The elephant in the room: addressing sexual exploitation and abuse at international NGOs

Violations of the responsibility of humanitarian and development organizations to do no harm are a serious concern. Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, commonly referred to as PSEA, is a widely used acronym that highlights the need to safeguard vulnerable women, children, and men from acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by humanitarian aid and development workers. PSEA safeguarding denotes the responsibilities incumbent upon organizations such as the United Nations, the Red Cross, and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that are involved in the management of international humanitarian and developmental programs. This commentary can be interpreted as an appeal to INGOs to evaluate the potency of established regulations to safeguard individuals from sexual exploitation in communities and workplaces. The central argument of this paper is that INGOs that focus on cultural transformation are more effective in their attempts to address violation than those organizations that adopt a centralized approach wherein attempts to secure power and control emerge as the prevailing drivers. It is incumbent upon INGOs to engage in open discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of their existing approaches to search for innovative solutions and facilitate bold actions designed to enhance their effectiveness on PSEA. Researchers are encouraged to look at gaps in the academic literature that connects PSEA and cultural transformation in the INGOs and do further work in this field as it would contribute to remedying weaknesses in prevailing mechanisms designed to prevent SEA.