Select Committee on International Development

I am proud that in the wake of the Haiti scandal, the Department for International Development was at the forefront of efforts to tackle abuse. International safeguarding summits were arranged, commitments were signed and working groups were convened. Numerous organisations in receipt of UK aid funding have taken steps showing their commitment to tackling sexual abuse. Many hired preventing abuse co-ordinators, while others introduced new training for staff. Recently, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office published a strategy on safeguarding against sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector.

Clearly, there is not a lack of policies and procedures in place, yet abuse is still happening, and the UK Government continue to fund organisations at the centre of sexual abuse scandals. Some 73% of people who responded to our survey think that sexual exploitation and abuse of aid beneficiaries is still a problem. The Committee agrees. Abuse within the aid sector is rife, and until we accept this, we will not resolve it. Alina Potts from the Empowered Aid project gave evidence to our inquiry about its work looking at how survival equipment is distributed to refugees in Uganda and Lebanon. It found that sexual exploitation and abuse by aid and non-aid actors is pervasive across all points of distribution. Alina told us that, of the many women who reported sexual abuse, the majority were abused to access aid that they were unknowingly already entitled to. This behaviour must be robustly challenged, yet a third of respondents to our survey thought their organisations had made little or no progress on ensuring that aid recipients know their rights, including how to report cases of exploitation and abuse. My Committee strongly recommends that all aid agencies make a point of telling recipients their rights and entitlements and how to complain.

Last September, we learned of the scale of the sexual abuse of aid beneficiaries during the 2018-20 Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Committee heard that sex-for-jobs schemes were an open secret among aid workers. Local women who sought employment with aid organisations were subjected to horrendous sexual abuse by men with the power to decide whether to hire them. The level of impunity was astounding. Abuse victims were ferried to and from hotels where aid workers stayed in vehicles carrying World Health Organisation insignia. One woman described how she had been told by a foreign WHO worker—through an interpreter—that she would have to sleep with him in order to get a job. The UK is the biggest donor to the WHO. The Government must show zero tolerance and hold organisations, including multilateral organisations, to account for their safeguarding failings.

Giving evidence in October, the Charity Commission warned about sexual exploitation and abuse taking place in Myanmar. While I was pleased to hear that these issues are being identified and efforts are being taken to tackle them, the Committee is clear that abuse should not be treated like some repulsive game of whack-a-mole, chasing problems from country to country. By their very nature, aid beneficiaries are some of the most vulnerable people on the planet, and therefore the potential for sexual abuse and exploitation should always be a concern. It can be prevented by embedding safeguarding in every project.

I am fed up with hearing that lessons have been learned. We will only see true change when there is a root-and-branch transformation of the culture of aid organisations. The Committee heard appalling accounts of this culture, with accusations of racist, colonial and sexist attitudes fed by unchallenged power imbalances. This discrimination enables abuse to flourish. Just 8% of respondents to our survey believe the culture of this sector is as strong as it can be to prevent exploitation and abuse. Sexual abusers are almost always men, and their victims almost always women. Some 80% of WHO workers in the DRC Ebola response were men. The Committee heard that there are repeated calls from aid recipients for more female aid workers, but we are yet to see any real moves by the sector to address this. Is it any wonder that most beneficiaries never formally report abuse? How can anyone have confidence that they will be listened to and believed and that a robust investigation will be undertaken in such circumstances?

Only 16% responding to our survey felt that their organisation had in place safe reporting and complaints mechanisms. Even when abuses are reported, aid organisations hide behind weak justice systems in the country where the abuse occurred, or the difficulty of penalising local contractors, to avoid taking proper investigations. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office could do more to combat this. Our embassies already liaise with local enforcement. Why not use them when a British citizen is the perpetrator, and help survivors to access support? The Sexual Offences Act 2003 provides existing legislation to prevent sex tourism, but it is rarely used. It could be a powerful tool to prosecute aid abusers. The forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill could do the same. Criminal convictions are a strong deterrent. Victims and survivors of UN staff face even greater hurdles, with agencies wrongly invoking UN immunity to protect perpetrators from robust investigations.

The Government have invested heavily in schemes to prevent perpetrators from moving from one job to another, but first we need to identify the perpetrators, and no evidence we received made us believe that reporting and investigations were working as they should be. If the sector is serious about preventing abuse, the solution is simple: empower local communities, especially women’s groups, to have a greater say in the design and delivery of aid, and embed safeguarding from the start. FCDO-funded organisations must be required to report cases of abuse to it, and any associated non-disclosure agreements. There must be consequences of failings that lead to cases of abuse. Failings would include poor treatment of whistleblowers. Our survey found that 57% of those who had tested their whistleblowing policies felt that they were inadequate. Whistleblowers must play a key role in exposing abuse as they force action to happen. They must be protected. Bizarrely, the Government have not designated aid work a regulated activity eligible for Disclosure and Barring Service checks, which means that aid organisations cannot apply. This should be changed today.

I conclude by saying to the sector: I know that the vast majority of aid workers are good people giving their all to make a difference, but you have to wake up to the fact that some of your staff are sexual predators. You have to change your organisational culture to address this, and embed safeguarding in everything you do. I commend my Committee’s report and this statement to the House.