By Danielle Cornish-Spencer
About the Report
This paper uses the real stories of 29 aid workers from around the world to piece together the scale of the abuse within the sector. It also uses the author's own stories from her 10+ years in the sector.
This research finds that gender-based violence, perpetrated by humanitarian actors, is condoned, covered-up, and replicated throughout the entire aid sector. Abuse of power and privilege has become a daily reality for women working in the sector, and for the women and girls it serves.
This research finds that gender-based violence, perpetrated by humanitarian actors, is condoned, covered-up, and replicated throughout the entire aid sector. Abuse of power and privilege has become a daily reality for women working in the sector, and for the women and girls it serves.
Key Findings
"From 29 conversations, over 50 incidents of SEA were described as being perpetrated by civilian humanitarian aid workers. Many informants also discussed that they had witnessed many more incidents than disclosed during conversation. Further, the majority of concrete incidents described were perpetrated by expatriates."
Use of commercial sex workers is so out in the open, that this author personally experienced visitors from headquarters being taken to a known commercial sex worker bar with members of the senior management team with no repercussion. Several informants discussed men in INGOs and UN agencies picking up sex workers in their organisation’s cars on a regular basis with no action taken against them. This shows the overt disregard for SEA policy played out through expat humanitarian masculinities and humanitarian workers acceptance of it.
Other findings:
- Excuses are found for sexual exploitation and abuse to continue, for example 'that the agency would have difficulty in recruiting someone to replace the perpetrator' and 'it was better that some women were raped in order to deliver aid to that location';
- Men who are known perpetrators of sexual harassment and abuse 'were promoted and moved to humanitarian locations where they perpetrated again';
- Women who reported being raped or sexual assault by a co-worker or colleague were fired from their job.
Use of commercial sex workers is so out in the open, that this author personally experienced visitors from headquarters being taken to a known commercial sex worker bar with members of the senior management team with no repercussion. Several informants discussed men in INGOs and UN agencies picking up sex workers in their organisation’s cars on a regular basis with no action taken against them. This shows the overt disregard for SEA policy played out through expat humanitarian masculinities and humanitarian workers acceptance of it.
Other findings:
- Excuses are found for sexual exploitation and abuse to continue, for example 'that the agency would have difficulty in recruiting someone to replace the perpetrator' and 'it was better that some women were raped in order to deliver aid to that location';
- Men who are known perpetrators of sexual harassment and abuse 'were promoted and moved to humanitarian locations where they perpetrated again';
- Women who reported being raped or sexual assault by a co-worker or colleague were fired from their job.
Analysis
Excuses, Diversions, Distractions
This paper explores the way in which SEA and sexual harassment policy is undermined, underfunded and overruled. Policy relating to women and girls is constantly and consistently undermined, ignored and subverted in the aid sector. Importantly, considering the timing of this publication, this report finds that aid agencies only engage in efforts to ‘mask over’ the problem and take action on sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual harassment only when the media shines a spotlight on them. Without media attention the issue is deprioritised. Surface level work is undertaken – reports are written and then shelved, policies developed and never implemented – as a means to prove that action has been taken whilst not implementing anything or a practical nature: I call this diversionary action. Gender-related staff members, already often overworked, are tasked with rolling out SEA and/or sexual harassment policy – an impossible task, to compartmentalise the issue and set it up to fail. Loopholes in the system exist, like agencies refusing to take accountability for the actions of contractors, and policy is unfairly more lenient towards men from the global north than those from the global south – who are seen as convenient perpetrators.
The focus on conflict-related sexual violence in recent years has meant that the issue of sexual violence has been ‘othered’ and is seen as something that people from the global south engage in. The humanitarian system has been allowed to create it’s own smoke screen – receiving funding to end violence against women and girls, whilst allowing it to be perpetrated by their staff members.
Sexism, Racism, Power and Privilege
Sexism, racism, power and privilege are endemic in the aid sector (as in every sector). However, the harmful masculinities and the neo-colonial culture of the humanitarian system does result in an atmosphere of impunity for perpetrators and an atmosphere of fear for those who would wish to expose them and their victims. In humanitarian contexts, the paper finds that harmful masculinities play out in three ‘characters’: (1) Cowboys; (2) Conquering Kings; and (3) Head Quarters Privileged Man. ‘Cowboys’ enter into the humanitarian sector to rescue people from humanitarian disaster, but also see no issue with exchanging money or aid for sex and certainly do not see the links between this abuse of women and girls and the conflict-related sexual violence that takes place. They have no understanding of themselves as patriarchs, and even less understanding of informed consent. Conquering Kings are often older men in positions of power, who allow for younger ‘cowboys’ to act in the way that they do by not implementing policy and by committing acts of SEA and harassment themselves. Through this research, we heard of one Country Director of a large INGO which focuses on children, who was engaging in sexual exploitation of children and who married what we would consider in the UK to have been a child.
This paper explores the way in which SEA and sexual harassment policy is undermined, underfunded and overruled. Policy relating to women and girls is constantly and consistently undermined, ignored and subverted in the aid sector. Importantly, considering the timing of this publication, this report finds that aid agencies only engage in efforts to ‘mask over’ the problem and take action on sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual harassment only when the media shines a spotlight on them. Without media attention the issue is deprioritised. Surface level work is undertaken – reports are written and then shelved, policies developed and never implemented – as a means to prove that action has been taken whilst not implementing anything or a practical nature: I call this diversionary action. Gender-related staff members, already often overworked, are tasked with rolling out SEA and/or sexual harassment policy – an impossible task, to compartmentalise the issue and set it up to fail. Loopholes in the system exist, like agencies refusing to take accountability for the actions of contractors, and policy is unfairly more lenient towards men from the global north than those from the global south – who are seen as convenient perpetrators.
The focus on conflict-related sexual violence in recent years has meant that the issue of sexual violence has been ‘othered’ and is seen as something that people from the global south engage in. The humanitarian system has been allowed to create it’s own smoke screen – receiving funding to end violence against women and girls, whilst allowing it to be perpetrated by their staff members.
Sexism, Racism, Power and Privilege
Sexism, racism, power and privilege are endemic in the aid sector (as in every sector). However, the harmful masculinities and the neo-colonial culture of the humanitarian system does result in an atmosphere of impunity for perpetrators and an atmosphere of fear for those who would wish to expose them and their victims. In humanitarian contexts, the paper finds that harmful masculinities play out in three ‘characters’: (1) Cowboys; (2) Conquering Kings; and (3) Head Quarters Privileged Man. ‘Cowboys’ enter into the humanitarian sector to rescue people from humanitarian disaster, but also see no issue with exchanging money or aid for sex and certainly do not see the links between this abuse of women and girls and the conflict-related sexual violence that takes place. They have no understanding of themselves as patriarchs, and even less understanding of informed consent. Conquering Kings are often older men in positions of power, who allow for younger ‘cowboys’ to act in the way that they do by not implementing policy and by committing acts of SEA and harassment themselves. Through this research, we heard of one Country Director of a large INGO which focuses on children, who was engaging in sexual exploitation of children and who married what we would consider in the UK to have been a child.
| cowboys_and_conquering_kings.pdf |
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