure, channel known, report received, referral within deadlines, assistance offered, action on the alleged perpetrator and inter-agency sharing.

10Common mistakes, auditor expectations and contextual variations

Common mistakes

What auditors and donors look at

• PSEA and safeguarding policies approved by the governing body, dated, available in the local language.
• Evidence of safer recruitment in a sample of personnel files: references checked, code signed, training within the first month.
• An allegations register kept confidentially, with dates of receipt, referral, notification and closure.
• Community awareness of the channels, verified through direct interviews.
• PSEA clauses in partner and service provider contracts, and evidence of follow-up.
• Participation in the in-country PSEA network and contribution to joint risk analyses.

Variations by context

• Sudden-onset emergency: massive, rapid recruitment of daily workers; plan a mandatory 30-minute PSEA briefing before anyone starts work, signature of the code after an oral explanation, and "aid is free" messages from the very first distribution.
• Protracted crisis: risk of long-standing relationships of dependency between local staff and beneficiaries; rotations, cross-supervision, annual training refresher.
• Camps: committees and site managers hold day-to-day power; PSEA built into committee terms of reference and into site management.
• Urban settings and cash transfers: risks shift towards service providers, landlords and employers; contractual clauses and direct information to beneficiaries.
• Remote management: reporting channels managed from outside the area, random verification calls, third-party monitoring visits, partner training as a priority.
• Partners with limited capacity: use the capacity assessment as a strengthening tool, fund the action plan, share templates, avoid transferring risk without transferring the means.

11Interview questions and key references

Interview questions

Key references

• United Nations Secretary-General, Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, ST/SGB/2003/13 (2003).
• IASC, Six Core Principles Relating to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (2002, revised in 2019).
• IASC, Minimum Operating Standards on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by own Personnel (MOS-PSEA, 2012).
• IASC, Best Practice Guide: Inter-Agency Community-Based Complaint Mechanisms (2016).
• United Nations, Protocol on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Involving Implementing Partners (2018) and UN Implementing Partner PSEA Capacity Assessment (2020).
• United Nations, Protocol on the Provision of Assistance to Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (2019).
• OECD, DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance (2019).
• CHS Alliance, PSEA Implementation Quick Reference Handbook (2017) and Core Humanitarian Standard (2024).
• Keeping Children Safe, Child Safeguarding Standards and how to implement them (2014).
• Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (2019 edition).
• Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response, Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (2019).