Steps taken by UNICEF to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment

NEW YORK, United States of America, 17 June 2019 – The UNICEF Executive Board concluded its 2019 annual session last Thursday afternoon. During the session, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment, among other forms of workplace abuse, was a prominent item on the agenda.

In her opening remarks to the Board on Tuesday 11 June, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore highlighted the importance of bringing to life UNICEF’s core values of care, respect, integrity, trust and accountability.

“We have achieved some good progress on this journey that we began over one year ago,” said Executive Director Fore. “But we cannot be complacent. Much more needs to be done to tackle these issues; to end sexual exploitation and harassment in communities in which we work.”

Tackling sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment

Under Executive Director Fore’s leadership, UNICEF has significantly stepped up its efforts to address sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment at all levels of the organization. This work has been informed by, and is taking place in tandem with, the work of the broader United Nations system, donors and civil society organizations.

H.E. Mr. Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Morocco, and President of the Executive Board, thanked Executive Director Fore for her leadership on these issues and commended her on her role as the IASC Champion on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Sexual Harassment. He said, “Sexual abuse is not just something that violates our human values. It undermines hard earned confidence, and the countries and partners and donors have, and continue to place in the United Nations and in the agencies working along with the United Nations, especially UNICEF, their trust every day.”

Efforts have included the revision of relevant UNICEF policies, including the policy on misconduct and the policy on disciplinary process and measures. The policy on whistleblower protection, revised in 2018, was welcomed as an important milestone, together with promoting safe reporting mechanisms and the promotion of a speak-up culture within the organization.

In response to their requests, members of the Board heard from several external experts, including the United Victims’ Rights Advocate, Jane Connors, on efforts throughout the United Nations system to put survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse at the centre of work; and members of the independent panel that undertook in 2018 an independent review of the UNICEF response to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.

“In my work, I seek to give visibility to victims, emphasizing that sexual exploitation and abuse essentially affects the human being,” said Ms. Connors. “They [the victims] complain of complex, inaccessible or unclear complaint pathways; lack of protection; dearth of assistance on health, education and livelihoods; distressing investigative processes, marked by repeated interviews; very limited support in relation to legal and other redress, especially on paternity/child support claims; and patchy, or no information on the progress of their cases, and particularly whether their abuser has been held accountable in some way.” 

“We are working with UNICEF on the finalization of the uniform protocol on the provision of assistance of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse,” she added. “Ideally this could serve as the operational guidance to be attached to the victims’ rights statement, so we achieve coherence in our quest to institutionalize the victim-centred approach in the provision of assistance across our system.”

Kathleen Cravero, one of the members of the independent panel, commended UNICEF for taking “wonderful, positive first steps” by implementing an organization-wide strategy and appointing a Senior Coordinator on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. However, she urged that UNICEF heed the report’s request to ensure that the Coordinator has “adequate human and financial resources to drive forward this agenda” throughout the organization.

Susanne Frueh, the second member of the independent panel of experts that presented the report, spoke of the shared accountability with regard to addressing prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse that was highlighted in the report. “PSEA is everyone’s business. It is not just the head of the organization or the senior management, it must trickle down, it must be taking place at the country level. It’s everyone’s business, including implementing partners, national actors, UN agencies. Everyone needs to work together, so having a common framework, a common understanding and common action is the way forward,” she said.

Progress and next steps

UNICEF Senior Coordinator on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Workplace Abuse, Isabella Castrogiovanni, also updated the Board on progress made since the 2019 first regular session. This includes actions taken with regard to the recommendations of the independent panel review of the UNICEF response to protection from sexual exploitation and abuse that were accepted by UNICEF, as well as actions taken with regard to combatting sexual harassment.

Highlights from the 25 action points to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and workplace abuse include: a whole-of-organization UNICEF strategy on preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment endorsed earlier in 2019; work done under the championship agenda with a heavy focus on implementation at the country level, which resulted in accelerated action in 34 priority countries; tools developed to support partners in implementing prevention and response efforts; revised legal provisions in programme cooperation agreements, contracts and tenders; increased investment in community-based complaint mechanisms at country level; a baseline assessment conducted in 34 countries to provide a baseline to benchmark progress; and core UNICEF resources allocated to 17 priority countries to accelerate work.

Ms. Castrogiovanni also highlighted the key role leaders play in this organization-wide effort: “We recognize that the implementation of the strategy will require investment across four key pillars, including investing in leaders as champions. We have seen what we can achieve with strong leadership in pushing this agenda and that’s something we’re determined to continue investing in.”

In September, the Report of the Independent Task Force on Workplace Gender-Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Harassment and Abuse of Authority will be presented to the Board during its second regular session, along with the response from UNICEF management.

In the coming months and years, UNICEF will prioritize the acceleration of work on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and workplace abuse and looks forward to continuing close engagement with and support from the Executive Board on all aspects of the implementation of its agenda.

2019 annual session: Key decisions

By the end of the session, the Board had adopted 10 decisions that will guide the future work of UNICEF.

As the 2019 annual session drew to a close, Ambassador Hilale reflected on “partnerships in action” as an underlying theme of this session. With an eye to the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, he called for the shared responsibility to “hold ourselves accountable for ensuring that all the rights enshrined in the Convention are safeguarded, enforced and implemented.”

 “We cannot deliver results in a way that is not safe for the people we are mandated to serve,” Executive Director Fore concluded. “We remain fully committed to change, guided by value-based leadership at all levels of the organization.”